This is the eighth in a series of examinations of music legends and whether they are true or false. Click here to view an archive of the previous seven.

Let’s begin!

MUSIC LEGEND: Pearl Jam was named after a peyote concoction that Eddie Vedder’s great-grandmother Pearl used to make.

STATUS: False

The band Pearl Jam was one of the most popular bands of the 1990s, and were a major part of the mass of great bands who came out of the Pacific Northwest during the late 80s and early 90s.

When the band first formed in the middle of 1990, their name was Mookie Blaylock, after the then-current NBA player of the same name.

However, when the band signed with Epic Records (which happened soon after their first gig - their demos were very impressive, as they already had a number of their most popular early songs), the record company felt that there were too many trademark issues with naming a band after a current NBA player, so they had the band pick a new name.

Although, amusingly enough, Pearl Jam’s first album is called Ten, which was Mookie Blaylock’s uniform number…

In any event, the band chose the name Pearl Jam.

In an interview with Rolling Stone in October of 1991, lead singer Eddie Vedder gave the origin of the band’s name:

Great-grandpa was an Indian and totally into hallucinogenics and peyote. Great-grandma Pearl used to make this hallucinogenic preserve that there’s total stories about. We don’t have the recipe, though.

And that is the genesis for the story “Pearl Jam was named after a peyote concoction that Eddie Vedder’s great-grandmother Pearl used to make.”

It is, of course, totally bogus. Vedder’s great-grandmother’s name WAS, indeed, Pearl, but the rest of the story is just nonsense that Vedder made up, presumably as a joke. Vedder admitted as much years later in a great Rolling Stone interview.

In fact, it was bassist Jeff Ament who came up with the idea of using “Pearl” as the name of the band (presumably due to the surfing term “pearl,” which is when you wipeout after the front of the surfboard dips below the water - most of the members of the band were into surfing). Once the group agreed on that, they added the Jam part after a Neil Young concert (Young, of course, was noted for having long “jam” versions of his songs when performing live).

Thanks to Brian Hiatt for the excellent Rolling Stone interview where the band comes clean!

MUSIC LEGEND: The Green Day song “Stuck with Me” got its name by someone in the studio switching the labels on two songs.

STATUS: True

Reader Scott K. wrote in with this one. He said:

A legend I’ve heard about Green Day is that the song “Stuck With Me” from their “Insomniac” album actually ended up having the name of a totally different song because the labels on the tapes got mixed up by the producer and it was too late to change it by the time anyone caught it. Any truth to that one?

There’s definitely some truth to this one, Scott, in that it is mostly all true!

Insomniac (released in 1995) was Green Day’s fourth studio album, and first since the band’s major mainstream hit album Dookie came out in 1994.

Their second single off of the album was called “Stuck with Me.”

Here’s a snippet of the lyrics…

I’m not part of your elite
I’m just alright
Class structure waving colors
Bleeding from my throat
Not subservient to you I’m just alright
Down classed by the powers that be
Give me loss of hope

Cast out… Buried in a hole
Struck down… forcing me to fall
Destroyed… giving up the fight
Well, I know I’m not alright

As you might notice, the lyrics don’t exactly suggest the name “Stuck With Me.”

Now, on the other hand, let’s take a look at some of the lyrics from a track from the album that did not make the album (but was released later) called “Do Da Da.”

Every time I’m fallin’ down
You take the reprecussions
Headaches and anxieties
Advancing my frustrations
Rushings of my depression
Sacrifice everything
Waste with me into nothing
Well now you’re stuck with me
Stuck with me
Stuck with me
Hand up your soul to my wrist
And I’ll vow my trust to you
Moving here I always thought
I realized you’ve imagined
Rushings of my depression
Sacrifice everything
Waste with me into nothing
Well now you’re stuck with me
Stuck with me
Stuck with me

Yep, it really is exactly how it sounds - the two songs were switched! The labels on the master tapes were switched up, and after it was discovered, it was either too late, or the band just didn’t mind the change.

Thanks to Scott for the question and thanks to Ben Myers’ great book on Green Day, Green Day: American Idiots & The New Punk Explosion, for the confirmation!

MUSIC LEGEND: Alvin and the Chipmunks made a comeback in 1980 based on a joke by a New York disc jockey

STATUS: Basically True

The origins of Alvin and the Chipmunks go back to early 1958, when Rostom “Ross” Bagdasarian, an aspiring actor and singer (who had been in some plays and films and also had a novelty hit in the mid 50s called “The Trouble With Harry”) used experimentation with tape speeds to record his #1 hit (another novelty record) called “The Witch Doctor” under the stage name David Seville.

You know the one, “Oo ee, oo ah ah, ting tang, walla walla bing bang”

Later in 1958, Bagdasarian used the same technology to create “The Chipmunks,” and he had his second #1 hit, the popular Christmas tune, “The Chipmunk Song (Christmas Don’t Be Late),” also as David Seville (although I believe he doesn’t even list himself on the record at all, just the Chipmunks).

The song turned the Chipmunks into a mini-industry of their own.

They had their own animated series in 1961 called The Alvin Show.

The last album released by the Chipmunks under Bagdasarian was 1969’s The Chipmunks Go to the Movies.

Bagdasarian died of a heart attack in 1972 at the age of 52.

In the late 1970s, the Chipmunks were beginning to have a bit of a return of popularity as NBC began replaying the 1961 cartoon series on Saturday mornings in 1979. That led to the biggest break for the Chipmunks, all based on a joke by a disc jockey!

Los Angeles KMET disc jockey Chuck Taylor played the 12″ version of the Blondie song “Call Me” at double speed and told everyone that it was a “new Chipmunks record.”

The response was tremendous. It appeared that the time was right for a new Chipmunks album!

Ross Bagdasarian, Jr., who had taken over his father’s business, quickly recorded a new album and put it out in June 1980 titled Chipmunks Punk.

The album went gold and set up the release of the 1983 Alvin and the Chipmunks cartoon series that last eight seasons, and whose popularity certainly played a part in the eventual Alvin and the Chipmunks film (which is due to have a sequel - or Squekel - soon, directed by Betty Thomas, from yesterday’s legends!).

And it was all due to a joke by a DJ.

Pretty funny.

Okay, that’s it for this week!

Feel free (heck, I implore you!) to write in with your suggestions for future installments! My e-mail address is bcronin@legendsrevealed.com