# Song Titles that are wrong according to the lyrics **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** music\ **Created:** [January 19, 2024, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/song-titles-that-are-wrong-according-to-the-lyrics/996352 "2024-01-19T20:56:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2024, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/song-titles-that-are-wrong-according-to-the-lyrics/996352/1 "2024-01-19T20:56:42Z")
This is for songs where the author may have a clever or catchy title, but it clearly does not match the lyrics. In my mind is Michael Jackson’s “Smooth Criminal”. ---
**Author:** ![Author\_Balk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e0b2c6/32.png) [@Author\_Balk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Author_Balk)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2024, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/song-titles-that-are-wrong-according-to-the-lyrics/996352/2 "2024-01-19T22:55:36Z")
Does I’m Not In Love by 10cc fit? ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2024, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/song-titles-that-are-wrong-according-to-the-lyrics/996352/3 "2024-01-19T23:11:20Z")
I either don’t understand the OP or the OP’s choice. Why is the title Smooth Criminal wrong? Even if we look past Jackson’s (smooth) performance as the criminal, said criminal still got in and out without being caught. ---
**Author:** ![gnoitall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bb73d2/32.png) [@gnoitall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gnoitall)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2024, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/song-titles-that-are-wrong-according-to-the-lyrics/996352/4 "2024-01-19T23:13:29Z")
Yeah. Is the conflict in the word “smooth” or in the word “criminal”? ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2024, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/song-titles-that-are-wrong-according-to-the-lyrics/996352/5 "2024-01-19T23:25:38Z")
“Weird Al” Yankovic - [(This Song’s Just) Six Words Long](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=do5vXn_Rap4) ---
**Author:** ![Si\_Amigo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/si_amigo/32/2877_2.png) [@Si\_Amigo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Si_Amigo)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2024, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/song-titles-that-are-wrong-according-to-the-lyrics/996352/6 "2024-01-19T23:38:20Z")
Badge by Cream. Has nothing to do with stinking badges. ---
**Author:** ![John\_DiFool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_difool/32/19543_2.png) [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2024, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/song-titles-that-are-wrong-according-to-the-lyrics/996352/7 "2024-01-19T23:48:12Z")
Dunno if this is what is meant by the OP, but anyway: Jane Siberry, title: “It Can’t Rain All the Time”… But the lyrics instead have that phrase as “It _won’t_ rain all the time”… ---
**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2024, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/song-titles-that-are-wrong-according-to-the-lyrics/996352/8 "2024-01-20T00:45:42Z")
Sorry, op got interrupted and then corrupted. What songs did the writer have a clever or catchy title, but it’s at odds with the lyrics of the song? I’m thinking of Michael Jackson’s “Smooth Criminal”. Said criminal breaks into the apartment, leaves bloodstains on the carpet, chases Annie into the bedroom, and kills her. There’s nothing smooth about that. A smooth criminal is long gone before anyone knows they’ve been robbed. What other songs did the writer miss the mark with the title? ---
**Author:** ![ZonexandScout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zonexandscout/32/544_2.png) [@ZonexandScout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZonexandScout)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2024, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/song-titles-that-are-wrong-according-to-the-lyrics/996352/9 "2024-01-20T03:20:50Z")
Not true. “Badge” is a reference to the police officers who arrest the GF when she drives his car without permission. Also, later in the song, the GF needs to pick herself up off the ground because she’s been arrested after putting on a SovCit routine. I don’t know what she did to the swans, though, that merited police intervention. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2024, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/song-titles-that-are-wrong-according-to-the-lyrics/996352/10 "2024-01-20T03:27:42Z")
> [@Irishman](#): > > Said criminal breaks into the apartment, leaves bloodstains on the carpet, chases Annie into the bedroom, and kills her. I thought Annie was OK. ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2024, 4:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/song-titles-that-are-wrong-according-to-the-lyrics/996352/11 "2024-01-20T04:46:19Z")
> [@Si\_Amigo](#): > > Badge by Cream. Has nothing to do with stinking badges. _Badges? We ain’t got no Badges! We don’t need no Steenkin’ Badges!_ - G. Baker (unconfirmed) ---
**Author:** ![eschrodinger](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschrodinger/32/122_2.png) [@eschrodinger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschrodinger)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2024, 8:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/song-titles-that-are-wrong-according-to-the-lyrics/996352/12 "2024-01-20T08:37:43Z")
I thought you were going to be going for _In A Gadda Da Vida_ type titles. -_Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)_ ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2024, 12:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/song-titles-that-are-wrong-according-to-the-lyrics/996352/13 "2024-01-20T12:37:43Z")
> [@ZonexandScout](#): > > Not true. “Badge” is a reference to the police officers who arrest the GF when she drives his car without permission. Also, later in the song, the GF needs to pick herself up off the ground because she’s been arrested after putting on a SovCit routine. Not sure if that’s a joke or not, but the song is (quite famously) named after a misreading of the word bridge. > [@Irishman](#): > > There’s nothing smooth about that. A smooth criminal is long gone before anyone knows they’ve been robbed. It wasn’t a botched robbery, it was a successful murder. ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2024, 12:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/song-titles-that-are-wrong-according-to-the-lyrics/996352/14 "2024-01-20T12:45:09Z")
In “The Kids Aren’t Alright” by The Offspring, it’s the adults who “aren’t alright.” ---
**Author:** ![solost](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/solost/32/11776_2.png) [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2024, 1:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/song-titles-that-are-wrong-according-to-the-lyrics/996352/15 "2024-01-20T13:17:09Z")
‘Isn’t it Ironic’ by Alanis Morrisette? The only example given in the song that’s even close to actual irony is the guy who grits his teeth and gets on a plane even though he’s afraid to fly, and the plane crashes. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2024, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/song-titles-that-are-wrong-according-to-the-lyrics/996352/16 "2024-01-20T13:19:22Z")
“I Married Her Just Because She Looks Like You” by Lyle Lovett. That’s even the chorus of the song, but the lyrics make clear that he married her because she was sweet and loving, and you were cruel to him. ---
**Author:** ![ZonexandScout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zonexandscout/32/544_2.png) [@ZonexandScout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZonexandScout)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2024, 1:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/song-titles-that-are-wrong-according-to-the-lyrics/996352/17 "2024-01-20T13:37:54Z")
I thought the part about the swans would give it away. ---
**Author:** ![Si\_Amigo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/si_amigo/32/2877_2.png) [@Si\_Amigo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Si_Amigo)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2024, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/song-titles-that-are-wrong-according-to-the-lyrics/996352/18 "2024-01-20T14:20:35Z")
Obviously she ran over the swans after he told her that they lived in the park. So that makes him an accesory to the crime and thus the badges come after them both. 🙂 The only line of this song that makes any sense is the last one, “She cried away her life since she fell out the cradle”. ---
**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2024, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/song-titles-that-are-wrong-according-to-the-lyrics/996352/19 "2024-01-20T21:48:34Z")
> [@Joey\_P](#): > > It wasn’t a botched robbery, it was a successful murder. Ok, but there’s still nothing smooth about it. ---
**Author:** ![psiekier](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psiekier/32/116_2.png) [@psiekier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psiekier)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2024, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/song-titles-that-are-wrong-according-to-the-lyrics/996352/20 "2024-01-22T15:44:29Z")
Pete Townsend titled the Who song [“Baba O’Riley”](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x2KRpRMSu4g) as an homage to his gurus, Meher Baba and Terry Riley. If you listened to the song’s lyrics, though, you’d think a better title would be (and it _was_ the working title for some time before publication) “Teenage Wasteland”. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/song-titles-that-are-wrong-according-to-the-lyrics/996352.md?page=2)