Calling a single by the lyric in the chorus is a tried and tested route to success. She Loves You, You Spin Me Round (Like a Record), Agadoo are just three of many hundreds of hit songs that hit paydirt doing just that. Other big songs may have a title that refers in some way to what’s coming up – Unchained Melody, An American Trilogy, New Song by Howard Jones.
Thinking about New Order earlier made me reflect on their contrarian ways. I can imagine a delighted Tony Wilson and Rob Gretton listening to this new single – assuming it to be called “Morning Sun” and excitedly imagining how they’d promote it, only to learn that it’s called True Faith. Similarly, Bizarre Love Triangle, Round and Round and Fine Time. All singles with unhelpful titles. The titles don’t refer to the song’s lyric in any way.
After a brief period of brain-wracking, I am struggling to come up with many more – unless of course you know different. I’m talking hit singles with lyrics here – not enigmatic album tracks or instrumentals (there’s loads of those).
Isn’t choosing a JD or NO song a bit of a cheat? You might as well choose one by Teenage Fanclub.
“They never sing Ret Live Dead, the cheating bastarts!”
That’s what I am getting at. NO and JD did it quite a bit and still managed hits.
Embarrassingly, I don’t know much by TFC.
Funny enough, I seem to remember Hooky recounting that when the Blue Monday 88 Hitmakers came up with their follow up to TF – the rather spiffing Touched By The Hand Of God (the very words of the chorus!) – the gripe in Factory H.Q. was that there were “too many words in the title” to be a hit record.
(Odd, considering their mates over the road viewed Last Night I Dreamt That Heaven Knows What Difference Does It Stop Me If You’ve Heard The Boy With The Thorn In His Side Isn’t Funny Anymore the tippermost route to the top…)
Blue Monday is a better example than my ones, given how successful it was.
Alan Partridge put it so well: Blue Monday 88 is the record that Blue Monday could have been…
This immediately came to mind…
Doesn’t the song refer to a mining disaster?
The chauffeur – Duran Duran
Song 2 – blur
Suedehead – Morrissey
The Chauffeur wasn’t a single, was it?
Song 2 is borderline because it is, after all, a song.
But Suedehead fits the brief perfectly.
Richard III – Supergrass
Yep.
E=mc2 Big Audio Dynamite. Mick says “relativity” throughout the song but never the equation.
True – but there’s relativity as you say, also time slide, reality. A bit related.
No mention of hair splitting though
Welcome back to t’Afterword
Actually – I think Rob Gretton was quite keen on the song titles not being in the lyrics if I recall – see also not putting the singles on albums, not promoting anything, not doing interviews, not miming on TOTP, not having their faces or indeed much information at all on record sleeves (He encouraged them to be obscure and a bit enigmatic lest anyone found out they were just two drunk knobheads from Salford and two weirdos from Macclesfield) . They did all these things later but mostly after Rob passed away. In his Hooky Book – Hooky rightly bemoans the quality control on song titles later on – he particularly loathed the brackets after World (The Price of Love)
anyway here’s my suggestions:
Underworld – Born Slippy (aka Lager Lager Lager)
All Saints – Pure Shores
Yes, the Underworld one counts but I am thinking that the All Saints one refers to a beach and I think it came from the film, The Beach (?). It’s a bit related.
Unchained Melody
I mention that in the OP – it doesn’t count because it is describing the song.
Oops. But there are no lyrics in the song that have anything to do with the title which is what you wanted didn’t you?
I understand that, but Unchained Melody is a description of what the song is, so the title is something to do with the song. If Unchained Melody was called “Strawberry” – then we’re in business.
It should be pointed out that it was originally written as the theme to a movie called “Unchained”, hence the name… I don’t know if that disqualifies it or not!
That’s interesting – I thought it was just because it’s a bit of a rambling chorus-free song. But the fact that the title refers to the song – means it’s not a qualifier.
The title refers to the movie, not the song! That is my point
So the title has a relationship to the song.
You are pedantic. If the song was from Rocky it would be known as Rocky melody. Nothing in the song about being Unchained or being Rocky!
i do think you have a case but I would maintain that the title of the song is referring to the song that follows. For it to be a qualifier – it would have needed to be called “Strawberry” or “Lorraine Kelly” – something that has nothing at all to do with the song itself or its place in the world.
Great question.
How about Excerpt from a teenage opera by Keith West?
I’ve spent hears looking for the rest of that bloody teenage opera!
Well…a quick check with Uncle Wiki led me to A Teenage Opera – and Grocer Jack is an excerpt from A Teenage Opera.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Teenage_Opera
I’m afraid that this means your entry doesn’t make the cut – for the title has something to do with the song.
Bohemian Rhapsody? Unless that counts as a description of the song.
Thinking about this I have been wavering between yes and no. It’s a rhapsody in that it’s an epic, emotional poem but why it’s “bohemian” is not clear. But the title has a little bit to do with the song – so that means it doesn’t qualify.
While researching this, I found out that the original video took a mere 4 hours to do. The scene in Wayne’s World where they sing the song in the car, took much longer – 10 hours.
I fear pickings will be slim.
Either a song that was not originally intended as a single but was so popular they gave it a go.. Or one that was released because a single was expected from a new album.
Or an artist so supremely self-confident about sales that they did it anyway.
UB40 – Food For Thought (AKA “I’m a prima donna”)
Yes I think so. I may be wrong but I don’t think the words were intended to be food for thought.
Of course they are!
Ah! Now I see what you’re getting at BC, and it is fiendishly difficult. It seems your best bet is when someone, stuck for a title (or lacking an obvious chorus hook phrase) grabs a pre-existing reference “from the shelf”, e.g. Lazarus by The Boo Radleys, which, I think, was a minor hit..
Yes – that BR song counts and, arguably, Lazarus by Bowie.
“Look at me, I’m in heaven”, might have a connection with Lazarus …
Lazarus isn’t in Heaven. He’s alive, not dead. That’s like…. his thing.
Lazarus of Bethany did die. For four days to be precise. Jesus rose him from the dead. Isn’t the song about being suspended between life and death?
Yes I think Bowie’s Lazarus title must have been a reference to the lyric.
Ooh here’s another following that theme – isn’t “Ponderosa” the name of the ranch on Bonanza?
The mid nineties threw up a few. Fellow Isaac Hayes samplers Portishead definitely had an actual hit with the ” ooh er missus!” title Glory Box
(There may even be a mini-thread* in titles which are possible euphemisms for lady parts)
*see what I did there?
Madness – Michael Caine
I know there’s a line with Michael Caine’s voice in the song (“I am Michael Caine”), but I seem to recall that the actual subject of the song, according to Chas Smash, was the supergrass trials in Northern Ireland … although the lyrics are pretty oblique.
I hadn’t really thought about the lyric but I’d always assumed it had something to do with Michael Caine “And all I wanted was a word, a photograph to keep.” But the killer is the fact that the man himself says his name in the song. This means it doesn’t make the cut.
How about Shut Up by Madness? Don’t think the title comments directly on anything in the lyrics.
Yes. That counts.
I think the original – unrecorded – version was longer and did have that phrase in it.
Tubthumping. This one has got me thinking. Despite the highly politicised nature of the band, the words of the song itself do not really refer to political activism per se. Or do they?
Well, given that the Chumb’ probably regard getting pissed and shouting a lot as political activity, I think you may be wrong.
A Day In the Life
Baba O’Riley
Glory Box
Feelgood Hit of the Summer
Lithium
Cherub Rock
The awesome Chop Suey by System of a Down
Dirty Harry by Gorillaz
Special category; Bob Dylan – My Back Pages, Positively 4th Street, Love Minus zero, etc
“A Day in the Life” wasn’t a hit single, was it? I don’t remember it being released as a single, anyway.
A Day In The Life was released on the B side of Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band/With A Little Help From My Friends in 1978. Got to Number 63. It would be stretching it to call it a hit single though.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Day_in_the_Life
The first two weren’t singles.
Glory Box – no problems there (as now confirmed by Sewer Robot up there)
Feelgood hit of the summer is a sarky reference to the song, isn’t it?
Lithium – is the lyric referring to the effects of lithium?
The last three – all good examples, I think.
Gotcha.
Smells Like Teen Spirit?
The Scientist by Coldplay
What’s Up by 4 Non Blondes?
Subterranean Homesick Blues?
Train in Vain
The Bad Touch by Bloodhound Gang
Pure Shores by All Saints? There’s a reference to a beach in the lyrics, but the title doesn’t exactly describe the song.
Porcelain by Moby
Bullet with Butterfly Wings?
Born Slippy?
Apache?
No lyrics ( I think )
If you listen carefully you can distinctly hear someone cough.
Ironically in Sugarhill Gang’s version of Apache they say the title about 30 times.
Born Slippy also mentioned by Dr V. It’s a good ‘un.
I sent Dr Volume away with a flea in his ear for Pure Shores because additionally it was part of the soundtrack for the film The Beach.
Ah – and he did Born Slippy. Sorry, Dr V!
How about At The River by Groove Armada.
Title suggests a river. “Lyrics” denote only sand dunes and salty air.
I would say the Groove Armada song counts because you wouldn’t have salty air by a river. Unless it’s a tributary emerging to/from the Dead Sea. I’m all over the place on this one.
Yebbut, any river can smell pretty salty where it runs into the sea, or along its length which the tide reaches. If the river’s mouth has dunes nearby, then an onshore wind would produce ‘salty air’.
Grey Area thinks it may be time to find out what these ‘lives’ are, which seem so popular nowadays.
That would explain the famous missing verse from Moon River:
“Moon river/playing in the surf/trying to get the windbreaker up/give me a hand/with my sandcastle/and maybe later we’ll go water-skiing.”
Yebbut, a moon. . .
A nice bit of woozy parping on a cold morning.
(Groove Armada – At The River live)
But (and sorry I’m late to this party)”At The River” is based on a sample of “Old Cape Cod” by Patti Page – which clearly does have sand dunes and salty air.
A difficult legal ruling for BC?
Well I think that is grounds for an appeal. I hope Groove Armada are lawyered up because this new information changes everything. Thanks @walker1 for coming forward.
You’re on a roll Bingo! Can’t fault any of those – the 4 Non Blondes song really should be called What’s Going On? and Train in Vain should have been called You Didn’t Stand By Me. Perhaps they didn’t want to confuse the more confused punter who may walk home with Marvin Gaye and Tammy Wynette platters?
I could be wrong, because it goes on forever, but do the words “rapper’s delight” ever actually appear in Rapper’s Delight?
It is a rappers delight though isn’t it?
Hardly. The original version lasts twenty minutes. Their throats must have been drier than a buzzard’s crutch.
(hur)
Fun fact: the song’s original title was “Rapper’s Dysphagia” before the suits at the record company made them change it.
I dunno, but I’ve been known to drop a few bars in my time and I find listening to the whole thing an enormous ballache.
Why is everyone on the site boasting about the size of their clackers all of a sudden?
All of a sudden? Isn’t it the entire point of the site?
Which reminds me, I must get me wheelbarrow fixed…
I wish I could manage with just a wheelbarrow…
Train in Vain was indeed released as a single in the US, with the bracketed subtitle Stand By Me – see https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41x3HjOcGLL._SL500_.jpg
Not a hit single so doesn’t qualify at all and I don’t know why I’m mentioning it other than the lack of any connection whatsoever between song and title has always amused me (and like True Faith in the OP it could have been called Morning Sun):
isn’t there a mumbled adlib in there, something about we could play Tony Adams in defence?
The Jesus & Mary Chain – Far Gone And Out (got to number 23 in the UK charts).
Don’t know it but I’ll lift up the velvet rope for JAMC.
Pyjamarama.
There!
Great song. Great title. But unless we can be sure that Bryan sleeps in the buff, I’s say there was a connection to the lyrics:. Couldn’t sleep a wink last night…
Trying my luck again:
Black Sabbath’s Paranoid does not mention the P word in the lyrics.
Yes, I think that’s OK. I don’t think the song is about being paranoid even though the woman in question couldn’t help him with his mind.
Judge Fudge. What is it with Factory acts?
Yep those two are just fine.
Kinky Afro.
Concrete Schoolyard – Jurassic 5.
Seeeeee iiiiiitttt in youurrrrr eyyyyyyyes-ah!
Yup, it’s Death Disco.
The title makes sense if you know the backstory. Otherwise it doesn’t.
Maybe “Death Disco” gets a bonus point for being retitled “Swan Lake” later for the album, but it’s another title not mentioned in the song (though of course it does utilise the Swan Lake melody…)
The retitling has the whiff of record-company coercion about it. Like “Stand By Me” by The Band That Never Had Any Hits Apart From That Time Errr They Went To Number One.
Which immediately calls to mind Las Ketchup’s Asare Je! being bracketed as “the Ketchup song” because we can’t cope with foreign words, apparently. Never bothered Englebert or Doris Day. Or Kylie.
It’s probably another marginal one, but – The Weight by The Band?
Take a load off Annie…put the load on me…
Sounds a bit like a reference to weight. Justice Rock QC is grimly directing the jury to dismiss the case.
The Monkees – Randy Scouse Git. – even its more common name of Alternate Title must apply.
Well, the song’s about the Beatles. Who were definitely Randy Scouse Gits.
Beatles are (obliquely) mentioned, but the song isn’t about them.
I thought it was supposed to be a reference to Cherie’s dad, Tony Booth who was referred to as a “Randy Scouse git” in ’til Death do us part?
Randy Scouse Git must qualify. As does Alternate Title. Neither actually refer to the song itself. A unique double qualifier I would say.
“What’s up” by 4 Non Blondes should obviously be called “What’s going on” but isn’t, for equally obvious reasons.
As far as i can remember “Good riddance” by Green Day has nothing to do with telling someone good riddance….
To my shame, I didn’t know it was called that. I thought it was called “Time of Your Life” – so yes, it qualifies.
If only the Beatles had gone with the working title for Yesterday, ‘Scrambled Eggs’. They could have held their heads high on this page.
The Fools
Baba O’Riley.
I tried it above – never released in the US or UK as a single.
It was released across the rest of Europe as a single, but if there’s one thing we learned this year it’s that they don’t really count.
No 11 in the Dutch charts. With a bullet.
Enough of this USUKery!
A hit isingle is a hit single. Be it in Bognor, Burma or Uzbekistan!
Does this one qualify?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OqG85hx2u8U&index=3&list=PLXDAJti9Qem3oh6DhCZ3LifLf8qOjEVQu
I don’t think so because although she isn’t singing directly about toast, the refrain “warm bread, cooked bread, it was white – now it’s brown” – can only be about toast.
The title of U2’s album The Unforgettable Fire may refer to the Hiroshima bombing or a blaze at their mate Henry Mountcharles’ Slane Castle or both. It’s not made any clearer in the hit single of the same name…
Yes – their best single too. I like a bit of atmospheric shimmering shards of sepulchral majesty.
The Smiths – How Soon Is Now?
The Mamas and the Papas – Creeque Alley
Robert Plant – Big Log
And Shakespear’s Sister, come to think of it.
Shakespear’s Sister – yes.
How Soon is Now? – no. “When you say it’s going to happen now…when exactly do you mean?”
Big Log? Now even our pop stars are using the AW to boast about the magnitude of their junk..
And the least said about Mama’s Creeque Alley the better.
I always thought Big Log was not about his ahhhemmm but what he’d just left in the toilet bowl.
Are there any songs about taking a massive shit? We all do it, people! Maybe it’s the last taboo.
The Bonzos paid a musical visit to the smallest room.
Under the strict rules this can’t count as there is the sound of Viv straining at the doughnut in grannie’s greenhouse.
The rules don’t apply to songs about having a big shit. That’s a whole ‘nother thread – which I am not going to start.
Wise man. I think it would be fairly short thread. I posted The Strain just to show there are a few brave souls who have dared.
I suspect there are no hit singles about bowel movements.
See “take a load off” above, sung from the perspective of a lavatory bowl
(At least I hope so – I suppose it could be an oblique reference to coprophilia – a candidate for next week’s AW word of the week)
Although the song titles appear in the songs so not relevant to the OP but just to lower the tone even further here’s a couple of lavortorial gems.
see also Creedence Clearwater Revival – Up Around The Bend
I can’t help it. It has to be done.
https://youtu.be/HZklwTGZutc
Dexys Midnight Runners – There There My Dear
Sounds like it should be some sort of lullaby or song of comfort.
But no, it reads like a open letter to someone with “lame logic” and (with the benefit of a 21st Century update) some sort of Hipster bloke.
And he can’t find his Soul Rebels
There There My Dear qualifies with aplomb. I said “aplomb” – not “a plum”, Kev! Pop it back in please.
Two from me.
Rainy day women #12 & #35 // Revolution 9
Just realised that this thread is about singles & not songs – sorry.
Just had a lovely thought of “At the Sign of the Swingin’ Cymbal” coming crashing to a halt and going straight into “…Bottle of Claret for you if I had realised…Well, do it next time.
I forgot about it, George, I’m sorry….”
You become naked, pop-pickers!
I guess the title of The Message is only relevant to its content in that it’s an oblique reference to the social commentary it encapsulates.
I’m only writing this because it allows me to use “oblique” and “encapsulates” in one sentence, which is a rare treat for me.
Oblique is indeed a nice word.
So nice, in fact, that 3 Afterworders have now used it in the same thread: Gary, dai and myself.
I hereby nominate ‘oblique’ as the Afterword Word of the Week. Oh yes!
Idea for another thread – The Afterword Oblique Strategies.
“Put Carlos On Drums”. OK, which one’s Carlos?
Positively 4th Street
4th Time Around
and probably any other Dylan songs with 4th in the title.
You’ve got a lot of nerve to suggest that one…
Not singles. Move along, song and dance man.
Oh yes, you have mentioned that a few times.
Was Positively 4th Street not a single?
Anyway I’m off to a flier in my own sub-thread of songs with the word 4th in a title that has nothing to do with the song.
I do apologise Cap’n. We’ve got a new guy on the door tonight who relies on his own shattered memory without checking.
Erm, Stevie Wonder, Fingertips part two?
And arguably Masterblaster?
No. The backing singers sing that towards the end.
the makers of Double Barrel and Monkey Spanner* have form in this regard.
*Dave and Ansil Collins, for it was they
I think you’re right. Nice video here :
When it began, this thread didn’t seem to have any legs, but, thanks largely to your strict discipline, BC, I’ve thoroughly enjoyed it. Thanks.
Thanks Tigs. I seem to have appointed myself as judge and jury on this, meaning half the comments are mine – but we have developed a playlist which I may call “Hatstand” which are songs with enigmatic titles.
A Decca-style compo – The World of Roger Irrelevant?
“ser-nibbit” – Malcolm Muggeridge
I have The Cure on the brain at the minute having been at Wembley on Friday, so I think that “Primary” counts? There is a line about “the very first time I saw your face” but that’s a bit tenuous.
While typing this, it does also occur that “Mint Car” is another one.
Yes I think Primary counts. I don’t know Mint Car but I would expect The Cure to have a couple of entries.
10538 Overture and Rockaria by ELO.
First one OK but not so much the second, because there is a “rock aria” in there. I think it’s Lynne getting all castrato on our asses.
But the first one does have 10538 in it.
Thanks Hubert – you’re right.
Don’t bump your shades on the door as you go out, Jeff!
Hmmm, so it does.