Typing the title (There’s) Always Something There To Remind Me into a post yesterday got me thinking about the use of the bracketed title.
When I was just a tiny Foreworder, I used to scrutinise record covers and labels for hours, noting the names of writers and producers and, occasionally, being fascinated by the way titles were carved up using brackets.
It seemed to me that, in many cases, the point of the little fellas was to turn what would be an unwieldy title into something more catchy while retaining the meaning: I Never Loved A Man is tragic, I Never Loved A Man (The Way I Love You) joyful*. Although, adding the ( ) just took up more space on the usually quite crowded label.
Sometimes the space was used for parenthetical elucidation, whether simply to do with the recording (“single edit”, “live!”, “part one”, or to tell you the tune was the theme from a movie) or if the title was not English, there might be a translation, such as Se a vida é (That’s The Way Life Is), but usually it was because the artist had something else they wanted to add. Thus: The Old Man’s Back Again (Dedicated To The Neo-Stalinist Regime) and Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology).
Frequently, a bracketed title suggested some sort of compromise between writer and record company. I remember Peter Hook giving out about a meeting in Factory HQ where there was a complaint that Touched By The Hand Of God was too long a title for a single – that’s the kind of logic that gets you (The Thing I Like Most About You Is Your) Girlfriend by The Special AKA.
The more usual tug of war, though is between the record company recognising the bit that’s catchy and the writer being unable to let go of their title, hence The Wurlitzer Prize (I Don’t Want To Get Over You). Yes, we DO see what you did there!
It was certainly true in early 1980s Ireland, but possibly also the case elsewhere, that Marvin Gaye secured more radio play by titling his comeback single (Sexual) Healing – I recall tittering to myself upon hearing a dj introduce it as “Healing” – while on both the cover and label of the Midnight Love LP it is, nakedly, Sexual Healing.
But then there are those heroes who simply cannot countenance fiddling with their elaborate titles: Love’s Forever Changes boasts Maybe The People Would Be The Times Or Between Clark And Hilldale and The Good Humor Man He Sees Everything Like This. Contrast this snot-caked insouciance with Amen Corner’s craven (If Paradise Is) Half As Nice – what idiot suggested that needed bracketing? Why did they agree to it?
An example I like is the way the superfluous opening track on Ryan Adams’ Heartbreaker is entirely inside brackets (Argument with Dave Rawlings concerning Morrissey), conveying its disposability even to those pedants on here who insist everything must be played from start to finish every time.
Sometimes I think the real reason for bracketed song titles is the most evil one of all: to generate rucks in future table quizzes, to wit..
– That James Brown song beloved by every lazy advertiser, tv and movie maker?
– I Feel Good
– Wrong!! It’s I Got You (I Feel Good)
– The second hit from The Human League’s Dare album
– Love Action
– Wrong!!! It’s Love Action (I Believe In Love)
– A top ten hit for The Art Of Noise
– Close To The Edit
– Wrong!!!! It’s Close (To The Edit)
Of course, you’ve got to be careful with your bignose-who-knowsery. The Redskins hit the top 40 with Bring It Down (This Insane Thing), it is true.
But, if you own the LP, you can’t help but notice that on the cover the song is called Bring It Down!
On the label it is entitled (Burn It Up) Bring It Down (This Insane Thing).
And on the inside sleeve we find (Burn It Up) Bring It Down! (See Things In The Altogether).
No wonder these people couldn’t get bread into the shops.
Finally, I’d like to tip my hat to the Chairmen Of The Board who saw fit to qualify one of their finest tunes, with delightfully redundant completeness, Tricked And Trapped (By A Tricky Trapper). Glorious!
So, do you have any favourite examples of bracket use, whether clever or daft? Perhaps there are titles you think might have benefitted from it? Frankly, anything you might have to add would be appreciated..
(*Well, sort of..)
I Blame The Parenthesis
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{The Shangri Las – Remember (Walkin’ In The Sand)}
Stranglers – (Get A) Grip (On Yourself)
Jimmy Saville still owes me 10 points for that one
Sunday lunch with the sex offender radio on.
Happy days!
Reminds me: the clumsy way I wrote the OP might make it seem like I was listening to peak Aretha when I was 7 years old. Nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, the earliest bracketed label I can remember is I’m The Leader Of The Gang (I Am) by notorious bad fellow, Gary Glitter..
15 years ago, (Get A) Grip (On Yourself) was the answer in a job interview.
The final five minutes or so of my ‘interview’ (me and the interviewer had spent most of the previous hour discussing his fave bands, Pop Will Eat Itself and Carter USM) was a pop quiz.
The other hit song with two sets is (You Gotta) Fight For Your Right (To Party) by the Beastie Boys.
Other ‘interview’ questions included ‘songs which have been number one more than once’ (Bo Rap, My Sweet Lord).
I got the job (designing mp3 players).
(Get a) Fiio
Surely that shoud be (Get) A (Fiio)?
if you want to take this to the extremes Heaven 17 released ‘… (and that’s no lie)’ from the album How Men Are … whole title of the song in parenthesis
Oh yeah, and Sigur Rós had that album called ( ), which, I think, is just brackets with nowt between but may mean something rude..
Which reminded me, also by Heaven 17 – (We don’t need this) Fascist Groove Thang
Feats Don’t Fail Me Now is short of one.
Towards the final days of regularly checking the singles charts I remember wondering what “The Ketchup Song” was because it was there bubbling under for weeks and weeks. I imagined a children’s song in the Wiggles vein. Some time later the brackets appeared ( Aserejé ) but even after this I didn’t link it to the Spanish song I kept hearing in shops etc.
There’s something really pure and joyful about the song because most of us know nothing about what the words mean but it’s a genuine floor-filler at work meetings.
Band and song: Was (Not Was) ‘(Return to the Valley of) Out Come the Freaks’
Nice double whammy there, Gary. There cannot be too many artists with brackets in their name.
Here’s one: (((O)))
And of course there’s the very distinctive Sunn O )))
I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe).
The ‘Sweetest Girl’.
As sure as eggs is eggs (aching men’s feet)
My covers band are never sure if we’re playing ‘(Don’t Fear) the Reaper’ or ‘Don’t Fear (the Reaper)’; ‘Don’t You (Forget About Me)’ or ‘(Don’t You) Forget About Me’.
Doesn’t matter @dan-p
I’d come to see you!
Having got my turntable working again, I was going through some old LPs, many of which I haven’t played in 30 years. I came across the 1989 Alias Ron Kavana album “Think like a Hero” & remembered there was a great track, that GLR used to play, that sounded like Van Morrison.
Fortunately, the clue is in the parenthesis “This is the Night (Fair Dues to “The Man”)
The US release of T. Rex summer 1971 toon was re-titled Bang A Gong (Get It On).
The one that immediately sprung to my mind was The Jam’s Bitterest Pill (I Ever Had To Swallow). The bit in brackets is never actually used in the song. Weller sings “For the bitterest pill is hard to swallow” which surely would have worked as a title once someone took the decision that “The Bitterest Pill” just didn’t do the job. I’m fascinated by the process here with the whole The Bitterest Pill (I Ever Had To Swallow) project. It’s a decent song, it’s a love song of sorts but where does it sit in the canon? I’m guessing some overthinking was done as soon as Weller decided, “this is our next single”. The writing was clearly on the wall. Once the title was decided, (can you imagine the conversation around that?) Then “that” video was made. Wellers raincoat, Bruce and Rick acting out some weird menage a trois with that poor girl while the raincoated Weller looked on through the window. The whole thing, especially the bracketed unused words is just odd. I love The Jam, I really like this song but it’s all very strange, (isn’t it?)
“The Bitterest Pill” on its own is a much better title anyway. As you say, very strange.
It brings to mind Leo Sayer’s song “The Show Must Go On”. The chorus is “I won’t let the show go on”, which is the direct opposite of the sentiment expressed in the title.
I’m being contradictory here, but this is crying out for a parenthesis, but hasn’t got one.
Shania Twain,
All these songs are from the same album, Up!
She loves all punctuation but she loves exclamation marks most of all
9. “(Wanna Get to Know You) That Good!”
13. “Thank You Baby! (For Makin’ Someday Come So Soon)”
17. “I’m Not in the Mood (To Say No)!”
18. “In My Car (I’ll Be the Driver)”
A couple of old favourites:
The Monochrome Set (I Presume)
Carnival of Sorts (Boxcars)
I do think that anyone putting two sets of brackets in a song title wants the thick end of a ragman’s trumpet.
Not that I’m telling Jet Black that. I like having teeth.
He’s 83, you know. If you just push him over he won’t be getting up again for a day or so.
He’s 83?
Is that all??
Radiohead’s “Hail To The Thief”.
14 tracks, every single one of them with parentheses in the latter half of the title.
(Ponces)
Face slap Emoji! All that blurb up there and I forgot that my actual favourite record of 2021 consists almost entirely of tunes with bracketed titles
(Fred again.. – Me (Heavy)
What a cracker that is @Sewer Robot.
Fred again really stood out as I listened my way through the albums on Lodestone’s List.
Googled to discover that he is a protegé of Eno and a star producer.
Michael Marra often said “I don’t want my name in lights, I want my name in brackets”.