Longest song titles

[pebblethefish]

My Spotify has recommended a song called "They Provide the Paint for the Picture-Perfect Masterpiece That You Will Paint on the Insides of Your Eyelids"

Are there any longer song titles out there?

(the song's ok-ish)

[Toby Gymshorts]

Luke Westaway is a video game journalist / YouTuber I have a lot of time for. On his own YouTube channel he builds Lego dinosaurs and occasionally reads ghost stories, however it's much less twee than I've just made that sound.

In his spare time he makes music and has an album entitled "Short Songs With Long Titles": https://open.spotify.com/album/6HvjUGZfb5FKTyo7COGZDD

[Sits]

You Were The Generation Who Bpught More Shoes And You Get What You Deserve - Jonny Boy

I was hoping Difficult Shapes And Passive Rhythms, Some People Think It’s Fun To Entertain by China Crisis had a title track. But it didn’t.

[Jah Womble]

Christine Lavin's...

Regretting What I Said to You When You Called Me 11:00 On a Friday Morning to Tell Me that at 1:00 Friday Afternoon You’re Gonna Leave Your Office, Go Downstairs, Hail a Cab to Go Out to the Airport to Catch a Plane to Go Skiing in the Alps for Two Weeks, Not that I Wanted to Go With You, I Wasn’t Able to Leave Town, I’m Not a Very Good Skier, I Couldn’t Expect You to Pay My Way, But After Going Out With You for Three Years I DON’T Like Surprises!! Subtitled: A Musical Apology

...contains ninety-seven words. I don't know the song at all, but it looks like a very self-consciously deliberate attempt at a record - which doesn't encourage me to want to hear it anytime soon.

In terms of serial offending by a major artist, Meat Loaf must be 'up there' for the most long titles.

I won't be linking to any of those, either.

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

2,000 miles by the Pretenders

[gjw100]

I doubt anyone will come close to Jah's offering, but I may as well post The Tangent's 'The Canterbury Sequence (Cantermemorabilia ~ Chaos At The Greasy Spoon ~ Captain Mannering's Mandolin)'.

There's also Swedish prog/psych band Algarnas Tradgard's - 'Two Hours Over Two Blue Mountains With A Cuckoo On Each Side, Of The Hours... That Is'

And as I'm here I'll mention an oddity from guitarist Wayne Krantz, whose 'Long To Loose' album has 10 tracks that are titled thus - These instrumental pieces were, not consciously written about, specific people places things or ideas, (although one began), from a little croaking sound, a friend’s DAT machine makes, what they were written about, is something I don’t understand yet, but I know it when I see it, hopefully so will you.

[Stumpy Pepys]

For songs that bothered the Top 40, the obvious one would be Tyrannosaurus Rex's My People Were Fair and Had Sky in Their Hair … But Now They're Content to Wear Stars on Their Brows.

[Auntie Beryl]

How about the full title (as listed in the Guinness British Hit Singles book) of the Faces 1974 hit You Can Make Me Dance Sing Or Anything (Even Take The Dog For A Walk, Mend A Fuse, Fold Away The Ironing Board, Or Any Other Domestic Short Comings)?

28 or 29 words, depending on whether you view 'shortcomings' as one word or two (Rod and ver lads believe the latter).

[Toby Gymshorts]

There's always Pink Floyd's Several Species of Small Furry Animals Gathered Together in a Cave and Grooving with a Pict.

A lightweight 16 words.

[pebblethefish]

2,000 miles by the Pretenders

Well, if you're going to cheat like that, then Savage Garden's To the Moon and Back will beat you. As will the many many songs called Around the World (I can think of East17 and Lisa Stansfield, but there are probably a lot more)

[Toby Gymshorts]

Well, if you're going to cheat like that, then Savage Garden's To the Moon and Back will beat you. As will the many many songs called Around the World (I can think of East17 and Lisa Stansfield, but there are probably a lot more)

How about Around the Sun by REM?

[Sits]

Across the Universe

[Sporting]

How many letters have served as shortest song titles?

[Wouter D]

Sounds like a separate thread, but I'll offer:
Kendrick Lamar - I

[elguapo4]

Shortest hit song with more than 1 letter; If by Telly Savalas.

[Sporting]

Shortest hit song with more than 1 letter; If by Telly Savalas.

That sounds like it can't be true.

[elguapo4]

If was number 1 in the UK for 2 weeks in March 1975. It was one of the few 45s I remember my Mother ever buying for herself.

[Greenlander]

Nothing used to annoy me more when I was home taping and killing music than a song title that I couldn't squeeze into one row of those tiny lines on the C90 inlay card.

I'm looking at you David Gedge.

[3 Colours Red]

The Black Hawk War Or How To Demolish An Entire Civilization And Still Feel Good About Yourself In The Morning Or We Apologize For The Inconvenience But You're Going To Have to Leave Now Or I Have Fought The Big Knives And Will Continue To Fight Them Until They Are Off Our Lands!

This could all be Sufjan Stevens, honestly.

[Jon]

The Black Hawk War Or How To Demolish An Entire Civilization And Still Feel Good About Yourself In The Morning Or We Apologize For The Inconvenience But You're Going To Have to Leave Now Or I Have Fought The Big Knives And Will Continue To Fight Them Until They Are Off Our Lands!

This could all be Sufjan Stevens, honestly.

Yes, his was the first name that sprung to my mind. The above has got to be his longest but this one:

"A Conjunction of Drones Simulating the Way in Which Sufjan Stevens Has an Existential Crisis in the Great Godfrey Maze"

gets bonus points for being self-referential as well as long.

[MsD]

Me! by Taylor Swift got to No. 2 and 19 to No. 1, do those count for the short titles?

[MsD]

And NO by Meghan Trainor got to Number 3.

[Various Artist]

In terms of serial offending by a major artist, Meat Loaf must be 'up there' for the most long titles.

Disregarding the full – bracketed – title of the Faces song, I believe that Meat still holds the all-time record for the longest non-bracketed song title (52 letters) of any Top 40 hit single in UK chart history, with Objects In The Rear View Mirror May Appear Closer Than They Are – the third single off Bat Out Of Hell II: Back Into Hell following the relatively tersely-named I'd Do Anything For Love (But I Won't Do That) and Rock And Roll Dreams Come Through.
(The album versions of the three clocked in at a combined 28 minutes and all three had music videos directed by Michael Bay. Truly, there is no way in which this could have been more over the top.)

I think The Freshies' 1981 single I'm In Love With The Girl On A Certain Manchester Megastore Checkout Desk (60 letters) must remain the longest unbracketed UK 'hit' of any sort, but alas only peaked at number 54.

[WOM]

For songs that hit #1 (US), Standing Outside A Broken Phone Booth With Money In My Hand by one hit wonders Primitive Radio Gods.

[Jah Womble]

That was only #1 on the US/Canadian Alternative Charts, unfortunately. (Played to absolute death on GLR, as I recall.)

Sounds like a separate thread, but I'll offer:
Kendrick Lamar - I

Also B by Colin Newman (1981). Wasn't a hit though, obviously.