vintage

In case you haven’t been keeping up lately (shame!), I ran a mini-contest, for nothing but bragging rights, involving being able to recognize the birth names of popular musicians who are better known by their stage names. You can check out the original post right here.

Major props go to the following:

Natalia takes first place with a rip-roarin’ eleven (nice one!).
Adam and Barbara tie for second place with a good solid eight correct answers.

Nice work, everybody! And now, the moment you’ve all been waiting for:

The list revealed!

1. John Baldwin
   John Paul Jones, Led Zeppelin
    

2. Farrokh Bulsara
   Freddie Mercury, Queen
    

3. Robert Cummings
   Rob Zombie
    

4. Reginald Dwight
   Elton John
    

5. Ernest Evans
   Chubby Checker
    

6. Jacob Gershowitz
   George Gershwin
    

7. Frances Ethel Gumm
   Judy Garland
    

8. Charles Hatcher
   Edwin Starr
    

9. Steveland Hardaway Judkins
   Stevie Wonder
    

10. Riley B. King
    B.B. King
     

11. Donovan Philips Leitch
    Donovan
     

12. Declan Patrick MacManus
    Elvis Costello
     

13. James Joseph McGuinn III
    Roger McGuinn
     

14. Mary Isobel Catherine Bernadette O’Brien
    Dusty Springfield
     

15. Karen Lee Orzolek
    Karen O, Yeah Yeah Yeahs
     

16. Ronald Bedford Scott
    Bon Scott, AC/DC
     

17. Richard Starkey
    Ringo Starr
     

18. Sylvester Stewart
    Sly Stone
     

19. Gary Lee Weinrib
    Geddy Lee, Rush
     

20. Robert Allen Zimmerman
    Bob Dylan

Point of note: everyone who entered got Bob Dylan. Surprise. Somehow, though, one of those people missed Ringo Starr! The names in green are ones that stumped everybody. Hey, now you can impress your friends.

More often than not, musicians invent their own names (or, in some cases, have them invented for them) - to sound cooler, to be easier to pronounce, to create a different persona. Whatever. In any case, there are piles and piles of popular musicians out there who aren’t using the names they were born with. Some of them are pretty obvious, some of them are shockers.

Here’s a list of 20. See which ones you can get - if you know any of them, drop me an email (rdewji AT yorku DOT ca) or leave a comment. I will reveal them all in a little while; you can see how you did and find out who the hell the rest of these people are!

I tried to pick pretty well-known musicians. Some of these are really obvious or well-known, others are totally obscure. Just remember: NO CHEATING! There are lists of these out there, but this is just for kicks.

Your list:

1. John Baldwin

2. Farrokh Bulsara
3. Robert Cummings
4. Reginald Dwight
5. Ernest Evans
6. Jacob Gershowitz
7. Frances Ethel Gumm
8. Charles Hatcher
9. Steveland Hardaway Judkins
10. Riley B. King
11. Donovan Philips Leitch
12. Declan Patrick MacManus
13. James Joseph McGuinn III
14. Mary Isobel Catherine Bernadette O’Brien
15. Karen Lee Orzolek
16. Ronald Bedford Scott
17. Richard Starkey
18. Sylvester Stewart
19. Gary Lee Weinrib
20. Robert Allen Zimmerman

July 22 - A handful in so far, the leader with eleven correct. A few of these are really stumping people. Keep goin’!

July 28 - I’m going to close this post soon. Thanks for your entries! If you’ve a hankerin’ to play, get your email in and I will soon post results and the answers. At least you can say you learned something.