The band continued to play under the name Pigeons as they recorded their first album and played local clubs. According to Carmine Appice, from his book Stick It, the band was playing a club on Long Island, when they were on a break, they started talking to a waitress named Dee Dee. She mentioned that her grandfather used to call her Vanilla Fudge… The band looked at one another and said… "Yeah, that’s it." The band’s name would be Vanilla Fudge.