How Did a Famous Rock Band Name Themselves After a Yakima Valley Town?

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.

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.

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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.

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.

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.