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

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

which also wins for Most Ungrammatical Title Forced By Parentheses.

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

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

90 Feelin' Just Fine (Head Full Of Shit)

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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

108. (Shake Shake Shake) Shake Your Booty

and my new least favorite

109. Leave (Get Out)

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.

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

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

117. 1983 (A Merman I Should Turn To Be) - Hendrix

This is the Exchange reprise at the end of Mezzanine. I've seen it listed with parentheses, but both amazon and allmusic omit them. I haven't got the packaging handy to check.

As an aside: three years ago, my friend Sarah-poo had made for our friend Alli-poo a shirt that said, "My friend was Robert McNamara'ed into submission and all I got was this lousy t-shirt." Alli-poo wore it to a Paul Simon show soon afterwards, I never found out if he saw it ...

Fucking great song, and probably one of the longest songtitles ever. :-)

(Baby, I need your love) Because Your Love Is So Wonderful (Baby)

?

a good title indeed, but it would be a lot better if george jones hadn't already done (the equally unparenthesized) "feeling single, seeing double" a decade earlier. i'm all for borrowing and stealing in music, but stealing someone else's joke is a bit unseemly. (yeah yeah, i know comedians do it all the time, and it's standard operating procedure, and all that. but something just seems weird about a songwriter grabbing another songwriter's pun like that.)

(neither gary nor george wrote either song, they just sang 'em, for whatever that's worth. and it seemed important to add this so, even if i wasn't discussing a song title in parentheses, at least my answer would be mostly in parentheses.)

I'm Left, You're Right, She's Gone - Elvis
I Was Checking Out, She Was Checking In - Don Covay

128. Samantha Fox - "Touch Me (I Want Yoyur Body)"

I think Smash Hits wrote something along the lines of "(Don't you just hate it when) artists put parentheses in song titles?"

"my own summer (shove it)"
"be quiet and drive (far away)"

Good...gravy...no, I did not type those out, either.

I Would Do Anything for Love (But I Won't Do That) - Meat Loaf

"(What Kind Of)SHAPE(Are You In?)"

"(How Many Times) Are We Gonna Let Aretha (Franklin) Get [Away](With This) (Lame Shit)"

"(The Gibbons) Aren't The Only Monkees (On The Planet)"

"Don't Give Up (Yer Day Job)(In Parentheses)"

"(Another Glass Of) Milk"

("Stratagien Gegen Nik Kershaw" is good too. But no parentheses."Seat Me In The (Vivisection)" and "Kill Yer-(S)elf" have nice ones though.)

Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In) -The First Edition

I feel like I caught the Loch Ness Monster.

Man, I just keep finding a whole lot of these this morning with no effort at all- by accident in fact, without any clicking and reloading- using this amazingly fast random access technology called "a book." It is quite an old technology from what I understand- this "book" I have is from 1985. I believe they had something called "proofreading" back in those days, which means any mistakes I make must have been introduced by me.

And can't you fuxors read: "...where most of the title..." - shit like this isn't correct:

"my own summer (shove it)"
"be quiet and drive (far away)"

The Man Can't Bust (Our Parentheses)!

Are You Going To Enforce That Rule Too (Or Does It Impact Too Much On The Bottom Line)?

One for me:
(Marie's The Name) His Latest Flame

One that seems to have paren's but not all the time (LP avec, single sans?):
Rocket Man (I Think It's Going To Be A Long, Long Time)

There are so many more -- what a cool topic!

The Flaming Lips - "Race for the Prize (Sacrifice of the New Scientists)"
The Flaming Lips - "The Spark That Bled (The Softest Bullet Ever Shot)"
The Flaming Lips - "What Is The Light? (An Untested Hypothesis Suggesting That The Chemical [In Our Brains] By Which We Are Able To Experience The Sensation Of Being In Love Is The Same Chemical That Caused The "Big Bang" That Was The Birth Of The Accelerating Universe)"
The Flaming Lips - "Waitin' for a Superman (Is It Gettin' Heavy??)"
The Flaming Lips - "Suddenly Everything Has Changed (Death Anxiety Caused By Moments Of Boredom)"
The Flaming Lips - "The Gash (Battle Hymn For The Wounded Mathematician)"
The Flaming Lips - "Sleeping On The Roof (Excerpt From 'Should We Keep The Severed Head Awake??')"
The Flaming Lips - "Buggin' (The Buzz Of Love Is Busy Buggin' You)"

Sorry (I Ran All The Way Home)- The Impalas

"You're My Girl (I Don't Want To Discuss It)" - Little Richard
"Just Sometimes (Song Of Laughter And Forgetting)" - Swervedriver
"It's Not Love (But It's Not Bad)" - Merle Haggard
"Heart Failed (In The Back Of A Taxi)" - Saint Etienne
"She's A Woman (And Now He Is A Man)" - Husker Du
"Who Do You Think You Are (Jesus Christ The Superstar)?" - Staple Singers

Barrett Strong - Money (That's What I Want)
Hall & Oates - Why Do Lovers (Break Each Other's Heart?)

(Don't Fear) the Reaper

or maybe this was said already

My personal favorite:

The Saints "(I'm) Stranded"

DEVO - "Sloppy (I Saw My Baby Gettin')"

Lefty Frizzell was all about this shit:

Always Late (With Your Kisses)
Don't Think It Ain't Been Fun, Dear (Cuz It Ain't)
Forever (And Always)
Give Me More, More, More (Of Your Kisses)
How Long Will It Take (To Stop Loving You)
I Never Go Around Mirrors (I've Got a Heartache to Hide)
Shine, Shave, Shower (It's Saturday)
I'm an Old, Old Man (Tryin' to Live While I Can)

etc.

Give Me More, More, More (Of Your Kisses)
How Long Will It Take (To Stop Loving You)
Shine, Shave, Shower (It's Saturday)

that's less than half!

Oh shit yeah.

His brother David has one with more than a half, also hilarious.

I'm Gonna Hire a Wino (to Decorate Our Home)

Gangsta Boo - Can I Get Paid? (Get Your Broke Ass Out) (Da Strippers Anthem)

"I (Who Have Nothing)" - Ben E. King

Choice picks from The Happy Flowers:
"I Wanna BB Gun (And Some Glass Eyes)"
"If This Gun Were Real (I Could Shoot You and Sleep in the Big Bed With Mommy)"
"Let's Eat the Baby (Like My Gerbils Did)"

Also, from Dwight Yoakam's band in Sling Blade: "Stuart Drives a Comfortable Car (There's Usally Someone In the Trunk)"

mbv - (you're) safe in your sleep (from that girl)

worst offender

see also (when you wake) you're still in a dream

A Quick One (While He's Away) -- The Who

(No Pussyfooting) - Fripp & Eno

just going over the thread.

maybe like 20 people who posted in this thread actually read the title.

Yes I know (No Pussyfooting) is all in the parentheses but I couldn't think of anything else. Call it bandwagonism.

pet shop boys - se a vida e (that's the way life is)

(I'm Gonna Sit Right Down and) Whittle Away My Furniture - TISM

"Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft (The Recognised Anthem of World Contact Day)"

(Hmm. I had already mentioned that, but ILX skipped the middle part when I tried searching)

Buzzcocks - Ever Fallen in Love (With Someone You Shouldn't've)

Can't believe no-one's said it yet.

The Jesus Lizard - (Fly) On (The Wall)

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

"Any Day Now (My Wild Beautiful Bird" - Chuck Jackson
"I'm Blue (The Gong Gond Song)" - The Ikettes

Messed up that first last parenthesis.

"Chi Mai (Main Title Theme From The BBC TV Series 'The Life And Times Of David Lloyd George)" by Ennio Morricone
"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)" by the Faces

Did that James Brown song Let A Man Come In And Do The Popcorn have parentheses? If not I feel as though it should.

"(I Feel Like A) Dictionary" - Trend

No, but "Mother Popcorn (You Got To Have A Mother For Me) (Part I)" did.
(xpost)

But "...Popcorn..." was also split into parts 1 & 2, so it did have the one set of brackets.

Popular in P-Funk circles:

Bootsy's Rubber Band, Bootsy? (What's The Name of This Town)
Funkadelic, Cholly (Funk Getting Ready To Roll)
Parliament, P. Funk (Wants To Get Funked Up)
Parliament, (You're A Fish And I'm A) Water Sign

... and lots of others

...not to mention "Aqua Boogie (A Psychoalphadiscobetabioaquadoloop)" !

(...which I guess was accounted for under "lots of others", duh.)

I couldn't fit 'em all in!

Wait, the official title of the second part was

"Part Two (Let A Man Come In And Do The Popcorn)"

as pointed out by the ever reliable fact checking cuz upthread.

116. He Hit Me (And It Felt Like A Kiss) -The Crystals
More from the pen of Gerry Goffin:
"Who Put The Bomp (In The Bomp, Bomp, Bomp)" - Barry Mann
"(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman" - Aretha Franklin
"Theme From Mahogany (Do You Know Where You're Going To)" - Diana Ross

Don't You (Forget About Me) - Simple Minds

Forever For Her (Is Over For Me) - The White Stripes
Rocket Reducer No. 62 (Rama Lama Fa Fa Fa) - MC5
Singing Rule Britannia (While The Walls Close In) - The Chameleons

exit music (for a dick) - will oldham
you can look (but you better not touch) - bruce springstein
bells (with tremolo and distortion) - sic alps
i wish i knew (how it would feel to be free) - marlena shaw

Don't Come Home A-Drinkin' (With Lovin' On Your Mind)
Caribbean Queen (No More Love On The Run)

(I Never Promised You a) Rose Garden

"Any Day Now (My Wild Beautiful Bird" - Chuck Jackson
Another one from the pen of Burt Bacharach
"(The Man Who Shot) Liberty Valance" - Gene Pitney

As well as
"(They Long To Be) Close To You"- The Carpenters
"Kentucky Bluebird (Send A Message To Martha)" - Jerry Butler/Lou Johnson/Adam Faith

The Shapes - "(I Saw) Batman (in the Launderette)"

Heartbeat (It's a Love Beat) by the DeFranco Family

Jackie Wilson Said (I'm In Heaven When You Smile) - Van Morrison
Remember (Walking In the Sand) - Shangri-Las

Joe Tex - Ain't Gonna Bump No More (With No Big Fat Woman)

Seem to be less of these around nowadays.

weezer - undone (the sweater song)

"Time (Clock Of The Heart)" - Culture Club

"Fanny (Be Tender With My Love)" - The Bee Gees

Jackie Wilson Said (I'm In Heaven When You Smile) - Van Morrison
"That's Why (I Love You So)" - Jackie Wilson

Alexisonfire - Water Wings (And Other Poolside Fashion Faux-Pas)
The Arcade Fire - (Antichrist Television Blues)
Beck - High 5 (Rock the Catskills)
Béla Fleck & The Flecktones - Jekyll And Hyde ( And Ted And Alice)
Bjork - Who Is It (Carry My Joy on the Left, Carry My Pain on the Right)
Bob Dylan - Floater (Too Much to Ask)
Bright Eyes - Old Soul Song (For The New World Order)
Broken Social Scene - 7/4 (Shoreline)
The Byrds - Deportee (Plane Wreck At Los Gatos)
Captain Beefheart and His Magic Band - The Blimp (Mousetrapreplica)
Coheed and Cambria - Three Evils (Embodied In Love and Shadow)
Coheed and Cambria - The Hound (Of Blood And Rank)
Coheed and Cambria - Ten Speed (Of God's Blood & Burial)
Duke Ellington and Coleman Hawkins - Self Portrait (Of The Bean)
Electric Light Orchestra - Poor Boy (The Greenwood)
Electric Light Orchestra - Mission (A World Record)
Elliott Smith - Pretty (Ugly Before)
Elton John - (Gotta Get A) Meal Ticket

Okay I give up.

...For now.

"Who Is He (And What Is He To You)?" - Bill Withers

Fool (If You Think It's Over) - Chris Rea

Oppurtunities (Let's Make Lots of Money) - Pet Shop Boys

Opportunities*

"(I'm Not Your) Steppin' Stone" - The Monkees
"Give Me Love (Give Me Peace On Earth)" - George Harrison

It's Alright (Baby's Coming Back)
Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This)
-Eurythmics

Duke Ellington - Blue Pepper (Far East Of The Blues)

The Hollies - Don't You Even Care (What's Gonna Happen To Me?)

Uhh that's a close one.

Jaco Pastorious - (Used To Be A) Cha-Cha

Jimi Hendrix - 1983...(A Merman I Should Turn To Be)

That one was mentioned up thread. As was
Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This)

Yeah...There are frigging so many anyways, this could go on forever.

10. The Beautiful South - I Hate You (But You're Interesting)

The Beautiful South - I Love You (But You're Boring)
The Beautiful South - Good As Gold (Stupid As Mud)
The Beautiful South - Hold Me Close (Underground)
The Beautiful South - Rotterdam (Or Anywhere)
The Beautiful South - Half-Hearted Get (Is Second Best)

Lay Down (Candles In The Rain) - Melanie

Prince - "17 Days (The Rain Will Come Down, Then U Will Have 2 Choose. If U Believe, Look 2 The Dawn And U Shall Never Lose.)"

It's the B-side of "When Doves Cry"

Istanbul (Not Constantinople) by They Might Be Giants

"My Mistake (Was To Love You)" - Marvin Gaye & Diana Ross

Genesis, "I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe)"

OK, the parenthetical part is shorter, so this doesn't belong here at all. I just like how the two segments present an apparent single complete-sentence title which doesn't actually appear as such in the song.

I thought there'd have been more Meatloaf in here, as he's the king of the song title parenthetical aside:

You Took the Words Right Out of My Mouth (Hot Summer Night)
One More Kiss (Night of the Soft Parade)
I'd Do Anything For Love (But I Won't Do That)
Out of the Frying Pay (And Into the Fire)
Good Girls Go to Heaven (Bad Girls Go Everywhere)
I'd Lie for You (And That's the Truth)
Runnin' for the Red Light (I Gotta Life)
If This is the Last Kiss (Let's Make it Last All Night)

Waylon Jennings- "Luckenbach, Texas (Back To The Basics Of Love)"

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"?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Arthur Alexander - "Anna (Go To Him)"

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

"Rosalita (Come Out Tonight)" - Bruce Springsteen

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".

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.

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

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)

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

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

Mcluskey - (Sometimes) I Have to Concentrate

*Mclusky

(most of the title ;)

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)"

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

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

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

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

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

Lay Down (Candles In The Rain) - Melanie

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

“Dawn (Go Away)” - The Four Seasons

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

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

so, then,

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

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)

(you drive me) crazy - Britney

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

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

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

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

Tank - (He Fell in Love With A) Stormtrooper

Bob Dylan, "Where Are You Tonight? (Journey Through Dark Heat)"

The Tank one reminded me of another one:

Sarah Brightman & Hot Gossip - (I Lost My Heart to A) Starship Trooper

The Miracles - (You Can't Let the Boy Overpower) The Man in You

Jim Croce - Operator (That’s Not the Way It Feels)

Same song, different parentheses:

"Walk Tall (Like a Man)" by The 2 of Clubs
"(Walk Tall) Like a Man" by The New Faces

The 2 of Clubs version is gem

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dyxU9jmk21E

Charles Wright & the Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band - "Comment (If All Men Are Truly Brothers)"
Wilco - "Wilco (The Song)"

Buffalo Springfield - For What It's Worth (Stop, Hey What's That Sound)

Scritti Politti - Oh Patti (Don't Feel Sorry for Loverboy)

Van Halen with a few for y'all:
"Big Bad Bill (Is Sweet William Now)"
"A.F.U. (Naturally Wired)
"Don't Tell Me (what Love Can Do)"
"Take Me Back (Deja Vu)"

I was super-surprised when going over their catalogue to realize that the wild, over-the-top DLR era only gave us one of such songs - "Big Bad Bill". Then again, before Diamond Dave was axed for Hagar, they were far more into placing random punctuation in their titles over parentheses, whether it was actually merited ("So This is Love?", "Bottoms Up!", "Could This Be Magic?"); accurately exuberant ("Everybody Wants Some!!"), inaccurately exuberant ("Sinner's Swing!", "Where Have All The Good Times Gone!")
and leaving us with more questions than answers ("And The Cradle Will Rock...", "Women In Love...", ""Dirty Movies"").

There are also the inexplicable omissions of exclamation points. Dave, if you are reading this (and we know you are), during the next re-re-re-release of the catalogue, nobody will be upset if a couple of fun scream-along tracks get listed as "Jump!" and "Somebody Get Me A Doctor!!", but the world? The world will be cheering you, with a drink in their hand and their toes in the sand!

Not just any Manalishi

BUT:

"The Green Manalishi (with the Two Prong Crown)"

Young & Company – I Like (What You're Doing To Me)

DJ Sprinkles - Ball'r (Madonna-Free Zone)
Billy Ocean - Caribbean Queen (No More Love on the Run)
Soul II Soul - Back to Life (However Do You Want Me)
Blut Aus Nord - Antithesis of the Flesh (...And Then Arises a New Essence)
Green Velvet - (You Don't Have to Be) Fake and Phoney

The Byrds - Turn! Turn! Turn! (To Everything There is a Season)
Janet Jackson - Funny How Time Flies (When You're Having Fun)
The Human League - Love Action (I Believe in Love)
Sly and the Family Stone = (You Caught Me) Smilin'

That Human League one always kills me, since it has "Love" in the regular and the parenthetical side of the title

Great song, too!

"If I Said You Have a Beautiful Body Would You Hold It Against Me (In The Sense That You Would Find My Appreciation Of Your Physique To Be Inappropriate)"; b-side was "If I Said You Have a Beautiful Body Would You Hold It Against Me (In The Sense That You Would Put Yourself In Close Physical Proximity To Me, Possibly With Sexual Implications)"