Non-Appearing Title

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

This describes songs where the title does not appear in the lyrics. At all.

The Something Song is often a somewhat borderline case of this trope, since the "song" portion of the title doesn't usually appear in the lyrics. However, the preceding word in the title often appears in the lyrics a lot.

Compare Non-Indicative Name and Word Salad Title. Refrain From Assuming is what happens when a phrase from the lyrics starts getting mistaken for the title. Can sometimes be victim of I Am Not Shazam, since sometimes people mistake the chorus for the actual title; e.g., some people think Bohemian Rhapsody is called "Scaramouche".

The direct opposite of this trope is Title Drop. Naturally, all songs are examples of either this trope or that one.

Examples of Non-Appearing Title include:


  • All instrumentals since, by definition, an instrumental piece has no lyrics.
  • Pick a J-pop song, any J-Pop song, especially the ones with English titles. More often then not, the title will never be uttered in the song at all.
  • Almost any song with "Song" or "Blues" in its title (e.g. "Mercury Blues", which at least has the "Mercury" half).
    • With the notable exceptions of Nick Cave's "The Weeping Song", Queen's "Melancholy Blues", Bob Dylan's "Tombstone Blues" and "Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again", The White Stripes' "300 MPH Torrential Outpour Blues", The Manic Street Preachers's "Watsville Blues", Eddie Cochran's "Summertime Blues", Glenn Frey's "Smuggler's Blues", David Bowie's "Running Gun Blues," "Existential Blues," and "I Got Those Wake Up 7:30, Wash Your Ears They're Dirty, Eat your Eggs and Oatmeal Rush to School Blues", Steely Dan's "Deacon Blue", Robert Johnson's Walking Blues, Blind Willie Mc Tells, Statesboro Blues.
  • Pretty much every Taking Back Sunday song on their first couple of albums.
  • A lot of hardcore bands use this trope.
  • "Professional Widow" by Tori Amos, among others.
  • A number of Arcade Fire songs, including "Antichrist Television Blues", "Black Wave/Bad Vibrations", "Intervention", "Rebellion (Lies)", and "The Well and the Lighthouse" (though at least that one actually is about a well and a lighthouse).
    • Well, kinda. The final line of "Antichrist Television Blues" is "Tell me Lord, am I the Antichrist?" and "Rebellion (Lies)" has the latter half of the title in the song.
  • On Mary and the Black Lambs album "As the City Sleeps" The track Departed is the only song that doesn't mention the title.
  • Lostprophets are notorious for this. Pretty much almost every single song in their self-titled first album is this ("Shinobi vs. Dragon Ninja", "And Then She Told Me to Leave"), while their second album almost entirely averted this (Except for "We are Godzilla, You are Japan"). They revert on a couple of tracks on their third album ("Heaven for the Weather, Hell for the Company", "Can't Stop, Gotta Date with Hate") and then stay a fair distance in their fourth (only exclusion being their last track on the album, "The Light that Shines Twice as Bright").
  • The Arrogant Worms' "The Last Saskatchewan Pirate", and "The Tokyo Love Story".
  • Audioslave's "Bring 'Em Back Alive", "Cochise", "Exploder", and "Hypnotize".
  • Avenged Sevenfold has "Bat Country", which doesn't appear in the lyrics but makes sense if you actually understand the reference.
  • Emilie Autumn's "Shalott" and "Rapunzel" qualify, though with both the title is important to understanding exactly what the song is about.
    • You could technically count every single song on Laced/Unlaced, except that it's an instrumental album.
      • And like the Barenaked Ladies example below, "306" has only one mention of the title lyric (it's in the first verse).
  • Almost every single song ever by The Fall of Troy, with very few exceptions.
  • "The Weight" by The Band
  • The Barenaked Ladies almost did this with their song "Wizard of Magic Land," which was actually the last line in the song. However, the song does have an alternate title of "It's Only Me," which is sung in every chorus.
  • The Beatles' "The Ballad of John And Yoko", "A Day in the Life", "The Inner Light", and "Tomorrow Never Knows".
    • "Love You To" kind of counts - the closest it comes to a title drop is "I'll make love to you".
  • Quite a few songs from Beck, including "E-Pro" and "Jack-Ass".
  • Harry Belafonte's "Banana Boat Song", though "Day-O" (part of the lyrics) is used as an alternate title.
  • Ben Folds/Five has "Song for the Dumped" and "Rent A Cop", though both titles are descriptive of the song's subject/topics
  • The Birthday Massacre's "The Dream", "Looking Glass", "Movie", "Play Dead" and "Science". "Play Dead" gets pretty close, with the line "I'll cast you a spell, a magic where everyone plays dead forever."
  • Bjork's "Bachelorette", "Heirloom", "Hyperballad", "Joga", "Pluto", "Pneumonia", and "You've Been Flirting Again".
  • Blue October (the American one):
    • "Overweight" (the closest it gets is "Ever carried the weight of another?")
    • "The Answer"
    • "Mr. Blue's Menu"
    • "Black Orchid"
    • A half example with "Conversation via Radio (Do You Ever Wonder?)" - while "conversation via radio" never appears in the lyrics, "Do you ever wonder?" appears with quite a bit of frequency.
    • Also true of "Sexual Powertrip", which is also called "Sexual Powertrip (One Big Lie) Bla Bla Bla". The second two titles appear, but the primary title - the first one - does not.
  • Brand New have more than a few, especially on their first two albums. "Jude Law and a Semester Abroad", "Sudden Death in Carolina", "Logan to Government Center", "Okay I Believe You, But My Tommy Gun Doesn't", and "Guernica", among others.
  • David Bowie - Space Oddity (not "Ground Control To Major Tom")
  • Black Sabbath's "Paranoid" is entirely about somebody being paranoid but the actual word doesn't feature anywhere in the song.
  • Mary J. Blige's "Family Affair."
  • CAKE's "Shadow Stabbing".
    • Also "Nugget".
  • Rosanne Cash's "Blue Moon with Heartache", sort of. "Blue moon" and "heartache" occur in the song, but they're separated by quite a few words.
  • Cat Power's cover of Satisfaction drops the chorus, and thus the title never comes up in the song.
  • Pick a Chiodos song. Any Chiodos song.
    • With the exception of All Nereids Beware, albeit the Title Drop only occurs in Metal Scream form, so it's pretty easy to miss.
    • And "One Day Women Will All Become Monsters." It's the last line.
    • With the release of Illuminaudio, "Those Who Slay Together Stay Together" also makes an exception.
  • Harry Chapin's song "Sniper".
  • Chumbawamba's "Tubthumping."
  • "Train in Vain" by The Clash, named so to avoid confusion with another song called "Stand By Me".
  • Coldplay's "Amsterdam," "Don't Panic," "Parachutes," "The Scientist," "X&Y," "Life in Technicolor" (mostly instrumental), "Life in Technicolor II" (not mostly instrumental, but still no Title Drop), "Viva la Vida," "Twisted Logic," "Lovers in Japan," "Chinese Sleep Chant," "The Escapist," "Charlie Brown," and probably more in the future if this is any indication...
  • Nat King Cole's "Nature Boy".
  • Elvis Costello's "Couldn't Call It Unexpected No. 4". The song would still fit the trope even if the "No. 4" part was dropped.
  • Covenant's "Theremin", which doesn't use the instrument of the same name either. Same for "Leviathan", "Pulse", "20hz", and others.
  • The Cowsills' "The Rain, the Park and Other Things", often assumed to be "Flower Girl". "The rain" and "the park" do appear in the lyrics, but in different verses.
  • Cream's "Badge": Ringo Starr misread George Harrison's handwriting on the sheet music, and asked "what's badge?" where it actually said "bridge".
  • Creed's Ode, from their first album, My Own Prison.
  • Jim Croce's "Thursday" and "Age."
  • The Cure's creepy "Lullaby" (although you can consider the title is self-describing). "Inbetween Days" could also count, as the complete title doesn't appear.
    • "Lovesong"
    • Interestingly, not only do all three albums of their "Trilogy" have title tracks, all of the title tracks are examples of this trope (although "Bloodflowers" does have the phrase "flowers of blood").
  • Harvey Danger's "Flagpole Sitta".
  • John Denver's "Annie's Song".
  • Depeche Mode's "I Sometimes Wish I Was Dead" (also a Non-Indicative Name, as it's a Silly Love Song)
    • Their song "Enjoy the Silence" subverts this trope: You won't hear the name of the song for what appears to be its entire running time; and then, a full six seconds after the music has faded, the title is dropped and the song finally ends. Since some radio stations would occasionally cut the song once the music faded, you could be left thinking the trope was played straight, if it was the first time you heard it.
  • Disturbed's "Bound", "Numb", and "Conflict", with the latter featuring the word 'Enemy' at least over fifty times. Interestingly, the classic demo-tape/underground recording of "Perfect Insanity" does feature its title throughout, but the Indestructible re-recording drops this, making it one of these.
  • The Doobie Brothers' "Long Train Runnin'."
    • It does have "see them long trains run".
  • The Darkness song "Knockers", it does mention a girls breasts though.
  • Dragon Force (video game)'s "Heartbreak Armageddon", "Operation Ground and Pound", and "Revolution Deathsquad". They were all named solely for the sake of having cool song titles.
    • More Dragon Force (video game): "Black Winter Night", "Heroes of Our Time", "Soldiers of the Wasteland", "Storming the Burning Fields", "Scars of Yesterday", and "EPM".
  • "Panic Attack" by Dream Theater contains neither the word "panic" nor the word "attack". Much like the "Lullaby" example above, though, the title still describes the song (or more accurately, the lyrics describe the title).
  • Bob Dylan's "Rainy Day Women #12 & 35"—because who would dare sell a single labeled "Everybody Must Get Stoned"?
    • Dylan did this a lot in his earlier career.
  • Elisa's "Rainbow".
  • Enigma's "Sadeness (Part I)". The title is a Portmanteau not used in the lyrics.
  • Erasure - "Breath of Life".
  • Betty Everett's "The Shoop Shoop Song"; as per usual, the alternate title (It's In His Kiss) is part of the song.
    • However, the background singers do sing "shoop shoop." A lot.
  • "Untitled" and "Everything Else" by Everything Else.
  • Faith No More's "Epic".
  • Most songs by Falling Up, including "A Guide to Marine Life," "How They Made Cameras," and "The Dark Side to Indoor Track Meets."
    • All of the songs off of their Dawn Escapes album qualify.
    • The title of "Murexa" on the album Captiva is title dropped in the next song "Drago or the Dragons"
    • Many of the songs titles on Fangs! are not contained within those songs, but are referenced in other songs.
    • Lead singer Jessy Ribordy's other project, The River Empires, takes this trope, including the title drops in other songs, Up to Eleven.
  • All of Fall Out Boy's songs except for * deep breath* "Alpha Dog", "America's Suitehearts", "Calm Before the Storm", "Dance Dance", "Dead On Arrival", "Golden", "Grand Theft Autumn/Where Is Your Boy" (half of it, anyway), "Growing Up", "Hum Hallelujah", "I Don't Care","The Music or the Misery", "Saturday", "Star 67", "This Ain't a Scene, It's An Arms Race", "Thnks fr th Mmrs" (in spelled-out form), "Sugar, We're Going Down", and "What A Catch Donnie" (part of it).
  • Fatboy Slim has many songs like this, including "The Rockafeller Skank", "Gangster Trippin'", "Song for Lindy", "Song for Shelter", "Don't Let the Man Get You Down", "First Down", "Santa Cruz", "Going Out of My Head", "Everybody Needs a 303", "Everybody Loves a Carnival", "10th and Crenshaw", "Next to Nothing", "Soul Surfing", "Sho Nuff", "Love Island", "Acid 8000", "Ya Mama", "The Sound of Milwaukee", "Star 69", and countless others.
  • Front242's "Headhunter" never refers to the hunter by this title.
  • Frou Frou, Flicks, Psychobabble, Close Up and Old Piano.
  • A good deal of songs by Glassjaw use this trope, including Jesus Glue, When One Eight Becomes Two Zeros, Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About Silence, Pretty Lush, Must've Run All Day, Radio Cambodia, Majour, and Trailer Park Jesus.
  • Goldfrapp's "Deep Honey", "Hairy Trees", and "Koko".
    • "Horse Tears", also, but the line 'my horse is crying' appears in the first verse.
  • Goo Goo Dolls' "Iris" and "Hate This Place".
  • Probably too many Gorillaz songs to name, including two of their biggest hits, "Clint Eastwood" and "19-2000" (which occasionally get called "Sunshine In A Bag" and "Get The Cool Shoe Shine", respectively). Confusingly, the phrase "Fire Coming Out Of A Monkey's Head" doesn't appear anywhere in the song of that name, but does appear in "Don't Get Lost In Heaven", the very next song on the album.
    • Despite the words "Feel Good" being said throughout the song, "Feel Good Inc." does not include the complete title.
    • "Dirty Harry", "El Manana", "Empire Ants", "To Binge", "Pirate Jet," "Latin Simone", and "Amarillo" don't make any reference to their titles either.
    • "Pirate Jet" does- listen in the background and there's a chorus of "pirate jet, pirate jet, pirate jet" in a mechanical voice.
  • Green Day's "Basket Case", "Brain Stew/Jaded", "East Jesus Nowhere", "Good Riddance", "Longview", "Poprocks & Coke", and "Stuck With Me".
    • "Stuck With Me" ended up with that title in a Throw It In fashion - they were still trying to come up with a name for the song when someone at the studio mislabeled it as "Stuck With Me", which was originally the name of an entirely different song they were writing (one that did have a title drop). So they just went with that as a title, because they thought it fit the song thematically. The song that was originally supposed to be "Stuck With Me" was later released as a B-Side - since they couldn't use the same title for two different songs, it got the Non-Appearing Title "Do Da Da".
  • Guns N' Roses' "Estranged", "Shackler's Revenge", and "Chinese Democracy".
  • For a band with 20 years of music, Inkubus Sukkubus has surprisingly few such songs. Away With The Faeries, Beltaine, Conquistadors, Danse Vampyr, Death and the Virgin, Enchantment, Eternity, Gypsy Lament, Hang Around, Hedonistic Gene, Incubus, Intercourse With The Vampire, Love Spell, Nymphomania, Old Hornie, Reptile, Song To Pan, Soul Inside, Storm, Struwwelpeter, The Rape Of Maude Bowen (Borderline example, although Maude Bowen is named, and the fact she was raped is also mentioned, the actual title never appears) The Witch of Berkeley, Trinity, Vampyra, Vampyre Erotica (Although in Vampyra, the phrase Vampiria Erotica is part of the chorus), Vampyre Kiss, Vermillion Rush, Vlad, Wake of the Christian Knights, Witch Hunt, and bother versions of Wytches. Out of about 150 songs, that's an impressive total.
  • Only three songs in Iron Maiden's Piece of Mind have a Title Drop, four if you count "Sunlight, falling on your steel" on "Sun and Steel". It would be five if "To Tame a Land" had been allowed to keep its original title, "Dune". Powerslave has "The Duellists" (and an instrumental), Seventh Son of a Seventh Son has two ("The Clairvoyant" and "The Prophecy"), No Prayer for the Dying has two (the title track and "Fates Warning"), Brave New World has "The Mercenary", Dance of Death has "Rainmaker" (at the least), A Matter of Life and Death has "The Reincarnation Of Benjamin Breeg", and The Final Frontier has "The Alchemist" (the word "alchemy" does appear) and a borderline in "Satellite 15... The Final Frontier" (the latter appears, while the album number nod doesn't).
  • Ja Rule, R. Kelly, and Ashanti "Wonderful" (though various other conjugations of the word "wonder" appear, "wonderful" does not.)
  • Jefferson Airplane's "White Rabbit".
  • A bunch of Jethro Tull songs. Examples, to pick just one album, include "Cheap Day Return", "Hymn 43", and "My God".
  • Among the 19 tracks on Joy Division's (proper) studio LPs Unknown Pleasures and Closer, only five ("She's Lost Control", "Shadowplay", "Isolation", "Colony" and "Heart and Soul") fail to qualify for this trope. Scanning their entire (complex) discography, results are not unambiguous. For every "Love Will Tear Us Apart" there are also a "Digital", "Atmosphere" and "Dead Souls".
  • Many songs by Led Zeppelin: "The Battle of Evermore", "Black Country Woman", "Black Dog", "Boogie With Stu", "Bron-Y-Aur Stomp", "Candy Store Rock", "Carouselambra", "The Crunge", "D'yer Mak'er", "Four Sticks", "Hats Off To (Roy) Harper", "Hots on for Nowhere", "Immigrant Song", "Out on the Tiles", "Over the Hills and Far Away", "Ozone Baby", "The Rover", "Sick Again", "Tea for One", "Thank You", "Trampled Under Foot", and "Wearing and Tearing".
  • Julian Lennon's "Valotte".
  • A couple of songs from Linkin Park. Just to name singles: "Papercut", "Pts.OF.Athrty", "Faint", and "The Catalyst".
  • Local H's "Bound For The Floor" (which has been called "Copacetic" or "Born To Be Down").
  • Madonna's "Bedtime Story", "Mer Girl", "Impressive Instant".
  • The Mamas and the Papas' "Creeque Alley". The song is about their time on Creeque Alley in the US Virgin Islands but the title is never said.
  • Manowar's "March for Revenge (By the Soldiers of Death)".
  • Meat Loaf's spoken-word "Wasted Youth" from Bat Out of Hell II, although its title forms the opening lyrics for the following song. It's probably the only instance of this trope in the whole of his musical output.
  • Metallica's "Ride the Lightning", "Fade to Black", "Escape", "...And Justice for All", "Eye of the Beholder", "Dyers Eve", and "Disposable Heroes". "Welcome Home (Sanitarium)" is borderline, since only "Sanitarium" appears.
    • However, the words "Fade to Black" are in the lyrics of "The Memory Remains".
    • "The Unforgiven" trilogy has a straight one in III, and two borderline in the others ("I dub thee unforgiven", "are you unforgiven too?")
  • MGMT's "Kids".
  • Nearly everything (if not everything) by Minus The Bear.
    • Which is a shame for anyone expecting a song about a monkey knife fight.
  • Moby's "Natural Blues", "Down Slow", "The Rafters", "Look Back In", "18", "My Weakness", "Machete", "In This World", "Signs of Love", "Sunday (The Day Before My Birthday)", "Sleep Alone", "Fireworks", "Rushing", "7", "If Things Were Perfect", "Everloving", "Inside", "Guitar Flute & String", "Porcelain", and "Memory Gospel".
  • The Monkees' "Good Clean Fun". The band has speculated that not mentioning the title may have hurt the single's commercial prospects because fans didn't know what song to request. The title itself was Mike Nesmith's Take That against a record company executive who told him he should write songs that were "good clean fun" and had a hook.
    • Several other songs by The Monkees fell under this trope as well, most of which were composed by Nesmith. In fact, Nez did it so often, the results could fill a Sporcle quiz.
  • Mono's "Life in Mono".
  • Many, many songs by The Mountain Goats.
  • Muse's "Knights of Cydonia"
    • "Uprising".
    • Ditto for "Muscle Museum".
    • "Hysteria", "Apocalypse Please", "Bliss", "Butterflies and Hurricanes", "Exo-Politics", "Map of the Problematique", "Thoughts of a Dying Atheist", to name a few more.
  • My Chemical Romance is fond of this. So much so that it's easier to list their songs that do have the title in the lyrics.
    • "Blood", "Mama", "Teenagers", "The Sharpest Lives", "Dead!", "Sleep", "To The End", "Heaven Help Us", "I Don't Love You". So that's 38 (82%) of their songs - not counting covers - that follow this trope. It is worthy of note that all the songs except "To The End" and that follow the trope are from their third album, The Black Parade.
    • Fourth album Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys also has some aversions, like "The Only Hope for Me Is You", "The Kids from Yesterday", "Na Na Na (Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na)" and "Sing". "Save Yourself, I'll Hold Them Back" sort of counts too ("So just save yourself and I'll hold them back tonight").
  • My Head's "Humbucker". A pretty confusing one because while the title isn't in the lyrics, the phrase "my head" is, leading at least one radio DJ to mistakenly announce it as "My Head" by Humbucker instead of the other way around.
  • Miyuki Nakajima's "Yuuwaku" ("Seduction"), "Yokorembo" ("Unrequited Love"), "Revival," and "Pierrot".
  • Nazareth's "Hair of the Dog". If they'd named it what they wanted (which was in the song), it'd never get played on radio.
  • Nelly and Kelly Rowland "Dilemma".
  • Kate Nash's "Pumpkin Soup". She has several others too, like "Paris" and "Do-Wah-Doo".
  • Most New Order songs, except "Confusion", "Crystal", "Regret", "Shellshock", "Perfect Kiss" (the Title Drop isn't until near the end of the song, though), "1963", "Touched by the Hand of God" and a handful of others.
  • The Newsboys have "The Breakfast Song", which does mention breakfast but never uses the title in a lyric.
  • Nik Kershaw's "The Riddle"- and while we're on the subject of things not appearing, don't try to look for a meaning either Word of God says it's a bunch of gibberish thrown together.
  • Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit"—although it can be hard to tell with the song's famously hard-to-decipher lyrics.
    • Many of their songs, actually: "About a Girl", "Aero Zeppelin", "Aneurysm", "Hairspray Queen", "Lithium", "Sliver", "Tourette's"...
    • Don't forget "Frances Farmer Will Have Her Revenge on Seattle".
  • The Notorious B.I.G.'s classic "Juicy". While the name is undoubtedly because the song samples "Juicy Fruit" by Mtume, it doesn't appear in the lyrics at all.
  • Oasis's "Acquiesce", "Columbia", "Digsy's Dinner", "The Hindu Times", "The Importance of Being Idle", and "Married with Children".
  • Many, many songs by Of Montreal. To name just two, "Heimdalsgate Like a Promethean Curse" and "Wraith Pinned to the Mist (And Other Games)".
  • All of Panic! at the Disco's first album, and part of their second.
  • "Miss Sarajevo" by U2—er, The Passengers.
  • Pearl Jam's "Corduroy", "Elderly Woman Behind the Counter in a Small Town", "I Got ID" (the supposedly original title, "I Got Shit", appears), "The Fixer", "Wishlist" and "Yellow Ledbetter".
  • Pink Floyd has "Eclipse", "Brain Damage" (the latter being the one song that says "I'll see you on the Dark Side of the Moon!"), and in The Wall, "In The Flesh?"/"In The Flesh", "The Trial", and the parts of "Another Brick In The Wall" people don't know. Also, "Chapter 24", "Astronomy Domine", "Let There Be More Light", "Echoes" and a bunch others.
    • To clarify the last, the three parts of "Another Brick In the Wall", which are separated from one another on the album, have a shared refrain that runs as follows:
      • Part 1: "All in all, it was just a brick in the wall. All in all, it was all just bricks in the wall."
      • Part 2: "All in all, it's just another brick in the wall. All in all, you're just another brick in the wall."
      • Part 3: "All in all, it was all just bricks in the wall. All in all, you were all just bricks in the wall."
    • Part 2 is both the best-known, and the only one to state the title.
    • "Sheep" has bleeting and references lamb, but not sheep. "Dogs" also has barking, but no lyrics mentioning a dog.
  • Plus One's "Exodus".
  • Primitive Radio Gods' "Standing Outside a Broken Phone Booth with Money in My Hand".
  • Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody", "The Prophet's Song", "A Winter's Tale".
  • Queensrÿche's "Electric Requiem" and "Suite Sister Mary".
  • Rammstein's "Dalai Lama".
  • Redgum's "A Walk In The Light Green"--often known as "I Was Only Nineteen".
  • Red Jumpsuit Apparatus's "Ass Shaker".
  • The Red Hot Chili Peppers have multiple songs where the title does not appear in the lyrics, among which "Mellowship Slinky In B Major", "Funky Monks" (though 'monks' does appear in the text, and the band call themselves 'funky monks' in their song Sikamikanico), "Warm Tape", "The Greeting Song", and "Special Secret Song Inside" (probably because titles referring to the lyrics would be considered too rude).
  • Relient K's album Mmhmm had several very Panic!-esque titles, the most memorable being "The Only Thing Worse than Beating a Dead Horse Is Betting on One".
    • There's also the memorable Relient K song, "Crayons Can Melt On Us For All I Care", which, because of this trope, is commonly refered to as "I Just Wasted Ten Seconds of Your Life"
  • REM have quite a few songs like this: “Wolves, Lower” (though does contain the phrase “Lower, wolves”), “9-9,” “So. Central Rain,” “Little America,” Feeling Gravitys Pull [sic],” “Good Advices,” “Flowers of Guatemala,” “Crazy,” “Walter’s Theme,” “Lightnin’ Hopkins,” “King of Birds,” “Pop Song 89,” “The Wrong Child,” “I Remember California,” “Untitled,” and probably dozens of others. “Swan Swan H” is also debatable because of the line “Swan, Swan, Hummingbird.”
    • Technically the last song on Green has no title at all. It's copyrighted as "11."
    • Also debatable is "E-bow The Letter" - the lyrics briefly mention "this letter" (the other part of the title comes from the fact that an E-bow is used in the instrumentation of the song).
    • A few more: "Texarkana," "Country Feedback," "Circus Envy," "Binky the Doormat," "Low Desert," "The Lifting."
  • The Rolling Stones' "Prodigal Son", "Sympathy for the Devil", and "New Faces".
  • Say Anything's "Wow, I Can Get Sexual Too".
  • The Shins' "Know Your Onion".
    • "Phantom Limb". (the word "phantom" appears exactly once)
    • "Caring is Creepy".
  • Simple Plan's "Untitled", though "How could this happen to me?" is used as an alternate title.
  • The Smashing Pumpkins' "Cherub Rock", "Rocket", "Soma", "Geek U.S.A.", Mayonaise", "Silverfuck", "Luna", "Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness", "Jellybelly", "Here Is No Why", "Bullet with Butterfly Wings", "Fuck You (An Ode to No One)", Cupid de Locke", "Galapogos", "Muzzle", "Pocelina of the Vast Oceans", "Where the Boys Fear to Tread", "Thirty-Three", "In the Arms of Sleep", "Tales of a Scorched Earth", "Thru the Eyes of Ruby", "X.Y.U." and "Farewell and Goodnight", among countless others.
  • The Smiths' "The Headmaster Ritual", "How Soon Is Now", and "Suffer Little Children".
    • And: "Shakespeare's Sister", "Nowhere Fast", "Half a Person", "Barbarism Begins at Home" and "Paint A Vulgar Picture".
    • "How Soon is Now" does come very close to dropping the title halfway through the song: "When you say it's gonna happen now, well when exactly do you mean?"
  • The Smyrk's "The Ballad of Fletcher Reede".
  • Snow Patrol's "How to be Dead", "Spitting Games", "If There's a Rocket, Tie Me to It", "Olive Grove Facing the Sea", "Disaster Button", "Life-ning", "The President".
  • The Spinto Band seems pretty fond of these. Not getting into early self-released material, there's "The Black Flag", "The Cat's Pajamas", "Crack The Whip", "Needlepoint", "Pumpkins And Paisley", "Spy Vs. Spy", "Summer Grof", and "Trust Vs. Mistrust".
  • Buffalo Springfield's "For What It's Worth".
  • The vast majority of Stereolab songs.
  • Sufjan Stevens' two "state albums", Michigan and Illinois, have a total of three songs between them whose lyrics contain the title completely: "Romulus", "Jacksonville" and "Chicago". Much of the other titles are long, reference-laden sentences.
  • Sevendust's "Waffle".
  • Sigue Sigue Sputnik's "Love Missile F1-11", commonly called "Shoot It Up".
  • Regina Spektor has "Rejazz", "Bon Idée", "Lounge", "Lulliby", "Chemo Limo", "Fidelity", and "Dance Anthem of the 80s", on top of "Ode to Divorce", "Sailor Song", "Hotel Song" and "Chicken Song".
  • Rod Stewart's "Young Turks". The chorus instead has "young hearts". The less obvious title was possibly chosen to avoid confusion with the Candi Staton song "Young Hearts Run Free". Whether that benefit outweighed the obviously confusing lyrics/titles mismatch is open to question.
    • Also, "Maggie May." Although the woman the song is about is frequently referred to as Maggie, the "May" part never comes up.
  • The indie pop band Stars has quite a few: "Your Ex-Lover Is Dead", "Set Yourself On Fire", "Elevator Love Letter" (elevator is in the song but 'Love Letter' is not), "The Big Fight", "What the Snowman Learned About Love", "Romantic Comedy".
  • Stone Temple Pilots' "Interstate Love Song", "Plush", and "Sex Type Thing", among others.
  • Styx's A.D. 1928 and A.D. 1958.
  • Supertramp's "The Logical Song" and "Breakfast In America".
  • System of a Down's "ATWA" and "Chop Suey!".
    • Also BYOB and Prison Song (the word prison shows up, but not Prison Song). Chop Suey! is because the original title was "Suicide", which does appear in the song.
    • "Needles" might be another—the word "needle" is in the bridge, but not "needles"—though it's a borderline case.
    • There's also 'Chik'N'Stu', 'U-Fig', 'This Cocaine Makes Me Feel Like I'm On This Song', 'Tentative' and 'Stealing Society' by way of direct examples.
  • Talking Heads: "Thank You For Sending Me An Angel", "Found a Job", "Artists Only", "Life During Wartime", "Drugs", "Crosseyed and Painless", "The Great Curve", "Seen and Not Seen"
  • The Tamperer - Feel It, named so because it samples The Jacksons' "Can You Feel It".
  • The Toys' "A Lover's Concerto".
  • "Unchained Melody", so named because it was written for the film Unchained.
  • U2: "Drowning Man", "Premonade", "MLK", "Exit", "God Part II", "Bad", "Mothers of the Disappeared, "Red Light", "Mofo", "Three Sunrises", "Indian Summer Sky", "The Unforgettable Fire" "A Sort of Homecoming"
  • Utada Hikaru's "Kremlin Dusk", besides the instrumental "Opening" and "Opening Crossover" from her Exodus album.
  • Suzanne Vega's "Tom's Diner". The name of the diner the singer is in is never mentioned in the lyrics.
  • Variation: There is one Vocaloid song which is known by many fans as "Triple Baka". There's no mention of the actual phrase "Triple Baka" during the song. Then again...
  • Weird Al does this with his parodies whenever the new title lyric no longer makes a fitting title ("Lose Yourself" -> "Couch Potato" rather than "Lose Your Mind"), contains a trademark he can't get the rights to use as a title ("Piano Man" -> "Ode to a Superhero", and "American Pie" -> "The Saga Begins"), or hasn't actually changed from the original ("Complicated" -> "A Complicated Song", "Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm" -> "Headline News"). By coincidence, all the parodies on Poodle Hat - three of them being examples above - were subjected to this, except for "eBay".
    • And two fit the last rule with a song which already didn't feature the title ("Smells Like Nirvana", "Bohemian Polka"). For that matter, the rest of his polka medleys.
  • Weezer's Maladroit has four different tracks titled this way: "American Gigolo", "Space Rock", "Burndt Jamb" and "Death And Destruction". "Burndt Jamb" originally had nothing but Scat Singing for lyrics, while "Death And Destruction" was originally an instrumental, and both ended up keeping their working titles once they received proper lyrics. "Surf Wax America" also doesn't have its title in the lyrics (other than brief references to surfing and waxing down a surfboard). And despite clearly being a Christmas song, "The Christmas Song" never specifically mentions the word "Christmas".
  • The Who's "Baba O'Riley", famously.
    • Ironically, and also overlooked, the phrase "Won't Get Fooled Again" is never actually uttered in the song of that title. Listen carefully, the line at the end of each chorus is "...we DON'T get fooled again!"
  • Robbie Williams's "Tripping".
  • Wolfmother's "Tales".
  • The Zombies' "Care of Cell 44"
  • 4NonBlondes' "What's Up" was specifically given that title to prevent it from being confused with an earlier song "What's Going On", due to the latter phrase being the one used in the lyrics.
  • Essentially all of The Mars Volta. "Inertiatic ESP", "Cotopaxi", "Wax Simulacra", Teflon", "The Widow"....
    • However, it's probably best to not ask questions where Mars Volta lyrics are involved.
  • Though they have increased the ratio of songs with the titles mentioned in more recent releases, AFI used to do this a lot.
    • And as to why they stopped doing so seems to be related to Executive Meddling, given how only two (three if you count the bit for the short video) of Blaqk Audio's (sideproject of Jade and Davey) songs mention the title, and they're all B-sides.
  • The Paper Chase LOVE this trope, and since they've never made a non-Concept Album, often a song is named after a lyric from another song on the album, i.e. "It's Out There And It's Gonna Get You", or a straight up example such as "Where Have Those Hands Been?!"
  • The title song of Shiny Toy Guns' We Are Pilots album, oddly. And "Jackie Will Save Me", although her name does appear in the lyrics. And "When They Came For Us".
  • Many Electric Valentine songs, including "13 Reasons", "Chasing The Sun", "The Opposite of Name Dropping", and "A Better Class of Criminal".
  • The Ending Theme of Heartcatch Pretty Cure, "Heartcatch Paradise" (which at least has the "Heartcatch" part).
    • Heartcatch is, however, the first Pretty Cure series to actually have the full title of its opening theme song appear in the song (though YPC5 had several near-misses).
    • And while we're at anime songs, the opening theme of Princess Tutu, "Morning Grace", doesn't have words "morning grace" popping up anywhere.
  • Faith Assembly - Redemption.
  • BT:"Superfabulous", "Somnambulist"("somnambulating" appears, but not "somnambulist"), "Paris"(although "Parisians" appears), and "The Last Moment of Clarity"(not "Deeper And Deeper" or "Life's A Twisted Road") from Emotional Technology, "Movement in Still Life"(mostly Looped Lyrics anyway), "Mercury & Solace", and "Love on Haight Street" from Movement in Still Life, and "Firewater", "Lullaby for Gaia", and "Solar Plexus" from ESCM(US version).
  • Oscillator X - "Dynamo".
  • Death Cab for Cutie's "Steadier Footing", "Lightness"(not "Ivory Lines"), "Expo '86", "Marching Bands of Manhattan", "Grapevine Fires" (not "Before We All Burn"), "Transatlanticism", and "President of What?" (not "I Saw The Scene Unfold" or "Break You Down").
  • Machine Head and "Imperium", from Through the Ashes of Empires.
  • Gigi d'Agostino's "L'Amour Toujours" (often called "I'll Fly With You", from the refrain) and any other song by him with a French title.
  • Steely Dan's "Pretzel Logic" and "The Caves of Altamira".
  • Subverted with "Strawberry Letter 23" by Shuggie Otis and Covered Up by Brothers Johnson: The words "Strawberry Letter 22" appear, but not 23. Apparently, the song itself is Strawberry Letter 23.
  • Saliva's "Lackluster".
  • "Komm, Susser Tod"(Come, Sweet Death), from The End of Evangelion. The title does not show up in either language.
  • Delerium - "Incantation", "Heaven's Earth", and most other songs, "Silence" being one of the few exceptions.
  • Everything But The Girl's "Missing"(although "I miss you" is in the refrain), "Five Fathoms" (not "Love You More), and "Clubland Lullaby".
  • "Spirit" by Fantasy Project, which instead drops the title of the album, Stay, in its refrain. In the album's actual title track, the title is absent from the refrain (although it appears in the bridge).
  • Decoded Feedback's "2 Faces", although "face to face" appears.
  • "The Tower that Ate People" by Peter Gabriel.
  • "E for Extinction" by Thousand Foot Krutch.
  • "Tongue Tied" by Eve 6. (not "One Thousand Faces")
  • White Sky by Vampire Weekend
  • Empire State of Mind(often assumed to be called "New York") by Jay Z
  • "Whisper" by Evanescence. The closest it gets to a title drop is "whispered voices at my ear". Also, "Bleed" only has the title dropped once, causing most fans to believe that the title is "I Must Be Dreaming".
    • "My Immortal" as well.
    • "Cloud Nine", "The Change", "Haunted"
    • "Lacrymosa" is a special case as the lyrics written by Amy Lee don't feature the word Lacrymosa, the background choir says it though.
    • "October"
  • "Apollo(Live on Your TV)"(the subtitle appears, but not the main title), "Asleep or Awake", "Green Queen"(not "Peace of Mind") and "Butterfly Defect" by Apoptygma Berzerk, from Rocket Science. And "Eclipse" from Welcome to Earth.
  • Reel Big Fish has their song "The Set Up" which does not feature any of those words. Sometimes called "But I want you" or "You need this"
  • "Fluorescent Adolescent" by the Arctic Monkeys.
  • The portuguese and original version of Tom Jobim's "A Garota de Ipanema" (The Girl from Ipanema) does not mention the word garota even once.
  • "Digital Dream" by Laserdance, which is their only song with full lyrics(although they're mostly unintelligible). All of their other songs are either instrumental, or have only a single stanza that often doesn't include the title. The refrain seems to say "just like heaven".
  • "She Won't Be Home" by Erasure, which may be mistaken as "Lonely Christmas" or "He Won't Be Near".
  • "Warrior's Dance" by The Prodigy.
  • The Bloodhound Gang - "Bad Touch"
  • "Duvet" by Boa.
  • Billy Joel: "Summer Highland Falls," "Goodnight Saigon," "Scenes From An Italian Restaurant." "Famous Last Words" is close, as the line is "These are the last words I have to say" (which was true, as it was the last song on his last studio album that had lyrics.)
  • Band of Horses "I Go to the Barn because I Like the..." features a title that bears no clear relation to the song at all, as well as a title whose words are nowhere to be found in the song proper.
  • Swans did/do this a lot. Some especially worthy examples:
  • Type O Negative have 'Unsucessfully Coping With the Natural Beauty of Infidelity' and 'Christian Woman', among others.
  • Sonata Arctica have 'The Boy Who Wanted to Be a Real Puppet'.
  • The Manic Street Preachers have 'Ifwhiteamericatoldthetruthforonedayit'sworldwouldfallapart', 'Facing Page: Top Left', 'Jackie Collins Existential Question Time', 'The Intense Humming of Evil', 'Elvis Impersonator: Blackpool Pier', 'Stay Beautiful', 'Crucifix Kiss', 'Nostalgic Pushhead', 'Symphony of Tourette', 'Yes', 'Archives of Pain', '4st 7 lb', 'Mausoleum', 'Faster', 'Peeled Apples', 'Virginia State Epileptic Colony', 'The Convalescent', 'Golden Platitudes', 'A Billion Balconies Facing the Sun' and 'The Everlasting'.
  • Leonard Cohen has 'Master Song', 'The Stranger Song', 'Ballad of the Absent Mare', 'Villanelle for Our Time', 'To a Teacher', 'Death of a Ladies' Man', 'Memories', 'Anthem', 'Tacoma Trailer', 'Story of Isaac', 'The Partisan', 'One of Us Cannot Be Wrong' and 'Hunter's Lullaby'.
    • 'Chelsea Hotel #2' is a borderline example, with the words 'Chelsea Hotel' appearing but not the number, as is 'Paper Thin Hotel, which has all of the words in the title but not in the same order.
  • A few cases among theme songs for the Pokémon anime. Among the openings there's "Mezase Pokémon Master", "Advance Adventure", "Battle Frontier", "Saikou - Everyday!" and "Best Wishes!"
    • In fact, "Saikou - Everyday!" is the only theme song to use the exact phrase "Mezase Pokémon Master" in the lyrics.
  • "Dissertation on the State of Bliss" from The Country Girl. Ira Gershwin chose not to title the song after its refrain because several other songs had been titled "Love And Learn" already.
  • Loreena Mc Kennitt's "Skellig." Not only does the title not appear in the song but most people will need the liner notes to figure out what the title references and how it relates to the song.
  • Against Me! have done this a few times:
    • "Unprotected Sex With Multiple Partners"
    • "Pints Of Guinness Make You Strong"
    • "White People For Peace"
    • "Reinventing Axl Rose"
    • "Thrash Unreal"
    • "Those Anarcho Punks Are Mysterious..."
    • "Cliche Guevara"
    • "We Laugh At Danger And Break All The Rules"
  • Van Canto absolutely loves Title Drop in every single song that's not Frodo's Dream (makes sense, as he basically tells about his dream)
  • The Bangles, if you don't count "The Rain Song", have only done this four times: "Dover Beach," "Silent Treatment," "Between the Two," and "Song For a Good Son."
  • "Beachball" (not "People Get Ready") by Nalin & Kane.
  • Many of the songs Vienna Teng writes don't have the title appear in the song.
  • Otenki has a song called "Phoenix" which mentions neither the bird nor the city (and is more likely to be called "I'll Race the Sun" anyway).
  • Even church hymns aren't immune to this trope. "A Beautiful Life" by William M. Golden describes several aspects of a beautiful life, but the closest it comes to a Title Drop is the line "The only life that will endure,//Is one that’s kind and good and pure" that's hidden away in the third verse that may or may not be sung in services.
  • "Gypsy Woman" (mistakenly called "She's Homeless") by Crystal Waters.
  • Days Of The New's "Touch, Peel And Stand", sort of. It has something of a masked Title Drop: "And now I stand / and I peel for more / won't you touch me, touch me..."
  • Actually fairly common in Drake's songs, though the titles may have something to do with the subject matter. Some examples are "Marvin's Room" (also an example of Non-Indicative Name), "Headlines", "Karaoke" and "The Resistance".
  • "Ted Just Admit It..." by Jane's Addiction. Because it's also the song where the Album Title Drop of Nothing's Shocking occurs, this sort of leads to Refrain From Assuming.
  • They Might Be Giants' "Absolutely Bill's Mood": Bill refers to Record Producer Bill Krauss, while the "absolutely" part is a nod to Bob Dylan adding emphatic adverbs to song titles, such as "Absolutely Sweet Marie" or "Positively 4th Street".
  • Foo Fighters have "Hey, Johnny Park!", "Oh, George", "Weenie Beenie", "Cheer Up Boys (Your Make-Up Is Running)" and "White Limo" (the limo is there, but its color is never referenced).
  • My Morning Jacket's "Wordless Chorus" - though the chorus of the song is just a string of harmonized "aah"'s, so in a way it is named for the lyrics. The lyric sheet even transcribes the chorus itself as "WORDLESSCHORUS".
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