Your favourite clever album title

Cafe Society
1

Mine - ** “Electric Landlady”** (1991) by Kirsty Maccoll. It sites proudly in the appropriate place amongst my Jimmi Hendrix collection. :slight_smile:

My joint runners up are the whole oeuvre of the greatest unknown novelty band in the world, Birkenhead’s finest, Half Man Half Biscuit.

Most of their album titles are puns formed from famous albums or Beatles references or both, the smartest being perhaps “Back in the DHSS”*, but also “Four Lads Who Shook The Wirral”, “Trouble Over Bridgwater”# or the “Cammell Laird (+) Social Club” etc etc.

Half a biscuit goes a long way though, so Kirsty wins for me - great album as well as great title! May she rest in peace.

(Translations for Non-Brits: *DHSS - Dept of Health and Social Security, the British version of Welfare. # - Small town on English-Welsh border. + - Permanently broke rusting UK ship yard)

2

There’s A Whole Lalo Schifrin Goin’ On by Lalo Schifrin, composer of the Mission Impossible theme.

Alex.

3

After David BowiE put out the album Low,

Nick LowE put out an album called Bowi.

.

4

I’ve always liked Was (Not Was)'s album Born to Laugh at Tornados

5

After Erasure put out a record of Abba covers called Abbaesque, the Abba tribute band Bjorn Again put out a record of Erasure covers called Erasureish.

6

It loses points for sub-Hallmark-birthday-card-humour, but Sparks’ Gratuitous Sax & Senseless Violins might be considered ‘clever’.

7

Frank Zappa’s Ship arriving too late to save a drowning witch is great when taken in the context of the album cover. Attempt to recreate below:**
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**

8

Charles Mingus, Me, Myself an Eye.
The Beatles, Revolver (as in a record revolving on a turntable).

9

Matmo’s A Chance To Cut is A Chance to Cure. It’s an album of music created from the sounds of surgery.

10

I always liked the title of REO Speedwagon’s “You can tune a piano, but you can’t tuna fish”

11

Blackfoot’s Vertical Smiles, with a montage of bikini-clad female crotches.

Van Halen’s For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge - juvenile perhaps, but I like it. :slight_smile:

12

John Denver, “Poems, Prayers, and Promises.” Is he a scamp or what!

13

ABBA’s “Voulez Vous.”

Jason Graae’s “You’re Never Fully Dressed Without a Smile.” He is lying down on the cover, wearing a smile and a strategically placed straw hat.

14

Give credit where credit is due: Zappa was only reproducing one of Roger Price’s Droodles.

As for others, I’ll add:

You Broke My Heart So I Busted Your Jaw – Spooky Tooth
Lick My Decals Off, Baby – Captain Beefheart

15

I always said that Frank Zappa and Joe Walsh would’ve been brilliant performers indeed if any of their albums had been a tenth as clever as its title. Both had lots of great album titles (I especially liked Walsh’s “The Smoker You Drink, the Player You Get”).

I also liked…

  1. “Is THIS What You Want?” by Jackie Lomax
  2. “Intensities in Ten Cities” by Ted Nugent
  3. “Break Like the Wind” by Spinal Tap
16

“668 - Neighbor of the Beast” is so damn clever that lots of (obsure) bands have used it:-
The Leftovers,
Travis Shredd and the good ol’ homeboys,
My Dog Popper,
Attila the Stockbroker.
To name a few.

17

Bobcat Goldthwait’s comedy CD “Sorry to insult you, but you look like bobcat goldthwait.” (Or something, I just saw tons of commercials on it.)

NOFX - Punk in Drublic, Liberal Animation, War on Errorism, Pump up the Valuum.

18

Great title and a great album:

Ashley MacIsaac Hi[sup]tm[/sup], How are you today?

Great title, not as great album:
Ashley MacIsaac Fine®, Thank you very much

19

Joe Walsh:

“You Bought It, You Name It.”

20

Comedy album titles can’t get much weirder than the Firesign Theater’s Don’t Crush That Dwarf, Hand Me The Pliers.

As far as music goes, I always thought the Vapors’ New Clear Days was pretty good. The title by itself means very little; you have to see the weather map on the album cover–with suns and lightning bolts and raindrops, just like a TV weather map, but with a mushroom cloud–to get the joke.