Zebra Three - Wake up guys!

Not to be confused with the just as American hard rock band Zebra from New Orleans, Louisiana, that - quite predictably - performs in vertically striped shirts. 

Contrastingly Zebra Three owes its reputation mainly to its most prominent band member, Troy Hess, who was promoted by his father, Bennie Hess, at the age of only two! When he was entitled to be called a veteran - Troy was seven years old by then - this child prodigy recorded the song Please Don't Go Topless, Mother. 

Later he formed the band Zebra Three, a kind of cover band that vents its herd instinct by playing mediocre songs performed much earlier and much better - or at least more professionally - by the original artists. 

The band name Zebra Three has been pinched as well, because with this name Troy and his colleagues in fact refer to the American Starsky & Hutch television series, degenerated to camp by now. In that series Zebra Three was the code name (radio call) the fictional Bay City Police Department used to wake the two Homicide Division detectives up or bring them into line. 

Active: ca. 1978-present, USA

ZZ Top - The true story of their name

Rock band from American Houston, also affectionately called That Little Ol' Band from Texas. Their repertoire leans heavily on songs consisting of a blend of boogie and blues.

There are only a few formations that can boast so many different explanations for their band name. Among these are several far-fetched ones (the 'double Z' would be a textual representation of the view on the open doors of the barns where the band started playing, or something like that), but also very credible ones (the band members would be fond of big breasts, of the format supported in America by Double Z Bra's). 

Another good one is the explanation that the name is a retrograde band name, meaning that the name is to be read back-to-front: Pot ZZ (marijuana makes sleepy!).

And yet another one: the bus with hungry band members is said to have halted at a PIZZA STOP, indicated by neon letters. The illuminated advertising was not working properly, the letters PI, A and S (together also a fine band name) failing to light up.

Of course there is also the obvious suggestion that by choosing ZZ Top as a band name the band’s albums would be easy to find in the store: always right at the back. 

The ZZ Ranch in Mexico (?) appears on the list of explanations, and so does the combination of two cigarette paper brands, Zig-Zag and Top, that did well in the world of dope – a plausible explanation judging by the band's drug use. 

If however we are to go by the band itself, there is only one conclusive explanation for the band name ZZ Top, and that is that band member Billy Gibbons came up with it.

This can be gathered from Gibbons' autobiography Billy F Gibbons: Rock + Roll Gearhead. In that book Gibbons describes an appartment where he once lived, the walls of which were covered with concert posters and flyers. Among the advertised artists were Z.Z. Hill and B.B. King.

For a moment Gibbons toyed with the idea that Z.Z. King or B.B. Hill could be fun band names, but in the end it became ZZ Top.

Active: 1969-present, USA
Site: http://www.zztop.com/