A Famous Rock Band Took Their Name From A Yakima Valley Town

Musical roots run deep in Washington State and if you look back even earlier than Nirvana and Pearl Jam, there was a Pacific Northwest rock band that hit it big with several hit songs.

youtube
youtube
loading...

Gary Puckett, The Band's Lead Singer Grew Up In Yakima Washington

The cool thing is that this successful band took its name from a small town in the Yakima Valley.

Get our free mobile app

Gary Puckett and the Union Gap scored 5 top ten hits from 1967 until 1970 on the Top 100 Billboard music charts and their band name originated right here in the Yakima Valley.

attachment-band 1
loading...

Lead singer Gary Puckett was born in Minnesota but spent part of his childhood in Yakima Washington and Twin Falls Idaho. Puckett's time in Yakima would inspire the name of his future hit-making band but the band wasn't originally called The Union Cap.

attachment-7b0beb2114671520e1aa09e0d58c17c3
loading...

The Union Gap Band's Name Wasn't Their Original Name

Puckett said in an interview that the band's original name was the Remarkables.

Puckett and the Remarkables toured the Pacific Northwest extensively but it wasn't until the band tried to create an image for themselves that the Union Gap band came to be.

Gary Puckett recalls that being a civil war buff, he'd outfit the band in Union-style soldier uniforms, and that cohesive look lead to the band name change. "Union" and then the place from his childhood "Union Gap" seemed like the perfect marriage.

Yakima And Union Gap Played A Part In Early Rock N Roll History

Gary Puckett and The Union Gap band signed to Columbia Records and scored several hits in the late 60s before they broke up in 1970.

The band is still remembered for some amazing 60's classics but for us in the Pacific Northwest, it's cool to have Yakima and Union Gap play a tiny role in the history of rock n' roll music with the band's name as a lasting legacy.

Check Out the Best-Selling Album From the Year You Graduated High School

Do you remember the top album from the year you graduated high school? Stacker analyzed Billboard data to determine just that, looking at the best-selling album from every year going all the way back to 1956. Sales data is included only from 1992 onward when Nielsen's SoundScan began gathering computerized figures.

Going in chronological order from 1956 to 2020, we present the best-selling album from the year you graduated high school.

The Best Country Singer From Every State

Some states, like Oklahoma and Texas, are loaded with famous country singers. Others, like Nevada and Maine, are still looking for a real breakthrough artist. See the best and most successful country music artist from all 50 states, starting with Hank Williams and Alabama.

More From 97.1 KXRX