(Songs where most of the title is in) parenthesis. (How many can you name/Search & Destroy)

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20. call me (come back home) -- al green
21. dance dance dance (yowsah yowsah yowsah) -- chic
22. double shot (of my baby's love) -- swingin' medallions
23. (for god's sake) give more power to the people -- the chi-lites
24. fa-fa-fa-fa-fa (sad song) -- otis redding
25. happy xmas (war is over) -- john and yoko
26. i got you (i feel good) -- james brown
27. (i know) i'm losing you -- the temptations
28. instant karma (we all shine on) -- john lennon
29. mercy mercy me (the ecology) -- marvin gaye
30. (night time is) the right time -- ray charles
31. one of a kind (love affair) -- the spinners

Eisbär (llamasfur), Sunday, 14 November 2004 23:24 (nineteen years ago) link

32. didn't i (blow your mind this time) -- the delfonics

Eisbär (llamasfur), Sunday, 14 November 2004 23:26 (nineteen years ago) link

33. Ween - "(Don't Laugh) I Love You"
34. The Au Pairs - "(That's When) It's Worth It"

Ian Moraine (Eastern Mantra), Sunday, 14 November 2004 23:39 (nineteen years ago) link

35. ...(And That's No Lie) - Heaven 17

Ian Edmond (ianedmond), Sunday, 14 November 2004 23:48 (nineteen years ago) link

36. A Flock Of Seagulls - Wishing (If I Had a Photograph of You)

Steve Beans, Sunday, 14 November 2004 23:50 (nineteen years ago) link

Back of my hand (I've got your number) - the jags

Andrew Farrell (afarrell), Sunday, 14 November 2004 23:53 (nineteen years ago) link

38. Al Green - Here I Am (Come and Take Me)
39. Can - Smoke (Ethnologial Forgery Series No. 59)
40. Elvis Costello - Imagination (Is A Powerful Deceiver)
41. Elvis Costello - (What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love And Understanding?
42. Funkadelic - Cholly (Funk Getting Ready To Roll!)
43. Phoenix - (You Can't Blame It On) Anybody
44. The Specials - Enjoy Yourself (It's Later Than You Think)
45. Stevie Wonder - I Believe (When I Fall In Love It Will Be Forever)
46. Sufjan Stevens - Oh God, Where Are You Now? (In Pickeral Lake? Pigeon? Marquette? Mackinaw?)

Gregory T (tubesocks), Monday, 15 November 2004 00:13 (nineteen years ago) link

47. R.E.M. - "Carnival of Sorts (Box Cars)"

Mr. Snrub, Monday, 15 November 2004 00:22 (nineteen years ago) link

48. Stay (Faraway, So Close) - U2

Riot Gear! (Gear!), Monday, 15 November 2004 00:24 (nineteen years ago) link

radiohead - (nice dream)

mattp, Monday, 15 November 2004 00:29 (nineteen years ago) link

50. Interiors (Song for Willem de Koonig) - Manic Street Preachers
51. La Tristessa Durera (Scream to a Sigh) - Manic Street Preachers

And even though it's not most of the song, the most stupid use of parentheses award goes to:

52. Shakespeare's (Way With) Words - One True Voice.

ailsa (ailsa), Monday, 15 November 2004 00:34 (nineteen years ago) link

53. (My Pornograph) - Burning Airlines
54. Change (In The House Of Flies) - Deftones
55. Silver Screen (Shower Scene) - Felix Da Housecat
56. 411 (La La La) - Kenickie
57. Horrible Pain (Within My Heart) - My Ruin
58. Exit Music (For A Film) - Radiohead
59. Alright Alright (Here's My Fist Where's The Fight) - Sahara Hotnights
60. Honey (Amsterdam Is Not L.A.!) - Solex

chris j (chris j), Monday, 15 November 2004 01:16 (nineteen years ago) link

Barry -- you're right on the parentheses placement on the Bryan Adams song. It's frequently (incorrectly) reversed.

jaymc (jaymc), Monday, 15 November 2004 01:25 (nineteen years ago) link

61. (Stuck Inside Of Mobile With The) Memphis Blues Again

I think the parenthesized part becomes the unparenthesized part and vice versa on the little sticker on the inside of the record. Or vice versa.

Ken L (Ken L), Monday, 15 November 2004 01:32 (nineteen years ago) link

I forgot to say -- Dylan.

Ken L (Ken L), Monday, 15 November 2004 01:36 (nineteen years ago) link

62. Bowie "Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps)"

Jeremy (Jeremy), Monday, 15 November 2004 01:50 (nineteen years ago) link

63. I Want You (She's So Heavy) - Beatles
64. If Drinking Don't Kill Me (Her Memory Will) -George Jones
65. Superstar (Groupie) - Delaney and Bonnie
66. Escape (The Piña Colada Song) - Rupert Holmes

What about that Sigur Ros album where the entire title IS parentheses?

Ken L (Ken L), Monday, 15 November 2004 01:57 (nineteen years ago) link

67. SYSLJFM (The Letter Song) - Joe Tex

From the Bang! thread:
68. Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down) - Nancy Sinatra/Sonny and Cher

69. I Hate You (But Call Me) - The Monks
[RIP Roger Johnston]

70. (Don't Take Her) She's All I Got - Johnny Paycheck

Ken L (Ken L), Monday, 15 November 2004 02:08 (nineteen years ago) link

Sorry for the multiple posts, but

71 I Can't Help Myself (Sugarpie Honeybunch) - The Four Tops

Ken L (Ken L), Monday, 15 November 2004 02:11 (nineteen years ago) link

72. Clowns (Can You See Me Now?) - t.A.T.u.
73. Crazy For You (But Not That Crazy) - Magnetic Fields
74. (I Wanna Be A) Dumbcharger - Chinese Stars
75. Juicy (On a Cadillac) - Brainiac
76. Who Am I (What's My Name)? - Snoop Dogg
77. Flint (For the Unemployed and Underpaid) - Sufjan Stevens
78. Indian Girl (An Adult Story) - Slick Rick

lemin (lemin), Monday, 15 November 2004 02:17 (nineteen years ago) link

whoops that's not a chinese stars song, that's a GBV song
and as well,
79. Let's All Go (To the Fire Dances) - Killing Joke
80. X-Rays (This Is My Life) - POLYSICS

lemin (lemin), Monday, 15 November 2004 02:21 (nineteen years ago) link

I forgot the best one of all

81. Hot Pants (She's Got To Use What She's Got To Get What She Wants) - James Brown

Ken L (Ken L), Monday, 15 November 2004 02:25 (nineteen years ago) link

Are you sure about #69? I've never seen it listed as anything more than 'I Hate You'

Sasha (sgh), Monday, 15 November 2004 02:56 (nineteen years ago) link

I dunno. I get a lot of hits with that title, but if you go to the Monks site, it just says "I Hate You." I'd ask them, but I don't know if it's really a good time right now.

Ken L (Ken L), Monday, 15 November 2004 03:10 (nineteen years ago) link

82. Spinners, "They Just Can't Stop It The (Games People Play)"

which also wins for Most Ungrammatical Title Forced By Parentheses.

Joseph McCombs (Joseph McCombs), Monday, 15 November 2004 05:06 (nineteen years ago) link

I thought #61 didn't have any brackets

MindInRewind (Barry Bruner), Monday, 15 November 2004 05:13 (nineteen years ago) link

I almost tried to counter you with "Tonight I'm Gonna Rock You (Tonight)" But, I am trying to be more careful, and in fact the song is called Tonight I'm Gonna Rock You Tonight" I guess paren's wouldn't have helped or hurt anyway.

83. December, 1963 (Oh, What A Night) -the Four Seasons
84. Inner City Blues (Make Me Wanna Holler)- Marvin Gaye

Ken L (Ken L), Monday, 15 November 2004 05:21 (nineteen years ago) link

an obvious one (for me) that until now i missed --

85. gary numan -- we take mystery (to bed)

Eisbär (llamasfur), Monday, 15 November 2004 05:23 (nineteen years ago) link

A couple of Spacemen 3 songs:
86 So Hot (Wash Away All of My Tears)
87 Big City (Everybody I Know Can Be Found Here)

MindInRewind (Barry Bruner), Monday, 15 November 2004 05:28 (nineteen years ago) link

87. En Vogue, "My Lovin' (You're Never Gonna Get It)"
88. R.E.M., "(Don't Go Back to) Rockville"
89. Steely Dan, "Any World (That I'm Welcome To)"

jaymc (jaymc), Monday, 15 November 2004 05:28 (nineteen years ago) link

One more by S3:

90 Feelin' Just Fine (Head Full Of Shit)

MindInRewind (Barry Bruner), Monday, 15 November 2004 05:29 (nineteen years ago) link

I thought #61 didn't have any brackets

Oh, man I knew I should have gotten round to sorting my LPs. This is going to be like trying to determine whether the song is called "Honky Tonk Woman" or "Honky Tonk Women." I distinctly remember on the LP, the jacket had

(Stuck Inside Of Mobile With The) Memphis Blues Again

and the LP center label had

Stuck Inside Of Mobile With The (Memphis Blues Again)

or possibly it was the other way round, but there were definitely parentheses and they were definitely switched up. Maybe this enjoyable little paradox has been cleaned up by the CD rerelease people, the same way that Get Happy! must now have a clearly defined first side. Well, a clearly defined first track.

Ken L (Ken L), Monday, 15 November 2004 05:34 (nineteen years ago) link

Tentative proposal for number

91. She's A Bad Mama Jama (She's Built, She's Stacked) -Carl Carlton

Surely I didn't imagine these parentheses. Or maybe the Bad Mama Jama is so built and so stacked that mere parentheses could not contain her and she has long since busted loose.

Ken L (Ken L), Monday, 15 November 2004 05:42 (nineteen years ago) link

#61

Perhaps THIS will explain things.

This in one of Dylan's favorite songtitling tics, like calling songs things like Incrementally Subtitled Josephine, Half Ghislaine Wholeheartedly and Annabel Explicated Summarily so I can't escape the nagging feeling that there are more. I want to say Rainy Day Women #12 and #35 (everybody must get stoned), but BE CAREFUL! What is in the brackets is not an actual part of the title, but merely a helpful extract from the lyrics that some gentle soul might THINK is the title.

Ken L (Ken L), Monday, 15 November 2004 06:33 (nineteen years ago) link

yes, this is to help out djs taking requests or record shop workers/browsers in a lot of cases.

teeny (teeny), Monday, 15 November 2004 07:26 (nineteen years ago) link

92. (Are you) The one that I've been waiting for - Nick Cave and the Bad seeds
93. (Tell me) Have you ever seen me - The Small Faces
94. (I'm) misunderstood - The Saints

prov, Monday, 15 November 2004 07:40 (nineteen years ago) link

Deep Freeze Mice rules this thread with "A (dog found a stick in the park with such magical powers that a bark caused a marvelous pie to drop out of the sky and the doggy would grin like a shark)"

OleM (OleM), Monday, 15 November 2004 07:57 (nineteen years ago) link

That was 95. Also:

96. The Chrysanthemums: "(They Must Have Made It With Their) Hats"

OleM (OleM), Monday, 15 November 2004 07:58 (nineteen years ago) link

97. The Stone Roses - (Song For My) Sugar Spun Sister

Rob Bolton (Rob Bolton), Monday, 15 November 2004 16:20 (nineteen years ago) link

98. The Shoop Shoop Song (It's In His Kiss) - Betty Everett

Henry A Blacktune, Monday, 15 November 2004 17:10 (nineteen years ago) link

99. Six Finger Satellite - Rabies (Baby's Got The)

NickB (NickB), Monday, 15 November 2004 17:13 (nineteen years ago) link

100. Escape (The Pina Colada Song) - Rupert Holmes

Pleasant Plains (Pleasant Plains), Monday, 15 November 2004 17:52 (nineteen years ago) link

Pleasant, that's a good one, but it's already up there at 66. So

100. (You're So Square) Baby, I Don't Care -Elvis

Henry A Blacktune, Monday, 15 November 2004 18:04 (nineteen years ago) link

Teaches me to skim through lists like these.

How about

101. Amseterdam (Gonna Write You A Letter) - Guster
102. Christmas (Baby, Please Come Home) - Darlene Love
103. Don't You (Forget About Me) - Simple Minds
104. Deja Vu (All Over Again) - John Fogarty
105. Dude (Looks Like A Lady) - Aerosmith

Pleasant Plains (Pleasant Plains), Monday, 15 November 2004 18:44 (nineteen years ago) link

106. get up (i feel like being a) sex machine - james brown

fact checking cuz (fcc), Monday, 15 November 2004 18:49 (nineteen years ago) link

107. (It's Not the Express) It's JB's Monaurail

108. (Shake Shake Shake) Shake Your Booty

and my new least favorite

109. Leave (Get Out)

Joseph McCombs (Joseph McCombs), Monday, 15 November 2004 18:50 (nineteen years ago) link

(Stuck Inside Of Mobile With The) Memphis Blues Again
and the LP center label had
Stuck Inside Of Mobile With The (Memphis Blues Again)

if i'm not mistaken, green day's...

110. good riddance (time of your life)

became...

110.5 time of your life (good riddance)

when released as a single.

fact checking cuz (fcc), Monday, 15 November 2004 18:53 (nineteen years ago) link

and yet another certified j.b. classic:

111. part two (let a man come in and do the popcorn)"

fact checking cuz (fcc), Monday, 15 November 2004 18:57 (nineteen years ago) link

112. Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This) - Eurythmics

Was it just me, or shouldn't that song have been called "Sweet Dreams (Are Made of These)"?

Pleasant Plains (Pleasant Plains), Monday, 15 November 2004 19:00 (nineteen years ago) link

113 What Made Milwaukee Famous (Made A Loser Out of Me) -Various
pending 114. Funky Watergate (People It's Bad)
yet another JB classic but I can't verify that the bracketed part is indeed part of the title

Henry A Blacktune, Monday, 15 November 2004 19:03 (nineteen years ago) link

get up (i feel like being a) sex machine

this always causes cognitive dissonance. so is the abbreviated song title "get up," "sex machine," or "get up sex machine"?

figuratively, but in a very real way (amateurist), Tuesday, 1 December 2009 01:57 (fourteen years ago) link

(That's How You Sing) Amazing Grace - Low

Bill A, Tuesday, 1 December 2009 20:00 (fourteen years ago) link

If You Gotta Go, Go Now (Or Else You Got To Stay All Night) - Bob Dylan
(If I Had To Do It All Over Again I'd Do It) All Over You - The Raiders, written by Bob Dylan
(If You Let Me Make Love To You Then) Why Can't I Touch You? - Ronnie Dyson
Ain't No Woman (Like the One I Got) - The Four Tops
Do It ('Til You're Satisfied) - B.T. Express

Hideous Lump, Wednesday, 2 December 2009 04:05 (fourteen years ago) link

two months pass...

I'm Sorry (But So Is Brenda Lee) - Ben Vaughn, Marshall Crenshaw

the clones of tldr funkenstein (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 2 February 2010 15:19 (fourteen years ago) link

eight months pass...

Rick James - 1,2,3 (U, Her and Me)

oh, winklevoss (crüt), Tuesday, 5 October 2010 06:21 (thirteen years ago) link

Beastie Boys - (You Gotta) Fight for Your Right (To Party)

Moka, Tuesday, 5 October 2010 06:50 (thirteen years ago) link

the primitives - (we've) found a way (to the sun)

pies madness (electricsound), Tuesday, 5 October 2010 07:21 (thirteen years ago) link

even as we speak - (all you find is) air

pies madness (electricsound), Tuesday, 5 October 2010 07:23 (thirteen years ago) link

four months pass...

The Buckinghams- "Hey Baby (They're Playing Our Song)"

Overend Wattstax (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 5 February 2011 20:18 (thirteen years ago) link

one month passes...

Arthur Alexander - "Anna (Go To Him)"

Suspicious Hive Minds (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 20 March 2011 20:56 (thirteen years ago) link

three years pass...

"I Got It Bad (And That Ain't Good)" - Duke Ellington

Sorry Somehow Forgot To Take Out The Trash (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 26 July 2014 01:18 (nine years ago) link

two years pass...

"Rosalita (Come Out Tonight)" - Bruce Springsteen

Sigue Sigue Kaputnik (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 13 September 2016 23:45 (seven years ago) link

There's a song on the new Van der Graaf Generator album called "(Oh No I Must Have Said) Yes". Hammill also did a song once called "(On Tuesdays She Used To Do) Yoga".

heaven parker (anagram), Wednesday, 14 September 2016 19:33 (seven years ago) link

My favourite is Lionel Richie's "All Night Long (All Night)", because the bit in the parenthesis is completely useless, yet it's somehow cute he decided to add the the repeated phrase from the chorus to the title.

Tuomas, Thursday, 15 September 2016 09:41 (seven years ago) link

Camper Van Beethoven - (I Was Born in a) Laundromat

hardcore dilettante, Thursday, 15 September 2016 11:44 (seven years ago) link

Tommy Overstreet: Ann (Don't Go Runnin'); Gwen (Congratulations); (Jeanie Marie) You Were a Lady
George Jones: Nothing Ever Hurt Me (Half as Bad as Losing You)

Edd Hurt, Friday, 16 September 2016 22:53 (seven years ago) link

Zolar X - "I Pulled My Helmet Off (I'm Going to Love Her)"

willem, Monday, 19 September 2016 14:15 (seven years ago) link

Smashing Pumpkins - Fuck You (An Ode To No One)

Le Bateau Ivre, Monday, 19 September 2016 14:26 (seven years ago) link

Mcluskey - (Sometimes) I Have to Concentrate

Le Bateau Ivre, Monday, 19 September 2016 14:28 (seven years ago) link

*Mclusky

Le Bateau Ivre, Monday, 19 September 2016 14:28 (seven years ago) link

(most of the title ;)

willem, Monday, 19 September 2016 14:55 (seven years ago) link

Terry Allen

Lubbock (On Everything)
"Great Joe Bob (A Regional Tragedy)"
"Collector (And the Art Mob)"
"Oui (A French Song)"

Juarez
"The Juarez Device (AKA 'Texican Badman')"
"La Despedida (The Parting)"

Smokin' the Dummy
"The Heart of California (For Lowell George)"
"Whatever Happened to Jesus (And Maybellene) ?"
"The Lubbock Tornado (I Don't Know)"

bodacious ignoramus, Monday, 19 September 2016 15:11 (seven years ago) link

Car Seat Headrest - (Joe Gets Kicked Out of School for Using) Drugs With Friends (But Says This Isn't a Problem)

Hideous Lump, Saturday, 1 October 2016 17:17 (seven years ago) link

Frank Black - (I Want to Live on an) Abstract Plain

Gavin, Leeds, Monday, 3 October 2016 10:22 (seven years ago) link

one year passes...

This is debatable, since it doesn't always have the parens but
Clarence Carter/Chairmen of the Board - "Patches (I'm Depending On You)"

Before Hollywood Swing (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 14 January 2018 19:17 (six years ago) link

three weeks pass...

Talking Heads- “Born Under Punches (The Heat Goes On)”

Some Dusty in Here (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 5 February 2018 00:46 (six years ago) link

The Bee Gees - “Odessa (City on the Black Sea)”

Some Dusty in Here (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 5 February 2018 00:51 (six years ago) link

Lay Down (Candles In The Rain) - Melanie

I was recently thinking about this because the backing vox on this are by The Edwin Hawkins Singers, or so I have heard

Some Dusty in Here (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 5 February 2018 00:59 (six years ago) link

y'all got hendrix, but you don't have:

ydi - 1983 (a place in the sun)

also:

the byrds - 5d (fifth dimension)

and peter hammill should also get credit for:

peter hammill - the lie (bernini's st. theresa)

let's also remember:

scott walker - the old man's back again (dedicated to the neo-stalinist regime)
yes - the fish (shindleria praematurus)

and a BRAND NEW SONG for 2018

palm - (didn't what you want) happen

ziggy the ginhead (rushomancy), Monday, 5 February 2018 01:10 (six years ago) link

ten months pass...

“Dawn (Go Away)” - The Four Seasons

Spirit of the Voice of the Beehive (James Redd and the Blecchs), Wednesday, 19 December 2018 13:09 (five years ago) link

“Zira (Call Out My Name)” - Redd Kross

Spirit of the Voice of the Beehive (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 30 December 2018 22:09 (five years ago) link

what about “singles that inexplicably LACK the seemingly important clarifying parenthesis?”

so, then,

“Edge of Seventeen (Just Like The White-Winged Dove)”

Swag Heathen (theStalePrince), Monday, 31 December 2018 04:55 (five years ago) link

Every track on Ian Dury's Lord Upminster:

1. Funky Disco (Pops)
2. Red (Letter)
3. Girls (Watching)
4. Wait (For Me)
5. The (Body Song)
6. Lonely (Town)
7. Trust (Is a Must)
8. Spasticus (Autisticus)

Hakuna Mutato (Dan Peterson), Monday, 31 December 2018 15:01 (five years ago) link

(you drive me) crazy - Britney

kinder, Monday, 31 December 2018 23:52 (five years ago) link

Half Man Half Biscuit: Styx Gig (Seen By My Mates Coming Out Of A)

does it look like i'm here (jon123), Tuesday, 8 January 2019 15:07 (five years ago) link

Electric Six - (It Gets) (A Little) Jumpy

frogbs, Tuesday, 8 January 2019 15:19 (five years ago) link

two years pass...

Tony Christie?- “Is This the Way to) Amarillo”

The Ballad of Mel Cooley (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 27 February 2021 21:48 (three years ago) link

two years pass...

Chic - Will You Cry (When You Hear this Song)

visiting, Monday, 14 August 2023 00:16 (eight months ago) link


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