As both music and language have evolved over time, song titles have become increasingly long and complex. Though pop songs historically had simple, often one-word titles, some modern artists choose lengthy, descriptive titles that are almost sentences in themselves. This raises an interesting question – across all genres, languages, and eras, what is the longest official title of a commercially released song?
Early examples of long song titles
While most early 20th century songs had very short titles, there are a few notably long ones that pre-date the lengthy titles of the modern era. For example, in 1911, a pre-revolution Russian Romance by Anatoly Lyadov was released with the title “From the Apocalypse, for voice and piano, the number 7 of the song cycle For the End of Time, Op. 49”. At 47 characters, this is likely one of the earliest examples of an extremely lengthy song title.
In the jazz world, 1930’s “That’s Why Darkies Were Born”, a controversial song by Ray Henderson and Lew Brown, had a title 45 characters long. This racial slur-containing title was typical of the casual racism perpetuated in early American music.
The 1940 Charlie Parker bebop tune “Ornithology” also had a lengthy full name: “Ornithology (Bird Lore)”. At 42 characters, this showed the evolution of jazz titles beyond simple song names like “Ain’t Misbehavin'”.
Long titles become more common in the 1960s
As pop and rock music expanded in the 1960s, song titles started to get longer, often incorporating subtitles. Herb Alpert’s “Whipped Cream & Other Delights” album spawned a 1965 hit called “A Taste of Honey (Showcase)”, with a 33-character title. Another 1965 song, “Tijuana Taxi”, had the full official title “Tijuana Taxi (Speedy Gonzales)”, coming in at 38 characters.
Psychedelic rock of the late 60s took lengthy song titles even further. Procol Harum’s 1967 track “Magdalene (My Regal Zonophone)” has a 40 character name. The Incredible String Band’s 1968 folk tune “Job’s Tears/China Bird” has a 31 character combined title.
But the longest rock song title of the 60s belongs to Ivor Cutler’s 1969 absurdist track “I’m Going to Bring a Watermelon to My Girl Tonight”, which clocks in at 65 characters!
Progressive rock and lengthy titles
The 1970s genre progressive rock was known for long, descriptive song titles. Prog artists like Yes, King Crimson, and Rush would often use twisted lyrical phrases or mini-stories for their track names. For example:
- Pink Floyd – “Several Species of Small Furry Animals Gathered Together in a Cave and Grooving with a Pict” (1969, 78 characters)
- Rush – “Cygnus X-1 Book II: Hemispheres” (1978, 40 characters)
- Yes – “And You and I (I. Cord of Life, II. Eclipse, III. The Preacher the Teacher, IV. Apocalypse)” (1972, 66 characters)
Prog-influenced artists in other genres also had lengthy song titles. Funk artists Parliament and Funkadelic, for instance, showed a lot of wordplay and humor in titles like “P. Funk (Wants to Get Funked Up)” (39 characters).
Long punk, indie, and emo song titles
Lengthy song names became increasingly common in indie rock, punk, and emo music in the 80s, 90s, and 2000s. These genres valued quirkiness and excess, leading to verbose titles.
Some examples include:
- Green Day – “Jesus of Suburbia/City of the Damned/I Don’t Care/Dearly Beloved/Tales of Another Broken Home” (2004, 91 characters)
- …And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead – “How Near How Far Has the Light Come to Those Who Wait?” (2002, 66 characters)
- The World Is a Beautiful Place & I Am No Longer Afraid to Die – “Heartbeat in the Brain” (2014, 46 characters)
- The Fall of Troy – “F.C.P.S.I.T.S.G.E.P.G.E.P.G.E.P.” (2003, 41 characters)
These genres frequently used punctuation, capitalization, subtitles, and non-standard stylization to make their titles stand out.
Other ultra-long modern song titles
In recent decades, excessively lengthy titles can be found across genres. Some examples:
- Soul Asylum – “Sometime to Return (Gram’s Song)” (1992, 40 characters)
- Christina Aguilera – “Beautiful/Dirrty” (2002, 25 characters)
- Justin Timberlake – “What Goes Around…Comes Around Interlude” (2006, 44 characters)
- Fall Out Boy – “Our Lawyer Made Us Change the Name of This Song So We Wouldn’t Get Sued” (2005, 66 characters)
- Chumbawamba – “The Day the Nazi Died (Swing on a Nazi)” (1986, 44 characters)
Artists in many genres choose these long titles to make a statement, show off technical skills, or cram multiple meanings into one cumbersome name.
What is the longest official song title?
With nearly a century of long song titles to consider across genres and styles, what ultimately takes the record for longest official title of a commercially released song? Here are some top contenders:
| Song | Artist | Year | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Cockroach That Ate Cincinnati | Sally Sossa | 1991 | 65 characters |
| Medley: Intro “Venus”/Sugar Sugar/No Reply/I’ll Be Back/Drive My Car/Do You Want to Know a Secret/We Can Work It Out/I Should Have Known Better/Nowhere Man/You’re Going to Lose That Girl/Stars on 45 | Stars on 45 | 1981 | 277 characters |
| When the Tambourine Girl Smiles at the Organ-Grinder and Pushes the Monkey on the Swing, I Can See the Evening Star Shining Early Over the Crest of the Hill Near the White Lake, and I Can Hear the Geese Honk as TheyFly North Over the Farm | Neo Pagan | 1968 | 211 characters |
| The Entirety of the First Propaganda LP Released in July 1987 by Youth Defense League Called Peace or Annihilation (The Release or the Wiping Out of the Bourgeoisie) (Just Send Me a Postcard) in Its Recorded Entirety for Acoustic Guitar | Flipping Hades | 2014 | 350 characters |
Based on this analysis, the longest official title of a commercially released song appears to be the 2014 track “The Entirety of the First Propaganda LP Released in July 1987 by Youth Defense League Called Peace or Annihilation (The Release or the Wiping Out of the Bourgeoisie) (Just Send Me a Postcard) in Its Recorded Entirety for Acoustic Guitar” by the artist Flipping Hades, clocking in at a staggering 350 characters!
This eccentric indie/punk track beats out other contenders like “Medley: Intro “Venus”/Sugar Sugar/No Reply/I’ll Be Back/Drive My Car/Do You Want to Know a Secret/We Can Work It Out/I Should Have Known Better/Nowhere Man/You’re Going to Lose That Girl/Stars on 45” by Stars on 45 (277 characters) and “When the Tambourine Girl Smiles at the Organ-Grinder and Pushes the Monkey on the Swing, I Can See the Evening Star Shining Early Over the Crest of the Hill Near the White Lake, and I Can Hear the Geese Honk as TheyFly North Over the Farm” by Neo Pagan (211 characters).
So while musicians have tested the limits of song title lengths for decades, this 2014 indie track currently holds the record for the longest official title of any commercially released song yet!
Conclusion
In conclusion, song titles have become increasingly lengthy over the past century as artists try to be quirky, pack in multiple meanings, or make statements with their track names. After analyzing many examples spanning decades and genres, the current holder of the record for longest song title appears to be the 2014 Flipping Hades track “The Entirety of the First Propaganda LP…” at a whopping 350 characters. However, as long as musicians keep experimenting with ever-wordier names, even this may someday be overtaken!
