Song titles

J

jdblessing1970

New member
Here's a question, how do you know what to make as the title of the song? I have one that the title is currently "When you get to where you're going" because that's the first line in the chorus, but that line changes in the second chorus to "When I get to where I'm going"... so not sure it's a good title, plus it's a tad long. Is this something you folks struggle with as well? The lyrics themselves can be great, but don't always lend themselves to a title easily. I have one song I had renamed 3 times before I got to something that "clicked."

Jeff
 
I have a tendency towards short titles, and most of my songs have single-word titles. The shortest is, in fact, "i", and is a pun on a key line in the song; "in the hurricane I am the eye".

The point is that the title doesn't need to appear in the song. Usually my titles reflect a central idea. For example, elsewhere in this forum I posted a link to a song that contributed to one of the occasional challenges here. The song was literally about an abandoned house, but metaphorically about a decaying relationship. The song was just called "house".

But there is nothing wrong with more elaborate titles.

Here's a clue: how do you refer to the song when you are talking about it to others, or when you are referring to it mentally? If it seems you are using a shorthand name for it already, that might be worth considering as a title.
 
I dont have a problem with long titles, "when you get to where you're going" is fine in my view. I do like clever titles like gecko mentioned above though.

I have a song called "rockin chair" - as lots of others do. I cut the line where those words appear to shorten the bridge but the title stuck. It fits in context, to me at least.
 
I usually go with a title that is
A. The first or last line of the chorus, the first line of the song, or some other line that is repeated often.
B. A summary of what the song is about (often times this will be metaphorical and have nothing to do with the literal meaning of the songs (The Smashing Pumpkins used to do this; see for example "Mayonnaise" or "Apples + Oranjes"))
C. Something funny (For example I wrote a four second punk song; the only lyric was the word "recycle" shouted once. I named it " 'Go Forth and Subdue the World' Means Care for and Preserve It.")

But whatever you name it, people will call it what they want to call it. Your song with the clever metaphor and pun in the title will simply get called "The [whatever subject occurs most prominently] Song".
 
When I write, I normally find a lyrical hook that I deem to be one of the most important points of the the story. I then try very hard to build a chorus around that hook - with a special focus on placing that hook in the 1st and/or last line of the chorus.

This then assures that that hook is repeated at least a few times during the song (assuming the chorus repeats at least 2-3 times in the song. That important hook then becomes the song title. Because I mainly write in a country/new country format (because I try to get songs published and placed) - I make sure my title/hook has a theme that people can remember and/or identify with.

One of my biggest "pet peeves" is a title that does not appear clearly in the song. I recall reading something a well known "Brill Building" writer once said -How can the listener know what song to buy, if they don't know the title? While, this was back in the days of 45's the concept remains true.

Some titles I've used that could be considered identifiable:

Hungry, Drunk & Lonely - About a drunken encounter with a waitress in a country diner

Half Way To Drunk - About drinking away the memory of a broken marriage - twelve empty beers and a half of case more to go

This Old Cowboy Rides Alone - About a modern cowboy watching the range give way to urban growth

Sweet Memphis - About a guitar picker' trying to get home to......Mempis

Oh.....you get the point:eek:
 
The best title for a song is the one that people will remember from the melodic hook. That way, when people hear it, they'll remember it and go buy the song on iTunes or whatever.

Clever names might appeal to the songwriter but Paul Simon will be forever saddled with "Feelin' Groovy" instead of what he thought would be smart to call that song! :)
 
i always like my titles to kind of complement the song/piece, more than just be a reference to it. if i don't have words, i just think of something that seems to fit the music. sometimes the titles are completely arbitrary but end up having a cool roundabout association... like i have a poem called "the battle of lexington and concord" just because i wrote it on april 19th, and it actually ended up roughly tying into the theme of it. i don't know, i never think too hard about a title.

and sometimes titles are just fun, like my band has a song called "a complete waste of time travel."
 
The titles for my songs are usually as mentioned above... the hook or first/last line of the chorus. Your title is long -ish but will work....:D
 
I like the Gecko's idea.....

....... so how does it work if the song is simply titled "When?" It may provoke both meaning and listener curiousity. Just a thought.
 
mikeh makes a good point . . . with so many radio stations neither announcing nor back-announcing tracks, it is difficult to identify a song unless the title is obvious. I recall driving home one night and hearing a song that caught my ear . . . only about 30 seconds of the end. So I waited . . . . and waited . . . to find out who sang it and what its name was . . . to no avail. In the end, I tracked it down by searching google for the half-line I remembered. (It turned out to be "Roll on", by the Little Willies, and it was Norah Jones doing the vocals).

However, for my own music, I'm not interested in commercial success . . . its a hobby, a bit like stamp-collecting or writing a diary or something, so I can be as obscure as I like (which I frequently am).

I mentioned that I had a song called "i", which I decided would also be the title of the CD.

For interest, the track list is:
i
sea
heart
breathing
extras
floating
dipstick
pebbles
push on
heat
whirling
interlock
dripping
somewhere
turquoise
overcoat

Spot the anomaly of "push on", which is a staggeringly long title of two words!
 
I've got a few songs with pretty long song titles, but for my particular genre...uh...whatever it is - sorta half occasionally psychedic rock - it seems to fit.

Report of the Death of an American Citizen
Balancing Squares of Finite Dimentia (parts i and ii)
We All Know the Sky is Lowering Down on Us
A Language Known Only By Clouds
Her Bright Smile Haunts Me Still

The first two - the title words aren't in the song anywhere
The middle one technically is, but it's all jacked up so it doesn't even sound like a voice
The last two are the chorus in their entirety (repeated 2x for each chorus).

I've got several short titles too...but interestingly, there are no 1 syllable titles.

Anyway, yeah, I don't really think about it all that much.
 
shun songs

I like titles that end in -tion. I call them shun songs. I would call your song "When I get to where I'm going..." "Destination" or "Postcard" (ie...I'll send you a postcard). I like titles not associated with the lyrics.
 
Long titles

The longest song title I can recall is Pink Floyd's "A group of small fury animals gathered together in a cave and grooving with a pict" from Ummagumma. The only lyrics in the song are gibberish.
 
i tend to prefer short titles although lately my band has come up with a few longer ones. long titles for definitly tend to be of the random variety.

the guitar line for the verse of one of our songs reminds my friend of the Home Depot jingle. therefore we thought it was obvious that we had to name the song "you can build it, we can help"
 
If I don't have something in my head as a preconcieved idea I usually try to pick out the most succinct phrase in the lyric - well succinct in terms of explaining the theme.
Even then I tend to write thsoe lines as Mondegriefs - a recent song - Eyes Wired Open was my mishearing of the play Eyes Wide Open - my misinterpretation being based on Kubric's involvement & the scene in Clockwork Orange where the narrators being put through aversion therapy.
And again Kennedy Avalon is a REALLY bad name for a song about JFK's Camelot aura & like domestic arrangements - maybe Avalon should've been Albion?
I do like titles that are a cryptic clue as well - but I'm not up to working one out for myself - I'll leave that to Elvis Costello.
 
dogonjon said:
The longest song title I can recall is Pink Floyd's "A group of small fury animals gathered together in a cave and grooving with a pict" from Ummagumma. The only lyrics in the song are gibberish.
Click to expand...

Man - I have not thought of that song (or that album) in decades.........I did massive amounts of LSD while listening to that album.
 
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