Songwriting essentials: Song titles

Song titles matter. Right? Well, to some extent, I believe they do — after all, they can make a song catch someone’s eye and become more memorable. Whether a catchy song title is a must-have may be somewhat debatable, and may not be a dealbreaker, but I certainly would agree that it can make an impression and stir up additional curiosity.

Of course, what’s considered catchy and memorable can differ from listener to listener. Take the difference between my Sweet Bitters duo partner, Nina Schmir, and myself: I lean towards titles that appear as lyrics in my songs, such as “Shake the Stars,” “Clocks Fall Back,” and “Semi Broken Heart” (Oh, I guess I lean towards three-word titles, too.)

Nina, however, enjoys creating song titles that have absolutely nothing to do with the song whatsoever: There’s a ditty called  ”Suckling Pigs and Baby Goats,” for instance — she took the title from the side of a truck in New York City’s Chinatown. Needless to say, there are no pigs or goats involved in that song.

There are plenty of songs with forgettable titles that are entirely unforgettable, of course: I’m thinking “At Last” or “I Will Always Love You,” “Crazy,” or “I Want to Hold Your Hand,” stuff like that.

But a beautiful, insightful or catchy title can really stand out: Paul Simon’s “Diamonds on the Soles of her Shoes,” Elvis Costello’s “Watching the Detectives,” Adele’s “Chasing Pavements,” Dixie Chicks’ “Sin Wagon” and Bob Dylon’s “Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again,” are ones that just popped into my head.

Do you think song title choices matter? Or…um…not?

  • Brian Kendig

    Titles are for identifying the songs. Weather or not the title is in the lyrics. The writer gets to make that choice. When making a set list of other peoples songs, I don’t always call them by their proper names, but rather something, shorter, funnier, or easier to remember. When telling who wrote it, I’ll use the proper name. I don’t think that it matters all that much, but it can be helpful.

  • http://www.cerebellumblues.com Jeff Shattuck

    For me the title is my guidepost. When I’m writing, I usually have a title first, and then as I work, I refer back to it constantly to keep me from wandering astray.

    Jeff
    http://www.cerebellumblues.com (my music blog!)

  • http://www.cdbaby.com/artist/2loose 2loose

    Anything where imagination and creativity can shine is an opportunity, also not just the titles, but funny mix names like: sitting ducks mix or punk-a-rama mix etc. can help songs stick out among other titles.

  • http://theseedsofsong.blogspot.com/ David

    Do song titles matter? Yes, but it not in a make or break way. A good song title is evocative of the emotions felt while listening to the music. I think it helps when it is memorable and not confusing – sometimes I think a song loses out if its title is too confusing or unrelated to the lyrics of the song because it makes it difficult to remember the name of the song making it less likely that fans will find it in iTunes or wherever.

  • http://buffalo-woman.com Jane Cassidy

    I have learned that the song’s title should be what will help the listener request the song. For instance, what I named “The Great Alarm Clock Massacre” everyone else always calls “Saturday” or “the one about shooting alarm clocks”. Of those 2 choices, I prefer “Saturday”.

  • Matt

    I think it depends on the band. Fall Of Troy fans like myself think that titles like “Laces out, Dan!” and “We just got this symphony goin’” help separate them and their lyrics from more boring mainstream titles. The same with The Mars Volta and associated projects – “Shake is for 8th graders” or “Cicatriz ESP” will undoubtedly get anyone’s attention.
    Meanwhile, I tend to title my own songs after the lyrics – “It’s not the end”, or “invisible man”

  • http://facebook.com/stanmorephoenixmusic Stanmore Phoenix

    For me i don’t have any hard & fast rules but I’ll generally either:
    a) have a title derived from the concept of the song. Usually within the lyrics too. Ie. ‘the abc’s of me’
    b) use either the most appropriate or conversely, the most bizzare line from the song. Ie. Appropriate – ‘one of our kind’ bizzare – ‘kiss earth & plants’
    C) sometimes no particular line from a song works. In which case I’ll come up with something that describes the song either referencing some lyrical content or sometimes completely independent of the lyrics. Ie. ‘Nostalgia’ for a song which has a nostalgic vibe but no mention of the word in the song.

    I enjoy naming my songs. It’s the next best thing to mastering when it comes to ‘framing’ your finished song.

  • http://www.sweetbitters.net Nina

    Ah yes… suckling pigs and baby goats! I used that title as a kind of scratch title, and then it just stuck. Of course I often feel obligated to explain where it came from…
    It’s true that I often pick song titles that don’t derive from lyrics, but I do find it important that the title makes a reference to the meaning of the song. For example “Vegas” is actually a song about a trip to Vegas, although the word never appears in the lyrics. “Tom Thumb on Brighton Beach” is about a man named Tom, but again, those words are never sung. I can get pretty opaque at times with my lyrics, but if I have a catchy line or refrain in the song, then I do like to use the song line in the title; as in: Last Time This Way; Rich Little Poor Girl, or Little Aliens.
    In any case, whether or not the title is also a lyric, I agree that song titles matter. They represent the song, both to the singer and the audience. They are the cover to the book in a sense. And it matters. Even when Paul McCartney started a ditty called “Scrambled eggs” which eventually became “Yesterday…”

  • http://stanmorephoenix.wordpress.com Stanmore Phoenix

    I’m a bit dubious as to whether the ‘scrambled eggs’ story is true. Mainly because scrambled eggs doesnt rhyme with yesterday. Or am I missing something?

  • Tom

    At the time, I wasn’t meant to rhyme with “yesterday” as the word/lyric “yesterday” hadn’t been written.

    Songwriters use this or similar techniques all the time to record a reference melody before actual lyrics are written… Either recording nonsense lyrics, humming, mumblings/scatting or using the same verse/line over and over…

    Just do agoogle search for “Jimmy Fallon Paul McCartney scrambled eggs” and you should find a vid of them sing Yesterday using the scrambled eggs lyrics and some other ad-lib. If you get a long enough vid, Paul even describes the evolution of Yesterday.