A Very Profitable Name Change

Apple Records was founded by the Beatles in 1968 with the intent for it to be a creative outlet for the Beatles, both as a group and individually, and to sign premier artists to contribute. The very first “non-Beatle” group signed at Apple Records was The Iveys in July of 1968.

The group’s first single, “Maybe Tomorrow,” was released in November of 1968 and met with great success, reaching the Top Ten in several European countries and Japan, and rising to #67 on the US Billboard Hot 100.

After the release of “Maybe Tomorrow” the group and the executives at Apple Records agreed that the name “The Iveys” was not right for the prevailing music scene and started to consider a name change (The Iveys were also sometimes confused with “The Ivy League”, an English vocal trio).

Here are some of the names that were considered:
John Lennon suggested: “The Glass Onion” and “The Prix”
Paul McCartney suggested: “The Cagneys” and “Home”
Apple Records Executive Neil Aspinall proposed “Badfinger” in reference to “Bad Finger Boogie,” an early working title of Lennon–McCartney’s “With a Little Help from My Friends” (Lennon had hurt his forefinger on a piano and was using only one finger when writing the music).

In December 1969, the band agreed to change its name to Badfinger.

The rest is history as they say. From the end of 1969 through 1972, Badfinger produced a hit every year:
1969 – “Come and Get It” (#7 on the US Billboard Hot 100)
1970 – “No Matter What” (#8 on the US Billboard Hot 100)
1971 – “Day After Day” (#4 on the US Billboard Hot 100)
1972 – “Baby Blue” (#14 on the US Billboard Hot 100)

Could “The Iveys” have reached the same level of success? Possibly. But Badfinger was a better name that fit the times.

BTW, George Harrison later claimed that the band was named after Helga Fabdinger, a stripper the Beatles had known in Hamburg.

You can dispute the origin of the name, but you cannot dispute the fact that the name change was a profitable one!

P.S. If you want to consider a name change for your business, please check out my article on Medium: 10 Reasons To Change The Name of Your Business