Rich here, thinking about the reasons why some artists have occasionally changed their names. For instance:
After writing several hit records for his girlfriend Jane Asher's brother Peter of the duo Peter & Gordon, Paul McCartney wasn't sure whether the duo's success was due to his name being listed as the songwriter; so when Peter & Gordon released the McCartney-written single "Woman" (1966), he decided to list his name as "Bernard Webb." But talent won out; it was a well-written song, Peter & Gordon performed it wonderfully, and the record was still a big hit. That wouldn't be the last time McCartney would adopt a fake name over his long career.
For a couple years at the height of their success, The Four Seasons released several singles under the name "Wonder Who" to distinguish those records as different than their normal fare as The Four Seasons. One of the records, a cover of Bob Dylan's "Don't Think Twice" (1965), became a hit record.
Then there was the extremely popular Sixties band that had sold millions of records but had become frustrated that many viewed them as nothing more than a teeny bopper group, a label that ignored their R&B and frat-rock origins. And particularly by 1969, when rock music had gotten heavier, they decided to slap a new band name on the promotional singles of their latest record in the hopes that more-progressive deejays would give airplay to ALIAS PINK PUZZ when they might have otherwise rejected a record by the band's real name. It didn't matter; there was no mistaking Mark Lindsay's distinctive voice. Still, it was a great, rocking single, and when the album later came out, the cover included both names, Alias Pink Puzz and the band's real name, Paul Revere & The Raiders.
