10 Bands Who Had Terrible Names Before They Were Successful
6. Black Sabbath
When you think of Black Sabbath, you instantly think of the Prince of Darkness himself, Ozzy Osbourne, and a band who have staked their claim as pioneers of metal music, but there's nothing too metal sounding about 'The Polka Tulk Blues Band'.
While the name in itself is pretty bad, its origins are reportedly even worse, with suggestions it was either taken from a brand of talcum powder or a traditional Asian clothing shop. While Ozzy, Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler and Bill Ward called themselves 'The Polka Tulk Blues Band' upon their formation in 1968, there's no doubt they'd have sounded slightly different due to having a slide guitarist and a saxophonist in their midst at that time, too.
Following the departure of those two members, the band changed its name to 'Earth'. However, as another English group had that moniker, they decided to switch it out. As luck would have it, the cinema across from their rehearsal room was showing the 1963 movie Black Sabbath, that name changed again, and the group were set on their path to metal infamy.
Oh, how different life could have been though if Ozzy Osbourne had been fronting The Polka Tulk Blues Band, although the possibilities are endless if that cinema had been showing another 1963 movie at that time...
That said, The Haunting and Billy Liar don't sound too bad, but you may not be so enthusiastic about seeing a band called Jason and The Argonauts or The Sword in the Stone!