Music / Title Drop

This is effectively an Omnipresent Trope in Music, to the point where aversions are a trope in themselves. As such, this list will only contain particularly notable examples. See also Album Title Drop, Title Track, Song of Song Titles and Singer Namedrop.

The following artists have title dropped all but one song they've ever sung, and all but one album title, too. Therefore, they have their own subpages.

"Pray" by MC Hammer holds the record for the most title drops in a US Top 40 hit, followed by "Paper Doll" by PM Dawn.
Bill Withers sings "lovely day" over 100 times in his hit song "Lovely Day".
John Mayer's "Say" includes the word "say" 75 times. That being said, 72 of the times it's in the chorus of the song: "Say what you need to say". The song is also referred to as "Say (What You Need to Say)", so in this case the title is dropped "only" 36 times.
Sometimes, singers will say (not sing) the name of the song before the actual interpretation, and leave that naming as part of the song. For example, it happens in Silvio Rodríguez "Días y Flores", and in Charly García's "Influencia".
The defunct comedy barber shop quartet Da Vinci's Notebook has a song titled "Title of the Song" which makes specific fun of this trope.
90% of the lyrics of The Beatles song "Why Don't We Do It In The Road?" are..."Why don't we do it in the road?" repeated over and over. It doesn't just have a Title Drop, it is a Title Drop. The song has 18 lines. "No one will be watching us" is sung three times. The other fifteen lines? ...yeah. Which would make it 83.3 repeating percent.
- The Beatles' song "Glass Onion" actually title-drops a handful of their previous songs, coming off a bit like a catchy clip-show.
- "You Know My Name (Look Up the Number)" and "I Want You (She's So Heavy)". Both are late Beatles songs written by John, and both have almost no words other than the titles. "I Want You (She's So Heavy)" is 7:47 and only 14 words, so it's more or less the epitome of this trope.
- George Harrison's cover of Rudy Clark's 1962 song "Got My Mind Set On You" drops the title 14 times, and repeats the half-title "Set on you" 14 more times for good measure. "Weird Al" Yankovic's parody, "This Song's Just Six Words Long," mocks the repetition.
Similar to The Beatles examples, the lyrics to a song by an Indonesian band Potret, I just wanna say I love you, is literally just that repeated over and over, with differing tones.
"We Did It Again", by Soft Machine, is yet another pathological example. The lyrics consist of repeating the title again and again and again... until they are briefly interupted by an organ solo and the singers start all over. According to The Other Wiki, the band once played for 40 minutes straight.
DragonForce loves to Title Drop its song titles in other songs: just one example of many is the line "Through the fire, through the flames" in the song "The Flame Of Youth."
- Their song "Operation Ground and Pound" opens with the lines "Smashing through the boundaries/Storming through the burning fields" as a reference to "Storming the Burning Fields," which comes later on the album.
Green Day's 21st Century Breakdown, aside from the song of the same name, name-drops each of the three acts: "Heroes and Cons" at the end of "21st Century Breakdown", "Charlatans and Saints" in "Little Girl", and "Horseshoes and Handgrenades" in, well, "Horseshoes and Handgrenades".
Counting Crows title-drops the band itself on their song A Murder Of One ("as you stood there, counting crows").
On the track "Tempus Fugit" from Yes' album Drama, the word "Yes" is mentioned so often, and with such pathos, that you'd think they were trying to make it is the band's title song. Oddly enough, they only drop the title's English translation, "time flies".
Almost all of Michael Jackson's songs, especially his bigger hits and singles, have a title drop usually sung repeatedly. In fact, it's difficult to find a song that doesn't.
Imelda May has trivial one-word title drops on songs such as "Mayhem" (which is also the title track of its album), but also has a more more dramatic (and melodramatic) instance in the climactic section of "How Bad Can a Good Girl Be?" (on the album Life Love Flesh Blood).
Metallica mentions their own name in the song "Whiplash" on the album Kill 'Em All;
Hotel rooms and motorways
Life out here is raw
But we'll never stop
We'll never quit
'Cause we're Metallica
- Also, the chorus of their song "Unforgiven II" from Reload provides a rare musical example of a title drop in a numbered sequel.
  - it's also a nice little pun in the chorus: "or are you unforgiven, too?"
Megadeth's song "Victory" is almost entirely made up of previous song/album names.
Rhapsody of Fire always have a song on any given album with the same name as the album itself, the semi-exception being Symphony of Enchanted Lands II: The Dark Secret ("semi" because there is still a track called "The Dark Secret"). this isn't exactly unique. What's a bit more unique is towards the end of 19 minute epic Gargoyles, Angels of Darkness, in which they drop the titles of all their previous albums (Legendary Tales, Symphony of Enchanted Lands, Dawn of Victory, Rain of a Thousand Flames)...
And this is then the epic end
Of the legendary tale
Of the one who found the light and the dragonflame in inside
Of the tragic rain of a thousand flames
Of the towns' defenders who faced pain
Of symphonies of enchanted lands
Of whispers of love and hate
The dawn of victory can breathe in the wind...
Manowar's song "Kings Of Metal" features the band's name twice each chorus, as well as throughout the verses. Eric Adams also lets out a number of lengthy screams bringing the total over a dozen. It is, in fact, the first and second word of the song:
Manowar, Manowar, livin' on the road
When we hit town, speakers explode
We don't attract wimps 'cause we're too loud
Just real metal people, that's Manowar's crowd!
The first line of the lyrics of "Chelsea Girl" by Ride is "Take me for a ride away from places I have known". (Incidentally, this is the first song on their first record, which happens to be a self-titled EP, making this also an Album Title Drop.)
The Hold Steady drop their band name several times, including "Positive Jam" ("All the sniffling indie kids: hold steady"), "Slapped Actress" ("Our hands will hold steady"), "Most People Are DJs" ("Hold steady, Ybor City") and "Knuckles" ("It's hard to hold steady when half your friends are dead already")
British rock band Muse uses this in their most recent album The Resistance, with the line "You are my muse," in the song "I Belong to You."
Both Title and Band Name Drop: Iron Maiden's "Iron Maiden", from the album Iron Maiden ("Iron Maiden can't be fought, Iron Maiden can't be sought").
Brave Saint Saturn: In the song "Atropos" from The Light of Things Hoped For: "You are brave in this darkness, Saint Saturn".
AFI, short for A Fire Inside, have a couple: "We are the ones who have a fire inside" from "Keeping Out of Direct Sunlight (an Introduction)" and "Will the flood behind me put out the fire inside me?" from "The Missing Frame."
The Dream Theater album Metropolis Pt.2: Scenes From a Memory gets its title drop in the song Home: "The city- it calls to me/ Decadent scenes from my memory." In addition, the theme of the sleeper and the miracle is a title drop of Metropolis Prt.1: The Miracle and The Sleeper, which in turn contains title drops of various songs in Prt.2 (the dance of eternity, and metropolis to name a few)
- Part 3 of "Octavarium" drops various titles of Mike Portnoy's favorite songs
  Sailing on the seven seize the day tripper diem's ready
  Jack the ripper owens wilson phillips and my supper's ready
  Lucy in the sky with diamond dave's not here I come to save the
  Day for nightmare cinema show me the way to get back home again
Miracle of Sound always has a Title Drop in the chorus of their songs.
Shiny Toy Guns' "When They Came For Us" doesn't have a song title drop, but does have a band name drop: "And I miss everyone. But most of all the little ones. And their shiny toy guns."
The Stone Roses song 'Where Angels Play' is an odd case, as the demo contains the title but the version considered 'finished' (itself little more than a demo) featured on the 'I Wanna Be Adored' single and the 'Turns Into Stone' compilation album, does not.
Another band name drop is the song "Talk Talk" by...Talk Talk! Which was written by Mark Hollis to be recorded by a proto-Talk Talk group, supposedly.
In "Come to Daddy (Mummy Mix)" by Aphex Twin, at about 1:30 you can hear a voice say "Aphex Twin" on the stereo right channel. Listen.
The Finnish power metal band Nightwish loves doing this. A few examples are: Nightwish (from Angels Fall First. It's a demo, and consequently, also the band's namesake.), Nemo, Stargazers, Amaranth, Bless the Child, and Planet Hell.
There's also "Bad Company" originally performed by the band Bad Company which appeared on the album Bad Company (Later covered by Five Finger Death Punch)
And that's why they call me
Bad Company
I can't deny
Bad Bad Company till the day I die
Five Finger Death Punch title drops all three of their albums in one song off of American Capitalist in the song "American Capitalist".
Yeah war is the answer, like I told you before
...Round three, no mercy
it's the way of the fist
Bad Religion do their own wry twist on the band-name drop in the song No Direction:
I don't believe in self important folks who preach /
no Bad Religion song can make your life complete
The Spin Doctors drop their band name twice in "What Time Is It?" The first verse ends with the line "Use a little English to doctor the spin"; the second verse ends with the line "Spin doctor, it's oh so sad".
"Up the Junction" by the British band Squeeze has no chorus, and the title doesn't appear at all - until the very end:
I'd beg for her forgiveness
But begging's not my business
And so it's my assumption
I'm really up the junction
Some other songs whose Title Drop comes right at the end: "Virginia Plain" by Roxy Music, "The Prince" by Madness (the album version, which also features on most of their best-ofs, doesn't include the title at all), "The Rose", usually associated with Bette Midler, and "One More Try" by George Michael.
- Simon & Garfunkel's "The Boxer" is sort of the same, although it does have a chorus (albeit one that consists solely of "lie la lie" repeated endlessly). The title is not acknowledged until the final verse.
In a glorious version of this trope, Swedish power metal band Sabaton's first album Primo Victoria ends with the song "Metal Machine", the lyrics of which are built around the titles of songs by other metal bands (as well as its own):
Riding on this crazy train
I'm going paranoid
Watch me lose my mind
And break the law
I'm a metal machine
It's close to midnight and
He's barking at the moon
I'm a metal machine
the rainbow in the dark is shining
- Another of their songs, "Metal Crüe", name drops a bunch of metal bands.
The song "Sixteenth Century Greensleeves" from Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow has Ronnie James Dio randomly throwing in the title from the back row.
The Lover Speaks dropped their name in their only hit "No More I Love You’s" ("The lover speaks about the monsters"). If that song title sounds familiar, it’s because Annie Lennox’s cover version is better known.
While Prince had the Love Symbol as his name, one of his songs was actually titled "Love Sign".
Korn had their song Children of the Korn.
In the Godsmack song Crying Like a Bitch, "And you can run/ your little mouth all day/ but the hand of God/ just smacked you back into yesterday."
"We're Going to Be Friends" by The White Stripes sounds like a subversion when listened to, but transcriptions of the lyrics show the title drop.
Big Time Rush has a song called "Big Time Rush"
Done punstastically by Slade in their biggest hit "Merry Xmas Everybody":
Do you ride on down the hillside in a buggy you have made
When you land upon your head then you've been sleighed
The first hit of Brazilian band Os Paralamas do Sucesso had the lyric "The Paralamas do Sucesso are going to play in the capital..."
The extended intro to the music video of Eurythmics' "Would I Lie to You?" drops the phrase, "Be yourself tonight", which is the title of the album the song comes from.
Jon Oliva's Pain has a song (People Say — Gimme Some Hell) that title drops a bunch of songs and albums of Savatage, Jon Oliva's other band.
Neil Young's T-Bone is 9:12 long and the lyrics contain only the words, "Got mashed potatoes" repeated and then "Ain't got no T-Bone".
Perhaps the ultimate recursive Title Drop in history: The band Train has a self-titled album called Train, which features a song called "Train" that uses the word "train" frequently. That makes each instance of the word in the song an elusive triple Title Drop.
In a rather unusual case, the title of the Nirvana album Nevermind is dropped on the first track, 'Smells Like Teen Spirit':
And I forgot why I taste
Oh yeah, I guess it makes me smile
I found it hard, it's hard to find
Oh, well, whatever, never mind
For a long time, New Order were known for Non Appearing Titles but would sometimes drop a song title into a different song. "In A Lonely Place" (itself a Shout-Out to the classic film noir) is dropped in "Face Up". Brotherhood gets an Album Title Drop two albums later in "Chemical" on Republic.
German rock band Tocotronic ridicule this on their third album Wir Kommen Um Uns Zu Beschweren with long, grammatically self-indulgend song titles that of course are all dropped in the lyrics.
Confusingly, The Boo Radleys singles "Barney (and Me)" and "From the Bench at Belvedere" are both Non Appearing Titles, but the former is dropped in the latter.
If you were to pull a random KMFDM album out of a hat and listen to it, you'd have a really good chance of hearing them drop their name at least once in the lyrics. They also have a handful of songs littered with title drops of previous songs, most notably "Kunst".
The Weakerthans drop their name in their song "Pamphleteer" - "Oh what force on earth could be weaker than the feeble strength / of one like me remembering the way it could have been."
The Killers drop their band name in their song "Mr Brightside" - "I just can't look it's killing me."
- They chose the album name "Day + Age" when they noticed that the phrase appeared across several of the songs on it.
The Foo Fighters series Sonic Highways has this in the closing speech of the first episode (that could be an Album Title Drop had it occurred in the record the series documented):
"You can tie all these people and places together with these Sonic Highways".
The Avalanches play around with this. Their debut Since I Left You has a song of the same title, which repeats a sample of the lyric "Since I left you, I found the world so new." Yet, the album itself also has many occurrences of said sample in the album's other tracks. They even use a couple of samples with their own name, as in "Avalanche Rock" and "Frontier Psychiatrist," with the latter containing a sample from a weather forecast stating "Avalanches above; business continues below."
- On the other hand, their second album Wildflower also has a song of the same title, but no Title Drop; there is an Album Title Drop in the song "Kaleidoscopic Lovers," though, in which Jonathan Donahue sings:
And in the wind, I can see
One by one, wildflowers dance with me.
In live performances, Gordon Downie of The Tragically Hip has been known to change the opening lyrics of "Grace, Too" from "He said 'I'm fabulously rich'" to "I'm tragically hip"
I Create has a Band Title Drop in the song Song For Youth.
I've built my own life to destroy what I create, I can't.
"They Might Be Giants, They Might Be Giants / They might be rain, they might be heat / They might be frying up a stalk of wheat..."
Imagine Dragons's "Thunder" has two other whole verses, but the chorus is almost entirely the word "Thunder". The title is dropped a total of seventy-seven times. When the single went to #1 on the American Top 40 Countdown, it became the song with the most Title Drops to do so in the 2010s.
Pink Floyd's Is There Anybody Out There and One of These Days are both instrumental pieces in which the title is the only sung (spoken, in the case of One of These Days) piece of lyrics. Careful With That Axe, Eugene has a few more words but not many of them.
John Coltrane's A Love Supreme is all instrumental jazz, but at one point Coltrane puts down his sax and starts chanting the album's title over and over again to the music, making it the only lyric in the whole album.
A different take on the title drop is from America's 1983 album Your Move. While the album has a standard title track, the title is also seen in the video to the album's lead single, "The Border".
Rush's "YYZ" somehow manages to have a title drop despite being an instrumental, by having these three letters incorporated into the melody and rhythm in Morse code.

Title Drop / Music

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