12 Old Songs that need New Titles

When looking back through the titles of old songs isn’t it surprising just how many songs are still relevant today? That’s not helpful when searching for examples of songs for this blog post of course but it’s one of the reasons why finding old songs that need new titles is quite challenging. The reason why old songs are still so relevant today is because their lyrics are about emotions and when we talk about emotions, the main emotion a lyricist is concerned with is love and sex.

I did wonder what percentage of songs were about love and sex and was surprised to see Cosmopolitan magazine had done a survey and it’s a whopping 92%

The Everly Brothers – writing songs of love and sex in the 50s

So when looking for songs from the past that need new titles, its the 8% of songs that aren’t about love and sex that we need to be concerned with . Lyrics based on subjects such as politics, world events, news stories, geography, technology or fashion are the sort of thing we need to be looking for.

So I had a look through singles and albums books and asked some friends for help on Reddit and these are the best so far,  (if you have any more please add your comment with the old title, band and alternative title and I’ll add it when I do an update) (new title shown in bold) …

• Marvin Gaye, “heard it through the grape vine” renamed to “heard it through social media”
• Beatles, “Back in the USSR” – “Back in the Russian Federation”
• Glen Miller, “Pennsylvania 65000” –   (is now a considerably longer telephone number) “Pennsylvania 275 65000”

• Elvis Pressley, “Blue Suede Shoes” – “Black Nike Flyknit Trainers”
• Drifters, ” You’re more than a number in my little red book” – “You’re more than a number in my Iphone contacts list”
• TRex, “Telegram Sam” – “Email Sam”

• David Bowie, ” All the young dudes” – “All the young hipsters”
• Pretenders, “Talk of the Town” – “Trending on Facebook” 
• Michael Jackson, “Bad” – “Sick”
• Who, “Pinball Wizard” – “Minecraft Wizard”
• Madness, “Baggy Trousers” – “Skinny Jeans”
• Beatles, “When I’m 64” – “When I’m 74”

Portrait Of Ronald Reagan…WASHINGTON – DECEMBER 14: U.S. President Ronald Reagan poses in the White House December 14, 1981 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Arnold Newman/Getty Images)

Above – former US president Ronald Regan proves 64 is no age at all – becoming  president at the tender age of 69 years, 349 days  (although he may have been stretching it a little when he was replaced aged 77 years, 349 days)