How Did 'SWITCH" Get Their Name?

'SWITCH' - "This Is My Dream"

A 'SWITCH' MOMENT: 

One of the questions that I've gotten over the years is 'how did SWITCH get their name? Greg Williams formed the band back in December of 1976. We put together a demo in a studio in Columbus, Ohio. Greg Williams and Jody Sims flew out to California in hopes of getting a record deal. They went into the Motown building to visit an attorney that they knew.

Jackson 5

As they were leaving his office and got on the elevator, Jermaine Jackson of the Jackson 5 also got on the elevator. Jermaine got off on the 5th floor, which was the parking level and Greg & Jody said to themselves, 'we should've given Jermaine a tape' (DUH!) They went back up to the 5th floor and Jermaine was still sitting in his car looking for something to play for his drive home. He was nice enough to accept the tape and they asked him to listen to the tape. Jermaine listened to the tape and called Greg back and asked 'what's happening with this group?'  Greg & Jody let him know that we didn't have a record deal. So Jermaine got Motown interested in the group.

We were doing our showcase for Motown and as we do normally, we would play various instruments during our showcase. Greg would play the trumpet and the keyboards and sing lead & background vocals. Eddie would play the trombone and the keyboards. Bobby & I were playing the keyboards and singing lead & backgrounds, etc. So we literally were 'switching' instruments during our showcase for Motown.

Suzanne De Passe

We then had a meeting with Suzanne De Passe about getting with Motown. Suzanne said, "I've never seen so much 'switching' of instruments in my life!' I said, jokingly, 'why don't we call the band SWITCH, because of Suzanne's comment.

SWITCH - 1st Album

Well the next day Jody mentioned that even though that was a joke, we should run that name by Motown. They loved the idea because that was really the essence of who we were, thus 'SWITCH' was born releasing "There'll Never Be" in 1978 and the album, yes I said album, CD's didn't exist in those days, was released shortly after.

The rest as they say is history. Tune in for more SWITCH moments in the future.


Until next time - Phillip