What's In A Title?
 

The majority of song titles are named for the refrain, or at least some word or part of a sentence in the song. Example: Like A Rolling Stone by Bob Dylan. This title is repeated throughout the song.

Rainy Day Women #12 and 35 is a strange title to the Bob Dylan song, whose chorus is "Everybody must get stoned." Can anyone explain this title? Does it mean anything at all?

Another Dylan classic: Positively 4th Street. There's no mention of this street anywhere in the song. Am I just missing the suggestion?

Quite a few Nirvana songs are the same - where the title of the song is never mentioned in the lyrics. I find it irritating because you can never remember the title of the song when trying to find it...

And yes, I'm easily irritated - and yes I'm also just another moron that can't remember song titles unless it's blatently obvious... I am the one asking the guy behind the counter for "The Hey Now" song by Crowded House... :D

I think Bob Dylan likes naming songs weird for the sake of being weird. Or maybe they are all just jokes that are funny only to him, for example Bob Dylan's 142nd Dream.

Maybe the numbers 12 and 35 refer to the takes.

Positively 4th Street, I think refers to an attitude. Like, "That is postively 4th Street right there."

Actually, the song was recorded in just one take, under 17 minutes. But they wouldn't have known that at the time it was written and before it was recorded...uh, or something.

Well, there goes my theory :).

I hate, hate, hate songs that are titled after the most obvious phrase in the chorus. How utterly unimaginative and pedantic.

Of course, my favorite song is Gary Numan's Berserker, which doesn't include the title anywhere in the lyrics (quite common for Mr. Numan).

Gary Numan's biggest hit was Cars. The song title would have really been interesting if it were called "Boats."

Anyway, Smells Like Teen Spirit by Nirvana is another example of the title of the song being nowhere to be found in the song itself.