Many songwriters want to produce interesting songs for their listeners. It often starts with very catchy title, such as New York State of Mind. The title should be able to arouse curiosity and spark interests among listeners. It means that listeners will be able to become more encouraged about pursuing more information. They will start to ask around about what the song is all about. In this case should know what makes a good title. The title should be short but could still summarize the essence of the song. If the song title is strong enough, ot could paint verbal pictures and encourage the imagination of the listeners. Among the common question about songwriting is whether we are able to reuse the existing titles. In reality, in many countries, the title of the song, film and book isn’t copyrighted.
It means that we should check the local laws and regulations on the use of song titles. However, it is better to use something new and unique. People may confuse our song with the other song and even if it doesn’t break the law, we will be accused of not being original. As an example, there are probably hundreds of different songs called “I Love You”. Listeners may think that our song is another cliché and there’s nothing new about it. This will spark a lot less interests among potential listeners. A smart way to make an interesting song is to find a word that rhyme with “Loves” such as dove, above, glove, shove and others. Instead of using the term “I Love You”, professional songwriters used titles like, Saying I Love You, You Light Up My Life or I Can’t Smile Without You.
It shouldn’t be too hard to come up with a catchy and fresh song titles. We may use variations and derivatives of titles we find in movies, newspapers, books, advertisements and any kind of terms. There should also be a strong correlation between the lyric and song title. Each line of the lyric should be reflected back the song title and this should allow the story of the song to develop. There are different approaches that we can use depending on our preferences and capability. As an example, we could start with a title and build a good story around it. The song title should be incredibly unique and is able to evoke clear image. There are different categories of words that we can use to create song titles, such as The Lady in Red, Blue Suede Shoes, Yellow Submarine and Little Green Apples.
We may also use the name of place as the central point of our song, such as New York New York. Stairway to Heaven, Highway to Hell, April in Paris and St. Louis Blues. Numbers are also quite common for song titles, such as Mambo Number Five, One Note Samba, Three Times a Lady and Three Coins in a Fountain. Among time of the day, night is frequently used, such as One More Night, Strangers in the Night and Blues in the Night. Name of the months can also be used, such November Rain, September in the Rain and April Shower. Names of women are often used as well, such as Carol, Aubrey and Billy Jean.
