When Rod Argent left the hit rock group The Zombies, he decided that his own surname had a nice sound, and gave it to his new band…years before those copycats Eddie Van Halen and Don Dokken did the same thing. Argent is a shade of silvery white that’s famous for its use in royal coats of arms, by the way.

And it seems to have worked out well enough. A number of Argent songs have been regulars on AOR ever since. Not only that, but the band became a fertile field for bands having hits covering Argent songs, including Kiss, Petra, Mother Love Bone, Rainbow, and Santana.

Example of the color argent, on a coat of arms