I was browsing the wikipedia artist page for Yo La Tengo and came across this gem about how the band chose their name and how it relates to the 1962 New York Mets.
Ira Kaplan and Georgia Hubley formed the band as a husband/wife duo in 1984. They chose the name “Yo La Tengo” (Spanish for “I have it”; or referring to a female-gender object or person, also “I’ve Got Her”) in an effort to avoid any connotations in English. The name came from a baseball anecdote. During the 1962 season, New York Mets Center Fielder Richie Ashburn and VenezuelanshortstopElio Chacón found themselves colliding in the outfield. When Ashburn went for a catch, he would scream, “I got it! I got it!” only to run into Chacón, who spoke only Spanish. Ashburn learned to yell, “¡Yo la tengo! ¡Yo la tengo!” instead. In a later game, Ashburn happily saw Chacón backing off. He relaxed, positioned himself to catch the ball, and was instead run over by left fielder Frank Thomas, who understood no Spanish and had missed a team meeting that proposed using the words “¡Yo la tengo!” as a way to avoid outfield collisions.[2] After getting up, Thomas asked Ashburn, “What the hell is a Yellow Tango?”.[3] –Wikipedia page for Yo La Tengo
I love when I learn things like this about bands, any other awesome band name stories you know of? Tell in the comments
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