20 Compelling Song Titles (and Why They’re So Memorable)

Song titles are more important than ever. When browsers happen upon your page on CD Baby, Amazon, iTunes, or wherever, they’re much more likely to at least click and listen to a preview of your music if your titles are intriguing.

And then they might just happen to love the song, dedicate it to their significant other, and maybe even make it ‘their song’. Unless it’s a heartbreak song… But either way, wouldn’t it be awesome to have your song (or album) featured on a Custom Glass Album Cover that someone receives as a gift, and it’s all because of one click, thanks to the engaging title?

Here I’ve collected together some punchy song titles that stand a good chance of attracting curious clicks. I’ve also spent a few minutes putting each title under a microscope to see what makes them great.

Here we go.

Cold Roses

Subversion of a cliché makes this one interesting. Roses turn up so often in poetry and song lyrics as to be meaningless-but cold roses? We haven’t heard that before. The word “cold” is engagingly tactile, and the “o” sound assonance gives the title a memorable ring.

You can find “Cold Roses” on the album of the same name by Ryan Adams.

Cigarettes and Chocolate Milk

Here’s a tempting title: two things people crave, things that seem small and pleasurable-but in the right doses, over time, either one can kill. Rufus Wainwright found a connection here between innocent appearance and underlying danger that often goes unnoticed.

There’s a bit of music in the words here, too; I like the consonance at the end of “cigarette” and “chocolate”; also the assonance between “cigarettes” and “milk”.

Slow Like Honey

A seductive title from Fiona Apple. Just three words, but here Ms. Apple manages to pack in a lot of sensory information. It’s suggestive of motion, taste, color, viscosity, translucency and sex. This is the kind of brevity that would impress even a haiku master.

This title also creates some intrigue by omission. We know that something, somebody, or some experience is like honey, but she doesn’t tell us what. The title serves as a kind of implied promise that Fiona will tell us more if we listen.

Night of the Lotus Eaters

This one’s got enough mystique to give me chills. “Night of the Lotus Eaters”-now that’s a dark, mysterious title for you.

The geek in me adores the literary reference, but it’s immediately appealing even if you’ve never read Tennyson or the Odyssey. You can find this song title on Nick Cave’s Dig!!! Lazarus Dig!!!

Cannibal’s Hymn

These two words are worth a thousand pictures. An air of the sacred and a stab of dread combine to make “Cannibal’s Hymn” an irresistible title. You can find it on Nick Cave’s album The Lyre of Orpheus/Abattoir Blues.

Hey, That’s No Way to Say Goodbye

Here’s a title written as a dramatic line of dialogue.

Leonard Cohen was a published author and poet by the time he released his first album, Songs of Leonard Cohen, and it shows-the album’s lyrics are among the very few songs that stand up under literary scrutiny.

A good title makes us feel something. This one manages to set up an entire situation in very limited space.

The First Cut is the Deepest

What a great title for a song about breaking up (and reluctantly reuniting). Cat Stevens wrote this one; versions were recorded by Rod Stewart, Sheryl Crow, and others. Describing emotional hurt in such raw terms also hints at backstory: if the narrator thinks of the relationship as an open wound now, we know that this narrator was deeply invested in the unnamed lover.

All Along the Watchtower

Out of several evocative lines in this classic Bob Dylan tune, Dylan chose the right one to serve as title. The syllables themselves have an intrinsic rhythm you could almost nod your head to, and the vowel sounds are beautiful. Slow down for a second and read this title again, aloud so you can taste it: “All Along the Watchtower.” Great title.

The Bees Made Honey in the Lion’s Skull

This rich title comes courtesy of droning, slow-tempo metal band Earth. It’s apparently a reference to Judges 14:8, in which Samson notices bees swarming on the carcass of a lion that he had torn apart with his hands.

There are three really resonant nouns in this one: Honey, Lion, and Skull. It’s a very weird and interesting combination.

Bridge to the Beyond

“Bridge to the Beyond” is the title of an eerie track from John Zorn’s The Gift. It features creepy chanting alternating with angelic falsettos from Mike Patton. Like many of Zorn’s pieces, the title and the music fit together hand-in-glove. The title’s interesting in itself, and hearing the track makes it even better.

Lawyers, Guns, and Money

Here’s proof that a list of nouns can be interesting even without any adjectives or verbs to help them out. The track’s from Warren Zevon’s Excitable Boy.

My Funny Valentine

A playful and affectionate title from a Rodgers & Hart show tune. Some song titles get along just fine without adjectives, but in this case the adjective works to really make the title great. “My Valentine” is much less interesting. “My Pretty Valentine” would be a bit detached. “My Funny Valentine” is perfect-and so warm that it’s hard to read the title without smiling.

It’s been recorded by Frank Sinatra, Miles Davis, and has since gone on to become a jazz standard. It’s been recorded over 600 times. Not bad…

Lantern Marsh

This is the title of an instrumental ambient masterpiece, named after an actual place near Brian Eno’s home. What’s fascinating to me about this one is that the word “lantern” insinuates that the marsh is dark-an impression reinforced by the track itself. You can find this one on Eno’s Ambient 4.

Kiss Me Like a Stranger

There are at least a hundred different kinds of kiss-maybe more. I’m still miffed at Tom Waits for calling a song on his latest album “Kiss Me” when he could’ve called it “Kiss Me Like a Stranger”.

Ehh, hey Nick, we’re, eh, down here at the barber shop and Tommy’s got this amazing glass eye he found at the pawn shop and you should come down and check it out.

“Kiss Me” should’ve been “Kiss Me Like a Stranger.” You can find the track on the man’s 2011 release Bad as Me.

God’s Away on Business

Another Tom Waits/Kathleen Brennan original. There are few more loaded words than “God”, and here that symbol’s used in a way that completely confounds our expectations.

Trampled Rose

Another Tom Waits original. “Trampled Rose” is a great example of what happens when you take a symbolic image-even a cliché-and add unexpected modifiers. Like “Cold Roses” above, it’s just counterintuitive enough to sound fresh.

Dead and Lovely

Omitting the subject of the song and just describing it with a few tantalizing words can really make us curious about what the title’s hinting at-as we saw above with “Slow Like Honey.” Here Tom Waits pulls a similar trick with “Dead and Lovely.”

Long, Cool Woman in a Black Dress

This track comes courtesy of The Hollies (and of my dad, who cited this as a favorite song title). Consider how much less interesting the title would be if they’d called this one “Woman in a Black Dress”. Two adjectives have come together to really make this one sing.

It’s interesting that the title tags this woman as “Long” instead of “Tall.” Could it be that this title subconsciously makes us imagine this woman horizontal?

A Boy Named Sue

Nothing like a reversal of gender expectations to add seasoning to a title. This one was written by Shel Silverstein and performed by Johnny Cash.

A Singer Must Die

The threat of violence makes this Leonard Cohen title a real killer.

What Else?

I know I’m missing some titles on this list. I know because I originally wanted this list to be 106 items long and had to cut it down for sanity’s sake. What song titles do you dig, and what makes them awesome? Let me know in the comments below.