Standout Album/Song Titles

[DarcyFarrow]

Which song or album titles stand out for you?  Maybe it's a memorable or poetic or funny phrase, maybe it perfectly sums up the material inside, or maybe you have another reason for loving it.  Your answer doesn't have to be a song/album that you think is especially good; it's the title we're focusing on here.

To start:  Ozzy Osbourne's Blizzard of Ozz, because "blizzard" aptly describes the songs and because the phrase is a rhyming spin on another, well-recognized title of a work that takes the listener/reader on a crazy trip to another world.

[DarcyFarrow]

“Every Time I Eat Vegetables It Makes Me Think Of You” – Ramones

[EricC28201]

The Dangerous Kitchen - Frank Zappa

[DarcyFarrow]

Christine Lavin has the longest song title ever (97 words):

Regretting What I Said to You When You Called Me 11:00 On a Friday Morning to Tell Me that at 1:00 Friday Afternoon You’re Gonna Leave Your Office, Go Downstairs, Hail a Cab to Go Out to the Airport to Catch a Plane to Go Skiing in the Alps for Two Weeks, Not that I Wanted to Go With You, I Wasn’t Able to Leave Town, I’m Not a Very Good Skier, I Couldn’t Expect You to Pay My Way, But After Going Out With You for Three Years I DON’T Like Surprises!! Subtitled: A Musical Apology

[DarcyFarrow]

The second longest title (by Rednex, 52 words):

The Sad But True Story Of Ray Mingus, The Lumberjack Of Bulk Rock City, And His Never Slacking Stribe In Exploiting The So Far Undiscovered Areas Of The Intention To Bodily Intercourse From The Opposite Species Of His Kind, During Intake Of All The Mental Condition That Could Be Derived From Fermentation

[DarcyFarrow]

Several Species of Small Furry Animals Gathered Together in a Cave and Grooving with a Pict (Pink Floyd)

this is a Roger Waters creation--don't try to understand it

[1968Hoya46]

Subterranean Homesick Blues: Dylan (For me the title (somehow) perfectly captured the lyrics...another Dylan mystery I guess).

[Raynyky]

Aqualung-Jethro Tull

[DarcyFarrow]

Writing Wrongs (Michael Nesmith)

Besides being a unique pun, the title actually conveys useful information, indicating that this song will correct some misunderstandings.  (I think--in typical Nes fashion, the lyrics don't seem to make sense.)

[MaVolta]

Helter Skelter  -  The Beatles  (song title)

Macca took the title from a ride at a British amusement park, which inspired these lyrics . . .

When I get to the bottom
I go back to the top of the hill
Where I stop and I turn and I give you a thrill
'Til I get to the bottom and I see you again

McCartney set out to come up with a song as loud and dirty as they could possibly make it, after Pete Townsend had bragged about "the dirtiest song" just released by The Who. Helter Skelter is often cited as the precursor to heavy metal music. Many heavy metal bands have covered it. 

https://www.songfacts.com/facts/the-beatles/helter-skelter

[DarcyFarrow]

See Jungle! See Jungle! Go Join Your Gang Yeah, City All Over! Go Ape Crazy!  (Bow Wow Wow)

got to be the longest title in pop/punk history

[DarcyFarrow]

You Can Tune a Piano But You Can't Tuna Fish (REO Speedwagon)

This is one of those "we have to get this out of the way before we can talk about the music:  how did they come up with this title" titles.  I haven't been able to find the story behind the title (if you know, please share).  Maybe there is no explanation.  The title stands on its own hilarious merit.

[MaVolta]

I Am The Walrus  -  The Beatles  (song title)

From Wikipedia:  Lennon wrote the song to confound listeners who had been affording serious scholarly interpretations of the Beatles' lyrics. He was partly inspired by two LSD trips and Lewis Carroll's 1871 poem "The Walrus and the Carpenter". Compositionally, every musical letter of the alphabet is invoked and every chord is a major or a seventh. Producer George Martin arranged and added orchestral accompaniment that included violins, cellos, horns, and clarinet. The Mike Sammes Singers, a 16-voice choir of professional studio vocalists, also joined the recording, variously singing nonsense lines and shrill whooping noises. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Am_the_Walrus

[JohnD131536]

Slowhand - Eric Clapton

[MaVolta]

Dead Flowers  -  The Stones  (song title)

From Songfacts:  In this song, Mick Jagger addresses a girl named Susie with more than a little disdain: She's welcome to send him dead flowers, but he'll put roses on her grave. The music and lyrics both have a distinct country vibe. Jagger explained in 1995: "I love country music, but I find it very hard to take it seriously. I also think a lot of country music is sung with the tongue in cheek, so I do it tongue-in-cheek."

https://www.songfacts.com/facts/the-rolling-stones/dead-flowers

It doesn't need a lot of explaining. 

[JohnD131536]

The Stranger - Billy Joel

[MaVolta]

When The Smoke Is Going Down  -  Scorpions  (song title)

The show has ended, the fireworks are over, and still he's drawn to an empty stage. It's one of their many songs about life in a rock n roll band. On the road, they miss family and home, then getting home, they long to be back with the crowds again. They played this song as a finale for their MTV Unplugged in Athens show.

Just when you make your way back home
I find some time to be alone
I go to see the place once more
Just like a thousand nights before
I climb the stage again this night
'Cause the place seems still alive
When the smoke is going down

This is the place where I belong
I really love to turn you on
I've got your sound still in my ear
While your traces disappear
I climb the stage again this night
'Cause the place seems still alive
When the smoke is going down

I climb the stage again this night
'Cause the place seems still alive
When the smoke is going down
When the smoke is going down
When the smoke is going down

Source: LyricFind

Songwriters: Klaus Meine / Rudolf Schenker

When the Smoke Is Going Down lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group

[BeatleloverKT]

Dreamboat Annie, 1976, Heart

This was Hearts debut album and what a

debut it was. The songs have some Led 

Zep qualities to them along with some

folksy moments and a tinge of blues. 
These two showed they were a force

to be reckoned with from now on. 💜🎼

Magic man

Dreamboat Annie (Fantasy child)

Crazy on you

Soul of the sea

Dreamboat Annie

White Lightning and wine

(Love me like music) I’ll be your song

Sing child

How deep it goes

Dreamboat Annie (Reprise)

[OscarE1968]

Killers - Iron Maiden

Album title is based on the novel " Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde ". Iron Maiden would and has continued to write songs based on literature, history and human nature. 

[JohnD131536]

Hotel California - the Eagles

[DarcyFarrow]

Goodbye Yellow Brick Road (Elton John)

The title of a single and the album.  The album is packed with songs about growing up, leaving fantasy and innocence behind, accepting reality; the title harkens back to The Wizard of Oz, which conveys the same themes.  

[BeatleloverKT]

Sticky Fingers, 1971  Rolling Stones

I was already in love with the Stones

when this album came out. All their

albums are so cleverly named, but

this one, with a man in tight jeans

with a full working zipper opened

to show a pair of underwear. I had

to hide this album from my Father

or he’d of tossed it out!And oh yeah,

the songs are great too, with some

crossing the line just like the cover 💜🎼

Brown Sugar

Sway

Wild Horses

Can’t you hear me knocking

You gotta move 

B——

I got the blues

Sister Morphine

Dead flowers

Moonlight Mile

[MaVolta]

Lost Highway  -  Bon Jovi

This album was the group's first venture into melding their rock with country music. It was recorded in Nashville with Jon and Richie collaborating with a few Nashville songwriters and singers. The songs often reflected what band members were going through in their personal lives. There was a lot of heartbreak and lives changing course during that period, and country music is a perfect outlet for those themes.

The title reflected this new undertaking. Quoting from Wikipedia: The title track "Lost Highway" is a song that talks about going on a new and unknown place that no one knows exists. They took the title from Nashville record label Lost Highway Records formed by Luke Lewis. Jon explained: "That name and what it brought up in your mind, that dark road stretching out in front of you, intrigued me. I wanted to go down that road and see where it led. I think it was a perfect image for where I am in my life and where Richie was and maybe for where you are? That idea, of being out there somewhere new, out in the open, on that blacktop, really excited me. No one knows where it's going or if it even exists - I don't know and I don't think anyone else does either".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lost_Highway_(Bon_Jovi_album)

The album debuted at #1 on Billboard, a first for the band. It was also nominated for a Grammy for Best Pop Vocal Album in 2008.

[JohnD131536]

Captain Fantastic And The Brown Dirt Cowboy - Elton John 

[BeatleloverKT]

Hysteria, 1987, Def Lepperd

This was the 3rd in the 80’s trilogy for the

band. The cover is very cool, with a large

triangle on it that I assume symbolizes the

3rd album in the trilogy. This album set

the bar for all their other albums to follow.

It showed they were committed to stomping

on genre boundaries and that they knew
how to get their agenda across with a

huge impact. To date it is their best selling

album, selling over 20 million copies

worldwide with 7 hit singles

Women

Rocket

Animal

Love bites

Pour some sugar on me

Armageddon it 

Gods of war

Don’t shoot shotgun

Run riot

Hysteria

Excitable

Love and affection

[JohnD131536]

Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band - the Beatles

[MaVolta]

Have A Nice Day  -  Bon Jovi

The title and angry smirked face album cover pretty much says it all. The band got a bit of anger worked out of their system on this album. It also went platinum.

[DarcyFarrow]

A Hard Day's Night (Beatles)--the album, the song or the movie

From Wikipedia:  "The title of the album and film was the accidental creation of drummer Ringo Starr.[10] According to Lennon in a 1980 interview with Playboy magazine: "I was going home in the car and [film director] Dick Lester suggested the title, 'Hard Day's Night' from something Ringo had said. I had used it in In His Own Write, but it was an off-the-cuff remark by Ringo. You know, one of those malapropisms. A Ringo-ism, where he said it not to be funny ... just said it. So Dick Lester said, 'We are going to use that title.'"

And yet, all of us who've ever had a job instinctively get the meaning.  I's a working-man/woman's view of the world, when you've had your shoulder to the wheel all day long and you're exhausted to the bone, but one thought keeps you going:  "But when I get home to you I'll find the things that you do."
Will make me feel alright

[JohnD131536]

Meet The Beatles - the Beatles

[DarcyFarrow]

Randy Scouse Git (Alternate Title)--the Monkees

from Wikipedia:  "The phrase "Randy Scouse Git" in Britain directly translated to, according to Dolenz, "horny, Liverpudlian jerk",[3] was taken from the 1960s British sitcom Till Death Us Do Part. . . . RCA Records in England told the band that they would not release the song unless it was given an "alternate title" . . . . By his own account, Dolenz said "OK, 'Alternate Title' it is".[3]