3 Factors To Choose A Song Title

Choosing a song title is easily overlooked. But choosing a title is important. It can add one last layer of meaning to your song, and it is how it is referred to when people talk about it. In my mind, there are 3 main factors to choosing a song title.

Association Factor

The first factor is the association factor. Put simply, when someone hears your song, it shouldn’t be hard to guess what the title might be. On the other side, if someone has heard your song before and is asked “Have you heard so-and-so’s song such-and-such?”, they should be able to figure out what song they are referring to, because the title obviously belongs to the song they heard.

This is often why the song title is the lyric that is repeated multiple times per chorus, or is the obvious highlight or high point of the chorus, coming as the first or last line within it.

Take this chorus lyric from my song “Won’t Be Tonight”

This night seems so long

Just waiting to hear it’s all a bad dream

Maybe someday

It will be alright

But, no, it won’t be tonight

There aren’t any repeated lyrics in the chorus, and, based on how it’s sung, the main point is clearly on the “No, it won’t be tonight”. So the title “Won’t Be Tonight” would be easily associated and remembered as the title of this song.

Besides obvious chorus lyrics, repeated lyrics throughout the song can be an obvious associative choice. Tracy Chapman’s “Fast Car” would be an example of this, with the “You got a Fast Car” being the lyric that opens basically every verse. 

“Fast Car” is the most obvious lyric to operate as the title, even though it never shows up in a chorus.

Memorable Factor

There must be 10,000 songs with the title “Tonight”. I bet there are a bunch of songs called “You” or “Your Song” as well.

 They aren’t exactly memorable titles. If someone asks you if you’ve heard “Tonight” before, you probably had 50 songs cross your mind, forgot the other 50 you know with that title and are left generally in the state of “I have no idea”

But when someone asks you if you’ve heard “Fast Car” or “Ants Marching” or “Jailhouse Rock” before, you already know the answer before they finish the question.

There probably aren’t too many songs with the title “Ants Marching”. I would guess there’s just the one.

This makes it easier for people to associate a song with you, and instantly remember it upon hearing the title. 

Even if you haven’t heard “Ants Marching” before, that title will probably stick into your mind. It conjures up an interesting image and is clearly different from all the “You”s and “Tonight”s of the world.

Theme Factor

Finally, a song title should tie together the theme of the song.

I bet the theme of your song isn’t “Tonight”. But, Tracy Chapman’s “Fast Car” completely revolves around the theme of dreaming of escape and not being able to escape despite having a “Fast Car”. The whole song is about getting away, and the symbol of that getting away is the fast car.

Another example would be “Somebody That I Used To Know” by Gotye. Not only is that lyric present throughout the song, but the theme that the person is now simply somebody that he used to know is the common thread throughout the entire song.

The lover used to be someone close and someone he knew and trusted well. The tragedy is that now they’re only someone he used to know.

I think the theme factor is perhaps the most important factor in choosing a song title. Used to its greatest capacity, you can even choose a title that reveals more about a theme by having a title that isn’t actually contained in the song.

A great example of this would be “Superman” by Five For Fighting (yes, one of many songs about Superman). The song never once mentions superman by name, but is sung from his perspective. 

He laments 

I can’t stand to fly

I’m not that naïve

Men weren’t meant to ride

With clouds between their knees

…

I’m only a man in a silly red sheet

Digging for Kryptonite on this one-way street

So, yeah, you’d have to be pretty dense to not pick up that this guy is Superman. But, what ties the whole song together? 

The most interesting part of this song is WHO is saying “I’m only a man” and “It’s not easy to be me”. If you or I say that, yeah, sure. But superman saying it? He has it all I thought!

So the title of “Superman” is exactly what it needs to be. It points to the point of the song. The point is that, specifically, superman is also just another guy with problems, and even your heroes don’t have it as easy as you think.

How do you choose the titles for your songs? Let us know in the comments below!