
"Here we go again! My, my, how can we resist this title?"
A work (music videos don't count because of course they're titled after their music) titled after a pre-existing song, i.e. not something written in conjunction with the show/movie. If it's not the song's real title, it's something one could Refrain from Assuming it was.
Closely related to Literary Allusion Title. The Film of the Song is a form of this. Idiosyncratic Episode Naming can sometimes employ this as well. A Sister Trope to Musical Theme Naming, where characters may be named after songs. Hence, if the work is named after a character therein, and the character is named after a song, you get both tropes. Sometimes a lyric comes full circle, and becomes A Good Name for a Rock Band.
For music albums titled after songs on them, see Title Track.
Examples (by category):
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Using the song (not necessarily as a Theme Tune):
Anime & Manga
- Call of the Night is named after a single by Japanese hip-hop duo Creepy Nuts (the mangaka acquired permission to use the name of the song for the manga). Said song also serves as the ending theme song for the anime adaptation to acknowledge this.
- Elfen Lied is named after the music piece "Elfen Lied". The song plays a role in the manga, but is notably absent from its anime adaptation. This makes it something of an Artifact Title.
- The Girl from the Other Side is subtitled Siúil, a Rún, which alludes to the traditional Irish folk song of the same name. Some of the song's lyrics are used as part of the ending theme for the second OAD.
- Great Pretender is named after The Platters' song "The Great Pretender", the cover of which by Freddie Mercury plays in the end credits. The credits are even (mostly) a copy of Mercury's music video starring Mercury's cats.
Comic Books
- Watchmen's first and tenth chapters, "At Midnight, All the Agents..." and "Two Riders Were Approaching...," are titled after lyrics of Bob Dylan's "Desolation Row" and "All Along the Watchtower," which are quoted in the epigraphs (as is Elvis Costello's "The Comedians" in the second chapter, titled "Absent Friends.") In the movie both of these songs were actually used in the soundtrack (albeit only the Jimi Hendrix cover of "All Along the Watchtower" in the scene covering the event of the chapter; a version of "Desolation Row" by My Chemical Romance plays on the credits).
- Rocket Raccoon is named after The Beatles song "Rocky Raccoon", which is downright quoted in his introductory story
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Fan Works
- Calvin & Hobbes: The Series has "Our Solemn Hour", which is briefly whistled by Calvin at one point.
- Meteor Shower is named for the song by Owl City. Its three subheadings are made up of the lyrics from the (extremely short) song.
- Fly Me to the Moon is a Sonic the Hedgehog fanfic titled after a Frank Sinatra song. The title comes from it being Shadow's favorite song.
- Glee Reprise names each chapter after a quote from said chapter. As such, any chapter with a song being performed in it will be named after the song.
- Heretic Pride is named after a song by the Mountain Goats, and the chapter titles are all Mountain Goats lyrics.
- I Against I, Me Against You and each of its chapters are all titled after songs and lyrics from the various Red vs. Blue soundtracks by Trocadero and Jeff Williams.
- Pokémon Crossing: The subtitle takes it name from the jazz song Fly Me to the Moon (specifically, the Claire version used in Neon Genesis Evangelion). A band performs the song during one of the Mauville City chapters.
- Seven Days in Sunny June is named after a Jamiroquai song, and the chapter titles come from songs as well.
- The Sun Will Come Up And The Seasons Will Change is named after the Nina Nesbitt song
, and is implied to be referenced in a future chapter.
- Supernatural fanfic Maybe Sprout Wings is named from a song by the Mountain Goats.
- The War of the Masters: Stories or chapters are often titled after songs used as epigraphs.
- "The Silence Ends" is named after a line from "Welcome to the Universe" by Thirty Seconds to Mars.
- Create Your Own Fate is named for a line from Delain's "April Rain".
Films — Animation
- Strange Magic is a Jukebox Musical about how a Love Potion complicates politics between a kingdom of fairies and a kingdom of goblins.
- Yellow Submarine was the only Beatles movie which was based on a Beatles song instead of having the song written for the movie, having first appeared in 1966 on the album Revolver.
Films — Live-Action
- Across the Universe (2007) is a romance set in Liverpool in the 1960s and leans heavily on The Beatles' music.
- Addicted to Love gets its title from the Robert Palmer hit. It plays over the end credits.
- Alexander's Ragtime Band, an Irving Berlin Jukebox Musical named after the eponymous hit song.
- American Pie is named after the classic hit by Don McLean.
- Baby Driver, playing said Simon & Garfunkel song on the trailer.
- Bad Boys (1995): a scene has the main characters singing "Bad Boys" by Inner Circle.
- Bad Girls, which in the opening sequence has the protagonists singing the chorus to the Inner Circle song.
- Beyond the Sea, a Bobby Darin biopic named after his best-known song.
- Blue Bayou takes its title from the song "Blue Bayou", originally recorded by Roy Orbison. Kathy performs it at a party, and the lyrics (about a man who has left his loved ones behind in Blue Bayou and wants to return) echo her husband's situation.
- Bohemian Rhapsody, a Queen biopic with an extended sequence showing the eponymous song being recorded.
- Blue Velvet is named after a Bobby Vinton hit, used in the movie.
- Brazil has in the last scene an instrumental of the song (originally called "Aquarela do Brasil").
- Bye Bye Love is named for the song by The Everly Brothers. A cover of the song by The Proclaimers is heard in the film.
- Can't Hardly Wait uses the Replacements song of the same name over the end credits.
- Coal Miner's Daughter is a biopic about Loretta Lynn; the song, which she wrote about her childhood, appears in the film.
- The Crying Game featuring a cover of the title song by Boy George.
- Deck the Halls, a Christmas movie named after a Christmas carol.
- Demolition Man (a song by The Police; Sting does a new version of it as the end-credits song).
- Detroit Rock City (Kiss is central to the plot, and appear singing the title song in the end)
- Down with Love incorporates Stock Footage of Judy Garland singing the title song
- The Edge of Seventeen is named for the song by Stevie Nicks.
- Ferry Cross the Mersey was named after one of Gerry And The Pacemakers' hits, which they play aboard a ferry in the movie.
- For Me and My Gal (performed in the film by Gene Kelly and Judy Garland)
- (Kenny Rogers as) The Gambler (the song was originally a hit for him)
- Gimme Shelter (1970), a rockumentary on a disastrous festival organized by The Rolling Stones, featuring that song of theirs in the credits.
- Girls Just Want to Have Fun (although they don't use Cyndi Lauper's version of the song, which is the best known)
- Glass Onion, playing said song by The Beatles on the credits.
- A Hard Day's Night, Help!, Magical Mystery Tour and Yellow Submarine, all movies with The Beatles featuring those songs during the opening credits.
- The House I Live In — the title song was originally featured in the 1943 musical Let Freedom Sing
- I Walk The Line, a 1970 movie starring Gregory Peck titled after the Johnny Cash song.
- I Wanna Hold Your Hand (contracting the formal English in The Beatles' title)
- I'll Be Home for Christmas is titled after the classic Christmas song, and is about a young man trying to, well, get home for Christmas.
- I'm Not There, named after a Bob Dylan "Basement Tape" whose first official release was in the film's soundtrack.
- In the Bleak Midwinter (though it was retitled A Midwinter's Tale in the US)
- In the Mood for Love (as far as the original title is concerned)
- In the Mood — Not only using the Glenn Miller classic, but set in the time it was popular.
- Jeepers Creepers
- Jersey Girl (twice) - Tom Waits Covered Up by Bruce Springsteen
- Johnny Be Good (sic; the song is titled "Johnny B. Goode")
- Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle (the Guns N' Roses song is used in the trailer and the credits)
- Jumpin' Jack Flash, the song by The Rolling Stones is incorporated as a plot point.
- Just Like Heaven (the credits indeed play that song by The Cure)
- La Bamba, a biopic of Ritchie Valens, who had the best known hit version of the title song.
- Last Night in Soho is named after the eponymous song by English pop band Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich, which plays over the film's end credits.
- Little Annie Rooney (1925) has Annie Rooney thinking about how much she used to hate the song "Little Annie Rooney", a dance hall song from the 1890s.
- Man on the Moon (The 1992 R.E.M. song about Andy Kaufman became the title for his Bio Pic in 1999. The band wrote the film's underscore and incorporated the song as a Leitmotif. They also wrote a new song for it, "The Great Beyond", that serves as a companion piece to the original tune... and in turn led to the documentary on the movie being called Jim and Andy: The Great Beyond).
- French movie Ma Petite Entreprise.
- Meet Me in St. Louis had both songs newly written for the movie and period tunes. The former include "The Trolley Song" and "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas." Belonging to the latter group are "Under the Bamboo Tree" and the title song. "Skip to My Lou" straddles the line.
- The Midnight Hour (although the song's full title is "In The Midnight Hour".)
- The Mighty Quinn - a Justified Title; the Bob Dylan song is sung in the movie by some of the characters.
- Moonlight Mile, The Rolling Stones song is the favorite song of the female lead.
- Mrs. Brown, You've Got a Lovely Daughter - albeit the song plays in the movie as Herman's Hermits befriend a racedog, implying Mrs. Brown is a dog herself?
- My Girl (and by extension, My Girl 2) gets its title from the song by The Temptations.
- Pretty Woman features the Roy Orbison song "Oh Pretty Woman" in a montage.
- My Own Private Idaho from The B-52s' "Private Idaho".
- Reign Over Me, after The Who's "Love Reign o'er Me" (it is heard twice during the movie, and the credits are to an Eddie Vedder cover)
- Return to Me
- Rocket Man 2019 (and while on it, Disney's RocketMan - both of whom have the Elton John song)
- Roxanne - associated with The Police, although the heroine of Cyrano de Bergerac was named Roxane.
- Running on Empty - Jackson Browne
- Shock Treatment: Though the song was written for the movie, the film went through a couple of Working Titles before they decided to name it after a song that was present from the start.
- Silent Night (2012) (slasher film) and Silent Night (2021) (Black Comedy about the end of the world) share a title with the Christmas song.
- Sixteen Candles (covered by The Stray Cats)
- Smilin' Through, all three film versions and the play that proceeded them, after the song
- So Close is named after the song "Close to You" by the Carpenters, even though the words "So Close" don't appear in it.
- So Proudly We Hail! obviously derives its title from "The Star-Spangled Banner", which plays over the opening credits.
- Stand and Deliver, after the Mr. Mister song that plays over the end credits.
- Stand by Me, which plays the eponymous Ben E. King song over the end credits.
- Stars in My Crown is a Western, titled after the hymn "Will There Be Any Stars in Our Crown?". It's the favorite hymn of the preacher who is the protagonist of the film.
- Sweet Home Alabama (instead of the actual Lynyrd Skynyrd recording, you hear two cover versions in the film)
- Things to Do in Denver When You're Dead went from Warren Zevon song to the title of a 1995 film. Then John Cale wrote a song about the film, which would have counted as an inversion if he hadn't shortened the title to just "Things."
- Walking on Sunshine. Interestingly the film's original Working Title was Holiday, which arguably makes more sense than the actual title.
- Walk the Line, a Johnny Cash biopic named after his song "I Walk the Line"
- What's Love Got to Do with It (1993), which is downright a Tina Turner biopic that finishes on that song.
- Yankee Doodle Dandy (though technically the song's actual title is "The Yankee Doodle Boy")
- Yesterday (2019) (Working Title All You Need Is Love.)
Literature
- Several of Manly Wade Wellman's Silver John stories are named after/inspired by Appalachian folk-tunes, including "Shiver In The Pines", "The Little Black Train" and "The Desrick on Yandro". The eponymous hero always sings at least a verse or two of the song in question, accompanying himself on his silver-strung guitar.
- Less Than Zero by Bret Easton Ellis, named for the Elvis Costello song.
- Here Comes the Sun
- A novel by Tom Holt. The chorus is sung in the final scene.
- Nicole Dennis-Benn also has a novel by this title.
- A pattern with Wally Lamb: She's Come Undone, We Are Water, I Know This Much is True, The Hour I First Believed, and Wishin' and Hopin'.
- Go Tell It on the Mountain by James Baldwin, named for a famous gospel standard.
- Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami. (Murakami is a noted fan of The Beatles.)
- Joan Didion's essay collection The White Album is yet another Beatles example. Zig-zagged in that it's named for an album (obviously) rather than a song, and it's not even the official name of the album in question.
- I Think I Love You is titled after the Partridge Family song, which is quoted at several points in the story.
- The Rivers of London short story "Dedicated Follower of Fashion" is titled after The Kinks song. The narrator claims to be the actual person the song was about.
- From the New World: Named after the title of Dvořák's Symphony No. 9. Might be passed off as coincidence if not for the frequent use of the "Goin' Home" theme from the symphony's 2nd Movement ("Largo") throughout the anime adaptation.
- Bring the Jubilee by Ward Moore and Marching Through Georgia by S.M. Stirling are two alternate-history novels with titles taken from the pro-Union American Civil War song "Marching Through Georgia".
- Every book in Jill Churchill's "Grace and Favor" series is named after a popular song of the time in which it's set. The series consists of Anything Goes, In the Still of the Night, Someone to Watch Over Me, Love for Sale, It Had to Be You and Who's Sorry Now?.
- The Rat-Catchers Daughter is named after a popular 19th century song. The female lead is a music-hall singer in Victorian London.
Live-Action TV
- David Bowie's "Life on Mars" wasn't the Theme Tune to Life on Mars, but it did appear in a few significant moments.
- Likewise Ashes to Ashes (2008), with the addition of the clown from Bowie's "Ashes to Ashes" video who appears in the lead character's hallucinations.
- Life Goes On (although of course the song title is "Ob-la-di, Ob-la-da").
- Heartbeat, British police drama set in the 60s. Named for the Buddy Holly song that is covered by Nick Berry as the theme tune. Also, beat - police.
- What I Like About You, featuring a cover of The Romantics as its theme tune.
- Every episode of True Blood is named after a song which serves as a Literary Allusion Title to an episode's plot and are featured in the end credits of said episode.
- The Young Ones. The 1959 Cliff Richard tune was used as the opening theme.
- In the middle of Miami Vice's first season, former Eagles guitarist Glenn Frey released "Smuggler's Blues"
, a song about cocaine trafficking. The producers of the show immediately jumped on it, and not only titled the resultant episode "Smuggler's Blues", but they based the storyline on the lyrics of the song and cast Glenn Frey as Jimmy the Bush Pilot.
- Eureka episode "I'll Be Seeing You." The song is also used in several other episodes.
- The CBS Schoolbreak Special Dedicated to the One I Love.
- Every episode in season 1 of Luke Cage (2016) is named after a Gang Starr song, and season 2 follows suit with works by Pete Rock & CL Smooth.
- Buffy the Vampire Slayer had "I Only Have Eyes For You".
- Goodness Gracious Me, a BBC radio and TV sketch comedy series with an all-British Indian cast, named (with pointed irony) after a comic song by Peter Sellers in which he used his "comedy Indian" accent. The series used a Bhangra-style cover of the song as a theme.
- British medical drama Staying Alive is named after The Bee Gees song.
- The Umbrella Academy: Episode 2 is titled after "Run Boy Run" by Woodkid, which plays in a flashback to when Five traps himself in the future.
- The Twilight Zone (1959):
- "I Dream of Genie" refers to the line "I dream of Jeanie with the light brown hair" from the 1854 song "Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair" by Stephen Foster.
- "Ninety Years Without Slumbering" refers to the first line of the chorus of the 1876 song "My Grandfather's Clock" by Henry Clay Work. Sam Forstmann sings the song during the episode. An instrumental version of the song is also heard on two occasions.
- The Twilight Zone (1985): "Shelter Skelter" is a reference to The Beatles song "Helter Skelter".
- It's a Sin is named after the Pet Shop Boys song which is used in trailers.
- Several Glee episodes are titled after or referencing songs that are performed in the episode, though not always (as seen below).
- From season one, both "Home" (after the song from The Wiz) and "Dream On" (by Aerosmith.
- Season two had "Silly Love Songs" (by Paul McCartney), "Blame it on the Alcohol" (by Jamie Foxx), and "Born This Way" (by Lady Ga Ga).
- Season three had "I Kissed a Girl" (by Katy Perry), " "Saturday Night Glee-ver" (a reference to the song, album, and film Saturday Night Fever), and "Dance With Somebody" (by Whitney Houston).
- Season four had "Diva" (by Beyoncé).
- Season five had "Love, Love, Love" (a lyric from "All You Need is Love" by The Beatles) and "Movin' Out" (by Billy Joel).
- Season six has "What the World Needs Now" (written by Burt Bacharach) and "We Built This Glee Club" (referencing the song "We Built This City" by Starship).
- Although the theme didn't feature in the show itself, the show Stand By Your Man is named for the Tammy Wynette song "Stand By Your Man".
Music
- ABC were named after the The Jackson 5 song of the same name.
- The music festival All Tomorrow's Parties was named after the song of the same name by The Velvet Underground & Nico, the debut record for Velvet Underground.
- Bad Brains were named for the song "Bad Brain" from the Ramones' Road to Ruin.
- Big Country also got their name from a Talking Heads number: "The Big Country."
- The Black Angels were named after "The Black Angel's Death Song," a track on The Velvet Underground & Nico by Velvet Underground. Fittingly, their fifth album is called Death Song.
- Boredoms were named after the Buzzcocks song "Boredom."
- Canned Heat was named after the Tommy Johnson song "Canned Heat Blues".
- Cave In, after the Codeine song "Cave-In": They also released a Cover Version of their namesake song as a bonus track to the album Perfect Pitch Black.
- A Certain Ratio exists because of a line in Brian Eno's "The True Wheel".
- Dead Disco was named after the song by Metric.
- Death Cab for Cutie were named after the eponymous song by the The Bonzo Dog Band.
- The Belgian band dEUS were named after the song "Deus" by The Sugarcubes.
- The band Ella Guru were named after the Captain Beefheart song of the same name, from his Trout Mask Replica LP.
- The Hotrats (side project of the band Supergrass) were named after Frank Zappa's album Hot Rats.
- Judas Priest was inspired by Bob Dylan's "The Ballad of Frankie Lee and Judas Priest".
- The Killers were named after the fictional band in the music video of the New Order song "Crystal".
- Lady Gaga was named after Queen's "Radio Gaga".
- The Kooks were named after David Bowie's song "Kooks" from his album Hunky Dory.
- Machine Head got their name from the Deep Purple song and corresponding album both carrying that name.
- Madness thanks their name to the Prince Buster song of the same name, found on his album One Step Beyond.
- The Moody Blues were named after Duke Ellington's "Mood Indigo".
- Motörhead were named after Hawkwind's "Motorhead".
- Negativland were inspired by the Neu! song of the same name. Another Neu! song provided the name for their record label Seeland.
- Pierce the Veil took their name from a song by Before Today, the previous band of founders Vic and Mike Fuentes.
- The Plastic People of the Universe, a Czech protest band, were named after the Frank Zappa song "Plastic People" from the album Absolutely Free.
- Radiohead got their name from the Talking Heads song "Radio Head" from the album True Stories.
- The Raveonettes thank their existence to the Buddy Holly song "Rave On".
- Roxette were named after Dr Feelgood's "Roxette".
- Bless Motörhead's "Dancing On Your Grave" for inspiring Sepultura to translate the title in Portuguese and called themselves that.
- Industrial rock band Sister Machine Gun took their name
from a phrase appearing in Skinny Puppy's "Tin Omen."
- The Sisters of Mercy were named after a song on Leonard Cohen's Songs of Leonard Cohen.
- Skeletal Family was named after the David Bowie song "Chant of the Ever-Circling Skeletal Family."
- Spoon might have never existed under that name if it weren't for the Can song "Spoon" from "Ege Bamyasi".
- Steeleye Span took their name from John "Steeleye" Span, a character in the folk song "Horkstow Grange", which they eventually recorded on their 1998 album Horkstow Grange.
- Starsailor were named after Tim Buckley's album of the same name.
- Stiff Little Fingers were called that way because of the Vibrators' single of the same name.
- Throw That Beat In The Garbagecan! took their name from a song by The B-52s, deleting a space and adding an exclamation mark.
- The March Violets inspired TWO '90s goth rock bands named in honor of their songs: Children On Stun and Grooving In Green. Neither of these songs ever became particularly popular.
Pinball
- Capt. Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy is a variation, being named after the album by Elton John.
Radio
- Sirius XM has an Alternative Rock station called "Lithium". Yes, they do play the eponymous Nirvana song.
Theatre
- Almost all Jukebox Musicals: Mamma Mia!, Rock of Ages, We Will Rock You etc.
- One might expect My Fair Lady not to include "London Bridge." Yet in the original production, its music was part of the Opening Ballet. In the recent revival produced by Cameron Mackintosh, it was actually sung in the middle of "Get Me To The Church On Time."
- Jerusalem
- ROMEO in the Darkness gets the first half of its title from the SolidS song "ROMEO", which is indeed used as the theme song. The "in the darkness" part, however, is a quote from the bridge of a different SolidS song, the intense sexually-charged "Crazy Baby Show", which the band does indeed perform in the act 2 concert. The full line is "kotae wa itsumo in the darkness" (The answer is always in the darkness), and it is title-dropped entirely in Japanese ("kotae wa itsumo yami no naka") in the climax of the story.
- The folk opera Down in the Valley by Kurt Weill and Arnold Sundgaard. All the narration is sung to the tune of "Down in the Valley." Four other American folk songs are also included.
- Sweet Adeline. At least one version of the show used the barbershop quartet favorite, as did the 1934 movie version, though at the time of the setting, it hadn't in fact been written yet.
Video Games
- Twisted Metal: Black uses The Rolling Stones' "Paint it Black" for its ending theme.
- Burnout Paradise's Paradise City is named after the Guns N' Roses song used for the theme tune.
- Sega's Teddy Boy Blues featured the song of the same name by J-pop star Yoko Ishino. Releases outside of Japan dropped the song and changed the title.
Webcomics
- What If I Know Too Many Reasons I Can Be Strong?: The title of the webcomic references the beginning lyrics of "Gurenge" from the anime adaptation of the original manga. The motion comic adaptation plays the instrumental version of the song during the credits.
Web Original
- Dirty Laundry: An Alternate 1980s uses the Don Henley song of the same name, in the sense that the Point of Divergence is that it never existed.
- Moving Right Along: A Muppet Movie Podcast uses an instrumental arrangement of the song of the same name from The Muppet Movie as its first season theme. (Season 2 uses a similar arrangement of "Hey, a Movie!", and season 3 uses "Together Again".)
Western Animation
- Arcane. The episode "Everybody Wants To Be My Enemy" has Imagine Dragons playing the title song In-Universe.
- Code Monkeys is named after a Jonathan Coulton song which serves as the show's theme.
- Christmas specials such as Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and Frosty the Snowman, though those are both animations telling the same story in a song.
- Most Betty Boop shorts that feature a song are named after said song. Most famous are the trilogy of shorts featuring performances by Cab Calloway, such as Minnie the Moocher.
- In the early years Merrie Melodies were one-off cartoons based on (and named after) famous songs of the day, such as "I Love to Singa," while Looney Tunes were character-based. Eventually, the only difference between Merrie Melodies and Looney Tunes were the title cards.
- The Simpsons has a variation with the episode "Heartbreak Hotel," which features a parody of the Elvis Presley song it's named for called "Airport Hotel," meaning that no actual Title Drop occurs.
- Strange Magic
- A Kind of Magic is named after the Queen song. A mostly instrumental remix of that song is used as the theme song.
Using a brand-new title song:
Live-Action TV
- Bewitched had a theme song with lyrics
written for it, but the producers ultimately decided to go with an instrumental version for the opening credits.
- Glee has two episodes (season three's "Extraordinary Merry Christmas" and season four's "All or Nothing") which are titled after original songs written for said episode.
Theatre
- The musical Of Thee I Sing.
- The musical Merrily We Roll Along had an original title song by Stephen Sondheim, though the title was really from the Kaufman and Hart play. Whether or not that play's incidental music included the traditional song is probably lost to history.
Song titles used without the song:
Anime & Manga
- Bubblegum Crisis Tokyo 2040
- The Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service: All the manga chapters are named after obscure japanese pop/rock songs, with each volume commonly containing chapters named after songs by the same artist or other similar relations.
- Kamichu!: Each episode shares its title with the name of a J-pop song from the '80s or early '90s.
- The Gentlemen's Alliance is named after a song by Hiroko Yakushimaru.
- JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Rather than any chapters of the manga itself, just about every Stand from Part 4 onward (and a couple of characters) is named after a song, band, or album, since Hirohiko Araki is a big fan of American rock. Here are some particularly bizarre ones, as well as the alternate names used in US localizations in order to avoid lawsuits:
- Red Hot Chili Pepper / Chili Pepper
- Pearl Jam / Pole Jam
- Earth, Wind & Fire / Terra Ventus
- Gold Experience / Golden Wind
- Aerosmith / Li'l Bomber
- Spice Girl / Spicy Lady
- Sex Pistols / Six Bullets
- Black Sabbath
- Man in the Mirror
- Beach Boy / Fisher Man
- Metallica / Metallic
- The Rolling Stones
- Stone Free / Stone Ocean
- Kiss / Smack
- Foo Fighters
- Highway to Hell / Highway to Death
- Marilyn Manson
- Limp Bizkit / Flaccid Pancake
- Survivor
- Bohemian Rhapsody
- Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap / Filthy Acts at a Reasonable Price
- That last one is so utterly cumbersome that is it practically always abbreviated as "D.4.C.", even in-universe. Makes one wonder why the user even named it that.
- Cowboy Bebop:
- Most episodes (or "sessions") have English titles derived from songs or albums, including quite a few by The Rolling Stones ("Honky Tonk Woman", "Wild Horses", "Sympathy for the Devil", and "Jamming with Edward", the last one after a side project album a few members of the band were involved in). There's also "Heavy Metal Queen" (for a song by the band Trance), "Toys in the Attic" (for an Aerosmith album), "Bohemian Rhapsody" (for the classic Queen song), "My Funny Valentine" (a jazz standard, the most famous versions being the Frank Sinatra and Miles Davis recordings), "Speak Like a Child" (an album and song by Herbie Hancock), and "Hard Luck Woman" (for the KISS song). The two-part finale, "The Real Folk Blues", takes its name not only from the show's end-credits song (an original piece), but also from a series of compilation albums released by Chess Records in the '60s, spotlighting the music of major blues artists associated with the label, including Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, and others.
- The Cowboy Bebop movie was released in some markets as Cowboy Bebop: Knockin' on Heaven's Door, an obvious tip of the hat to Bob Dylan.
Audio Plays
- Big Finish Doctor Who
- The Doctor Who Unbound drama Sympathy for the Devil is named after a The Rolling Stones song.
- The Doctor Who Unbound drama Masters of War is named after a Bob Dylan song.
- The title of the Fifth Doctor drama 1963: Fanfare for the Common Men is a slight variant on a piece of classical music called "Fanfare for the Common Man" by Aaron Copland.
- The Faction Paradox drama In the Year of the Cat is named after an Al Stewart song.
Comic Books
- Scott Pilgrim is named after a song by Plumtree.
- The Sandman has issues titled "Bad Moon Rising," "Dream a Little Dream of Me" and "Lullabies of Broadway."
- The Superman story "What's So Funny About Truth, Justice and the American Way?" based its title on "What's So Funny About Peace, Love and Understanding?", a song written by Nick Lowe and recorded by Elvis Costello.
- X-Men:
- The story "Days of Future Past" is a play on the Concept Album Days of Future Passed by The Moody Blues.
- While on X-Men, there is Negasonic Teenage Warhead, named after a Monster Magnet song, and who would be a one-story footnote if Deadpool (2016) didn't put a version of her specifically for the awesome name, resurrecting the character.
- The story in The Multiversity Guidebook #1 is called "Maps and Legends", from the R.E.M. song.
- The Books of Magick: Life During Wartime after the Talking Heads song.
- The British comic Jet had a strip called "Paddy McGinty's Goat", which had precisely zero to do with the music hall song of the same name, being A Boy and His Alien Shapeshifter Disguised as a Goat.
Fan Works
- The title to the Frozen fic The Cut of Your Love Never Hurts, Baby comes from "Crazy = Genius" by Panic! at the Disco. Many of its chapter titles also come from lyrics.
- Coping is named after a Blur song.
- The title of Give In, Give In [and Relish Every Minute of It] comes from "The Walk" by Imogen Heap.
- Guys Being Dudes: All of the chapters except the first one are named after Escape the Fate or Falling in Reverse songs or lyrics. The bands get periodically referenced, but the songs referenced don't appear in the chapters that bear their names.
- Kokuten is named after one of Sasuke's battle Background Music: "Kokuten
", which, by the way, translates from Japanese as "Black Spot".
- The infamous My Immortal is titled after an Evanescence song. The title has no bearing whatsoever on the content of the story except that the author clearly likes that genre.
- Life is a Roller Coaster, from the Skyhold Academy Yearbook series, is titled after a song by Ronan Keating.
- The Light In Me Will Guide You Home is a side story to A Song of Ice and Fire fanfic Safe Anchorage, titled using a line from the Vienna Teng song "Harbor".
- She's Not So Famous is named after the last lyric of Blaineley's "I Am Great!" Song in Total Drama World Tour, where Courtney and Heather mockingly sing, "She's not so famous, turns out she's not so famous." It's a Backstory fic that takes place when Blaineley was, indeed, not yet famous.
- These Foolish Things is named after the song "These Foolish Things (Remind Me of You)" by Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong.
- Vow of the King: Every chapter is named after a song lyric with a notable preference towards rock and metal.
Films — Live-Action
- All That Jazz has the same title as a song from another musical by Bob Fosse. But it doesn't use that song.
- All Tomorrow's Parties (idem)
- American Pie
- Ask a Policeman: The title comes from the popular music hall song "Ask a Policeman".
- Blue Valentine, named after the album by Tom Waits
- Boogie Nights was named after the 1977 Heatwave song, though it's not on the soundtrack.
- Brokedown Palace
- Dazed and Confused (the Led Zeppelin song was meant to be on the soundtrack, but the band wouldn't clear it)
- Fools Rush In
- Home for the Holidays
- Honeysuckle Rose
- I Feel Pretty
- It's Always Fair Weather
- Jack & Diane
- Jennifer's Body
- Just the Way You Are
- Knives Out, from a song by Radiohead. Rian Johnson simply thought that "Knives Out" would make a great title for a whodunit.
- Love Will Tear Us Apart by Yu Lik-wai (although not the original title)
- Murder by Numbers
- My Boyfriend's Back
- The Only Living Boy in New York
- Paper Heart, an indie romantic comedy named after a 1983 New Wave song by Robert King. Its filmmakers nearly managed to get permission to use the actual song, but King got to them too late.
- Paris When It Sizzles gets its title from a paraphrased line in Cole Porter's "I Love Paris":
I love Paris in the springtime
I love Paris in the fall
I love Paris in the winter when it drizzles
I love Paris in the summer when it sizzles - Pieces of April, named after a Three Dog Night song. Director Peter Hedges originally planned to include it on the soundtrack, but was talked out of doing so by score composer Stephin Merritt.
- Season of the Witch
- Halloween III: Season of the Witch
- Some Kind of Wonderful
- Streets of Fire was named after Bruce Springsteen's song of the same name, which Ellen Aim was supposed to sing at the end, but the filmmakers couldn't get the rights, so she sings an original song that doesn't reference the title.
- Throw Momma from the Train
- Velvet Goldmine would have used David Bowie's song of that title, but he didn't think much of the film—very loosely based on him and Iggy Pop—and refused to clear it.
- What's Love Got to Do with It? (2022)
Literature
- Arguably, Poppy Z. Brite's Exquisite Corpse, after the song by Bauhaus.
- Several chapters of John Weir's book The Irreversible Decline of Eddie Socket are titled after songs by Stephen Sondheim.
- When Gravity Fails (from the Bob Dylan song "Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues") and its sequel, Fire in the Sun (from "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue")
- I Know This Much is True by Wally Lamb, a novel named from/after the Spandau Ballet song "True".
- Diamond Dogs is titled after a David Bowie song (and album).
- Less Than Zero is titled after an Elvis Costello song; its sequel Imperial Bedrooms is an album title.
- Jill Churchill's Grace & Favor series:
- Anything Goes
- In the Still of the Night
- Someone to Watch Over Me
- Love for Sale
- It Had to Be You
- Who's Sorry Now
- "Out of the Night When the Full Moon is Bright" by Kim Newman, which mixes werewolves into the legend of Zorro, takes its title from the opening theme of the 1950s Zorro TV series.
- Bernice Summerfield: Life During Wartime, a short story collection set during the invasion of the Braxiatel Colection by the Fifth Axis, takes its name from the Talking Heads song.
- The Doctor Who New Adventures novel No Future by Paul Cornell, in which Benny joins a punk band, is titled after the refrain and Working Title of The Sex Pistols' "God Save the Queen". It also has a chapter called "England's Dreaming".
- Scary Godmother: Ghoul's Out For Summer is named after the Alice Cooper song "School's Out".
- Merrill Joan Gerber's Handsome as Anything is named after part of a line of "Matchmaker, Matchmaker" from Fiddler on the Roof.
- Ghost Roads: The short stories that were later collected into the first novel are all named after popular songs. "Tell Laura I Love Her" is notable because it's an example of the "lost my baby in a car wreck" genre that was popular in the late 50s to early 60s; "Dead Man's Curve" because it's about a wreck similar to the one that claimed Rose.
- The author, Seanan McGuire, also wrote a song called "Sparrow Hill Road" about Rose, the same as the title of the first novel. However, they were released around the same time.
Live-Action TV
- Almost any individual episode of a TV show with a song title, because it doesn't pay to license a song for just one episode, particularly if it's done as a form of Idiosyncratic Episode Naming.
- Angel has various episodes titled after songs, e.g. "Shiny Happy People", "Over the Rainbow", "Not Fade Away"
- Buffy the Vampire Slayer had already done this occasionally. The peak was when at one point in season two, three out of four consecutive episodes had song titles: "Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered", "Killed By Death", and "I Only Have Eyes For You".
- Starting in Season 2, Degrassi: The Next Generation uses (mostly)'80s songs for its episode titles. This changes in seasons 10-14, as many episodes are named for songs from the '90s and 2000s.
- Desperate Housewives titles its episodes after songs, mostly by Stephen Sondheim.
- Farscape episodes titled after songs include "Won't Get Fooled Again," "A Kiss Is But A Kiss" and "Dream a Little Dream."
- Grey's Anatomy also uses song titles for episodes, including the two-parter "It's The End of The World"/"... As We Know It."
- Lost used the titles "House of the Rising Sun" and "Born to Run" without the songs (though the lyrics of the former certainly would have echoed the episode.)
- One Tree Hill uses song titles/lyrics/album names as episode titles, as well as being named after a U2 song.
- Covert Affairs named all the Season One episodes (except the pilot) after Led Zeppelin songs, their Season Two episodes after R.E.M. songs, their Season Three episodes after David Bowie songs, and their Season Four episodes after songs by The Pixies.
- Cougar Town names most of their episodes after songs by Tom Petty. The only exceptions are "Pilot" and "Everything Man".
- Each of the four final seasons of That '70s Show had episodes titled after songs from a particular band per season (Led Zeppelin on S5, The Who on S6, The Rolling Stones on S7 and Queen on S8).
- I Dream of Jeannie is named after the first words of the Stephen Foster song "Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair". The original Theme Tune was simply named "Jeannie", and the lyrics weren't used at all.
- Every episode of ALF was named for a song title.
- Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?, titled after a Cole Porter song.
- British sitcom September Song. The song in question was already being used by a rival broadcaster's May to December.
- Californication, although entirely unrelated to the Red Hot Chili Peppers.
- The Supernatural episode "In My Time Of Dying" based on a gospel song
covered by Bob Dylan and Led Zeppelin. Various other episodes use song-based titles as well (e.g. "Folsom Prison Blues", "Dream a Little Dream of Me", "I Believe the Children Are Our Future", "Good God Y'all", etc.)
- Veronica Mars episode "Like a Virgin" is titled after the Madonna song and album.
- Dave Gorman's Modern Life is Good-ish is a play on the Blur album Modern Life is Rubbish, which in turn is a line from the song "For Tomorrow".
- The Battlestar Galactica (2003) episode "A Day in the Life" is named after The Beatles classic from Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.
- The BBC Scotland Schools history programme Jacobites had three episodes, each titled after a song of the period: "Ye Jacobites by Name" (the Hanoverian perspective), "Charlie is My Darling" (the Jacobite perspective) and "Over the Sea to Skye" (the aftermath).
- Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles: "Samson And Delilah" and "Born to Run" are both named for songs by Bruce Springsteen (and the former does have the eponymous song in the opening scene).
- The Enemy at the Door episode "After the Ball" shares its name with a 19th-century popular song. The verses don't fit the episode, but the refrain does:
Many a heart is aching,
If you could read them all;
Many the hopes that have vanished
After the ball. - Midnight Caller was originally the title of a Badfinger song.
- Legends of Tomorrow episodes "Here I Go Again" and "Dancing Queen" are named after Abba songs.
- One Foot in the Grave had an episode titled "The Man In The Long Black Coat" after a Bob Dylan song. There was also an episode titled "The Executioner's Song", a common alternate title for "I've Got A Little List" / "As Someday It May Happen" from The Mikado.
- Doctor Who has done it a couple of times, taking episode titles from Semisonic's "Closing Time"note and Wham!'s "Last Christmas"
- Though there are plenty of Glee episodes which are titled after songs that are performed in the episode (see above), others are clearly references to songs that are nowhere to be seen.
- "Bad Reputation" in season one is about songs with a bad reputation, but has nothing to do with the Joan Jett song of the same name.
- "The Sue Sylvester Shuffle" is named after the infamous Superbowl Shuffle, as it aired directly after the 2011 Superbowl. However the song itself is never heard.
- "Hold On to Sixteen" from season three has Sam reference the lyrics of "Jack and Diane" by John Mellencamp, but never performs the song.
- "Girls (and Boys) On Film" from season four was all about famous songs from movies, despite being a clear reference to the song "Girls on Film" by Duran Duran (although the song was later covered in the next season during Sam's modelling career, which is a more fitting use anyway).
- Also from season four, "Sweet Dreams" is named after the song by Eurythmics, but part of the plot is kicked off by Will suggesting the song for the club's Regionals setlist and the kids rejecting it for being old-fashioned.
- Despite being the second part of the season five's Beatles tribute, "Tina in the Sky with Diamonds" never features a cover of "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds".
- The sixth and final season opens with "Loser Like Me", named for the original song that was performed in season two. Despite this there's no reprise of it in sight (though that might be because it was redone late in the previous season).
- Both versions of All Creatures Great and Small take their title from the Anglican hymn "All Things Bright and Beautiful" (1848) by Cecil Francis Alexander, as did several of the James Herriot books on which the series were based.
All things bright and beautiful,
All creatures great and small,
All things wise and wonderful,
The Lord God made them all. - All the episodes of Roswell, New Mexico (except "Pilot") are named after 90s songs.
Music
- Deep Purple, from an interbellum ballad that had been a hit for bandleader Artie Shaw.
- Strangers in the Night, UFO's best-known live album.
- NWOBHM and early speed metal bands had a tendency to be named after a song by an iconic band. Examples include Chinatown and Black Rose (Thin Lizzy songs), Heavy Pettin' and Obsession (UFO albums), Exciter (Judas Priest song), Overkill (Motörhead song), and Machine Head (Deep Purple album).
- Bad Brains, after "Bad Brain" by the Ramones.
- Human Highway, Neil Young song.
- Powderfinger, after a Neil Young song.
- Velocity Girl, Primal Scream song.
- The Canadian indie rock band Eric's Trip named themselves after the last song on side B of Sonic Youth's Daydream Nation.
- Gigolo Aunts are named after Syd Barrett's "Gigolo Aunt".
- Radiohead, Talking Heads song (though the song is technically "Radio Head")
- Judas Priest took their name from the Bob Dylan song "The Ballad of Frankie Lee and Judas Priest."
- Scottish hard rock band Nazareth took their name from "The Weight" by The Band.
- Dixie Chicks were named after the Little Feat song "Dixie Chicken".
- Rare "Titled After the Album" example: 1980s country duo Sweethearts of the Rodeo named themselves after The Byrds' Sweetheart of the Rodeo album, and even paid homage to said album with the cover of their Buffalo Zone album.
- The Rolling Stones took their name from Muddy Waters' "Rollin' Stone".
- Likewise, Howlin' Wolf took his stage name from another Muddy Waters song, "I'm a Howlin' Wolf".
- The Lovin' Spoonful got their name from the song "Coffee Blues" by Mississippi John Hurt.
- Ladytron from the song of the same name on Roxy Music's first album
- A Certain Ratio were named after a line in ''Brian Eno's "Third Uncle".
- Death Cab for Cutie, after a song by the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band.
- British folksinger John Wesley Harding, after the song and album by Bob Dylan.
- Cave In, after the Codeine song "Cave-In". They would eventually cover their namesake song as a bonus track to the album Perfect Pitch Black.
- Mayhem were named after the Venom song "Mayhem with Mercy".
- Enslaved take their name from an Immortal demo track, "Enslaved in Rot".
- Moonsorrow are named after the Celtic Frost song "Sorrows of the Moon".
- Jimmy Eat World's "Authority Song" has the rare distinction of being named after another song ("Authority Song" by John Mellencamp).
- Bolivian rock band Duvet is named after the song of the same name by Bôa (UK) (which is known as the main song for Serial Experiments Lain).
- Slowdive are named after a Siouxsie and the Banshees song. Slowdive also wrote their own song with that title, making it a song named after a band, named after a song.
Podcasts
- Frog Kissin', a fan podcast for The Muppets, is named after the Chet Atkins song of the same name. Which, not coincidentally, was performed on The Muppet Show episode with Linda Lavin, though only in the UK extended cut of said episode.
Roleplay
- Many thread titles in Survival of the Fittest happen to be these, due to the storyline being written by a community of writers with differing tastes. If we were to list them all it would take a while.
Tabletop Games
- For some reason, the subsections of the Pyramid article "Call No Man Happy Until He Is Dread
: Dark Lords in GURPS Discworld" are Bruce Springsteen quotes: "And Remember Just Don't Smile" (from "Meeting Across the River"); "Born to Ruin" (play on "Born to Run"); "Darkness on the Edge of Town" ("Darkness on the Edge of Town"); "It's a Death Trap; It's a Suicide Rap" ("Born to Run" again).
Theatre
- Rock of Ages. Ironically, they couldn't get the rights to the Def Leppard song.
Video Games
- The A-Train series of railway sim games is titled after the jazz standard "Take The 'A' Train."
- Kagirinaki Tatakai, a 1983 game for the Sharp X1 published by Enix, has the same Japanese title as Led Zeppelin's song "The Battle of Evermore."
- A Change in the Weather is titled after the Eric Bogle song of the same name.
- Painkiller (from the Judas Priest song).
- Rock of Ages
- Just Dance series after a song by Lady Gaga. Ironically the song did not appear in the games until Just Dance 2014.
- Mother, after a song by John Lennon.
- No More Heroes, after an album (and its title song) by The Stranglers.
- The Doom Game Mod series Back to Saturn X is named after a song by Guided by Voices; the same goes for all the individual episode subtitles of the series and all the map names. In a later re-release as a commercial add-on, to avoid legal concerns, the mod was renamed to BTSX and all maps had their names changed. Some of the new map titles are, in turn, taken from the songs from the mod's soundtrack.
- Most, if not all Side Jobs in Cyberpunk 2077 are named after historical songs by real bands, such as "Beat on the Brat", "I Fought The Law", and "Queen Of The Highway" (see also a full rundown in this forum thread
). From Act 2 onwards, even main story jobs start following the convention, justified by the famous rocker Johnny Silverhand now living in V's head and shaping their self-perception — in fact, it is strongly implied by the quest log entries' style that it is actually Johnny who maintains them for V. The only major exceptions are side jobs directly related to Johnny Silverhand's legacy, which are instead named after the in-fiction songs by Johnny himself and his old band, Samurai.
Web Animation
- One Minute Fly: "Fly to the Moon" is named after the Kaye Ballard song "Fly Me to the Moon".
Webcomics
- Sounds Like a Melody
, which is named after the song by 1980s German synthpoppers Alphaville.
- Kiwi Blitz. Each track (chapter) is named after a different song.
- All of Kid Radd's strips are named after 80s songs.
- Rule Of Three started out titling each strip after a rock song.
- 1977:The Comic titles most of its strips after songs from The '70s.
- The webcomic My Name Is Might Have Been
gets its name from the Courtney Love song "Celebrity Skin."
- The El Goonish Shive story arc "Painted Black" is named after The Rolling Stones song "Paint It, Black".
- The Order of the Stick strip "I See a Red Robe and I Want to Paint it Black" is named after the same song.
- Many Questionable Content strips, including a whole string idiosyncratically named after indie songs.
- Royal's chapters are named after song titles.
- Penny Arcade is likely named after the Roy Orbison song.
Western Animation
- The second Star Sapphires episode of Green Lantern: The Animated Series is called "Love is a Battlefield".
- Littlest Pet Shop: A World of Our Own does this as both a Shout-Out and a Take That! in one of its episode titles. "Let It Go (Not the Hit Song)" is a reference to the Frozen (2013) song, "Let It Go".
- Wander over Yonder was named after a verse in the folk song “Don’t Fence Me In”.
- The My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic episode "Spice Up Your Life!" is titled after a song by The Spice Girls.
- The Simpsons episode "I Want You (She's So Heavy)."