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When to Add 'The' to Band Names

C

cc333

Two examples are:
  • Bee Gees
  • Eagles
Should I add 'The' to either of these, or are they meant to just stand alone without 'The'?

c
 
It depends. Talking Heads, Counting Crows, Cream, Jefferson Airplane are some bands where you should never use "The". Some are more obvious than others. The Beatles or The Beach Boys are reasonable examples where it's OK...
 
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I don't think there's a hard-fast rule. Each band has its preference. In this case, I'd go with "The Bee Gees" and "The Eagles." That's how I've heard it.

The duo of Annie Lennox and Dave Stewart complained to radio stations and other media that they weren't "The Eurythmics." Omit the "The."
 
@tbolt909 I agree. Saying, for example, "THE Jefferson Airplane" (Surrealistic Pillow is one of my favorite albums) reminds me of THE Ohio State University, in that it seems a bit too definitive and, perhaps just a little bit egocentric (I remember hearing about the (by modern standards) minor controversy OSU caused when it trademarked use of 'the' for its marketing and merchandise)

@Gregg. OK. I've noticed that on the radio they've always been consistently referred to as The Eagles and The Bee Gees, but in print, things get more messy, hence my confusion. Probably easier to just go with what I've heard.

@TheBigA Good advice. The Eagles and The Bee Gees don't seem to have a hard preference for 'the'. They seem OK with it either way (I did notice that on many Eagles albums that I looked up, there's no 'the' anywhere to be found, so that's something).

I'll just stick with 'the' because it's less confusing.

c
 
TheBigA said:
My rule of thumb is to defer to the band.
Click to expand...
So if you were playing "Take It Easy" back in the day, you'd say "Those were Eagles and 'Take it Easy' on WZZZ!" or "WZZZ! Twenty past the hour with your buddy Big A and Eagles, 'Take It Easy' on WZZZ!"? The band always nixed the "The," but I've never heard anyone on radio call them anything but "the Eagles."

Way back when I was just a kid, I remember chuckling when Ed Sullivan introduced "The Steppenwolf"!
 
CTListener said:
So if you were playing "Take It Easy" back in the day, you'd say "Those were Eagles and 'Take it Easy' on WZZZ!" or "WZZZ! Twenty past the hour with your buddy Big A and Eagles, 'Take It Easy' on WZZZ!"? The band always nixed the "The," but I've never heard anyone on radio call them anything but "the Eagles."

Way back when I was just a kid, I remember chuckling when Ed Sullivan introduced "The Steppenwolf"!
Click to expand...
Even though THE Eagles may not have used THE on the album artwork, I agree with you that saying The Eagles is acceptable. The Byrds, The Zombies, The Who, The Kinks are some other ones. It's true that each band gets the final say, but I doubt they were ever too concerned about it...
 
cc333 said:
Two examples are:
  • Bee Gees
  • Eagles
Should I add 'The' to either of these, or are they meant to just stand alone without 'The'?

c
Click to expand...
I think Bee Gees and Eagles are fine without the.

On my AGPTEK MP3 player (with 32 gigabytes of internal memory, plus a 128-gigabyte SanDisk memory card), musicians' names are listed in alphabetical order--and I have deliberately omitted articles a, an, or the (which generally don't count as first words, anyway).

For example...
The Bee Gees
The Cars
The Counting Crows
The Cure
The Eagles
A Flock of Seagulls
The Go-Go's
The Jets
The Ramones
A Tribe Called Quest
 
JeffSteele said:
I think Bee Gees and Eagles are fine without the.

On my AGPTEK MP3 player (with 32 gigabytes of internal memory, plus a 128-gigabyte SanDisk memory card), musicians' names are listed in alphabetical order--and I have deliberately omitted articles a, an, or the (which generally don't count as first words, anyway).

For example...
The Bee Gees
The Cars
The Counting Crows
The Cure
The Eagles
A Flock of Seagulls
The Go-Go's
The Jets
The Ramones
A Tribe Called Quest
Click to expand...
What about The The?

Seriously, of the groups you list, the only one I ever omit "the" or "a" for is Counting Crows.
 
The original 45 of "For What It's Worth" listed the group's name as The Buffalo Springfield, but I've never heard anyone call them that.

Ni03NjUxLmpwZWc.jpeg
 
It appears to me that, barring any direct guidance from the band(s) in question, it's basically a matter of taste and/or convenience whether to include 'the' or not, hence the inconsistencies I've been seeing.

Oh, well. I think I'll just go with 'The' for The Bee Gees and The Eagles, then, because it makes more sense to me :)

c
 
tbolt909 said:
It depends. Talking Heads, Counting Crows, Cream, Jefferson Airplane are some bands where you should never use "The". Some are more obvious than others. The Beatles or The Beach Boys are reasonable examples where it's OK...
Click to expand...
Cream started out as The Cream, but dropped the "The" early-on.
 
CTListener said:
What about The The?

Seriously, of the groups you list, the only one I ever omit "the" or "a" for is Counting Crows.
Click to expand...
My MP3 player doesn't have any songs by The The.

And I don't think I've ever heard any songs by The The.

Even if I did have any songs by The The, I'd probably list The only once.
 
CTListener said:
The band never had mainstream hits, or even hit albums. It was memorable solely for its name.
Click to expand...
There's a band named The The?

We all know about The Who (and variations, such as the unrelated The Guess Who), but are there any bands with these names:
  • The What
  • The When
  • The Where
  • The Why
  • The How
  • The Um
  • The A
  • The If
  • The And (including The &)
If not, maybe I should go start one using one of these names just because I can!

c
 
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