# Who Named The Album Titles We Love?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-named-the-album-titles-we-love/930327>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Tags:** music\
**Created:** [January 12, 2021, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-named-the-album-titles-we-love/930327 "2021-01-12T14:36:46Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Hippy\_Hollow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hippy_hollow/32/4841_2.png) [@Hippy\_Hollow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hippy_Hollow)\
**Post date:** [February 12, 2021, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-named-the-album-titles-we-love/930327/21 "2021-02-12T18:28:05Z")

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Speaking of Hugh Padgham, I know the naming of The Police albums. I believe the first three were Miles Copeland inventions.

_Outlandos D’Amour_ is fake French for “Outlaws of Love.”

_Reggatta de Blanc_ is fake French for “White Reggae.”

_Zenyatta Mondatta_ is a reference to the concept of Zen and Jomo Kenyatta, prime minister of Kenya, and “Mondatta” has to do with world domination, which was The Police’s goal with the third album. Apparently a rejected title was _Triblondo Mondo Domino_ (three blondes rule the world). Somebody named a famous horse after the album… a horse owned by Herb Alpert and Jerry Moss, the A&M of A&M records (The Police’s label).

_Ghost in the Machine_ (sometimes incorrectly referred to as “Ghosts”) was named by Sting, for the Arthur Koestler psychiatry book.

_Synchronicity_ was also named by Sting, for the Carl Jung concept of “acasual connecting principle” and the book of the same name.

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**Author:** ![Nonsuch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nonsuch/32/2922_2.png) [@Nonsuch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nonsuch)\
**Post date:** [February 12, 2021, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-named-the-album-titles-we-love/930327/22 "2021-02-12T21:12:39Z")

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> [@Hippy\_Hollow](#):
>
> Ah, another XTC fan. _Black Sea_ is a good one. There was a tendency for albums later in their career to have titles from songs on the previous record (I think this happened on _Oranges and Lemons_ , which is a lyric on _Skylarking_ , and _Nonsuch_ as well). But Andy Partridge claims it’s a coincidence.

_Oranges and Lemons_ and _Nonsuch_ were coincidences. Once this tendency was pointed out to Andy Partridge, he consciously went through the lyrics on _Nonsuch_ in order to name the next album, _Apple Venus._

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