Song Titles With Hidden Messages, Ranked By Cleverness

According to band members and producer Rick Rubin, the song’s original title was either “Suicide” or “Self-Righteous Suicide,” but the title was too controversial for the execs at Columbia Records in 2001 (even before 9/11, which led to the song being pulled from airplay among many others that might be considered upsetting). Instead, the band went with this tongue-in-cheek wordplay about their original title being "chopped" in half. The result is “Chop Suey,” a slightly tweaked title that went on to become one of the band’s signature songs.

David Bowie’s sixth album Aladdin Sane features the now-iconic art of Bowie with a lightning bolt painted across his face. Both this album and the title track are named for the wordplay, which phonetically translates to “a lad insane.” The album was a huge hit, and Bowie will go down in history as one of the greatest and most innovative artists of all time. 

Rock superstars Aerosmith wrote this song for their tenth studio album Pump, released in 1989. While the song title spells out the word “fine,” the subtitles of the acronym show that songwriter Steven Tyler was indeed, not fine. As cited in the liner notes, the acronym stands for “f*cked up, insecure, neurotic, and emotional,” cleverly hiding that the lyrics are actually describing teenage angst and strife.

The Beatles are one of the most popular artists of all time, and people have speculated on the hidden meanings in their lyrics for over 50 years. “Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds,” off the seminal 1967 album Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, has long been the subject of debate. While fans claim the song is about tripping on acid - the first letter of the major words in the title spell out ‘LSD’ - songwriter and frontman John Lennon denied this claim, saying it was based on a picture his son Julian drew at school.

Paul McCartney, however, seemed to later confirm that the fan theory was correct, stating it was “pretty obvious” what “Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds” was about.

1986 saw the release of rockers Van Halen’s seventh studio album 5150. The album marked the first appearance of singer Sammy Hagar, who famously replaced David Lee Roth as the group’s frontman. Both this track and the album are named after a California police code for a mentally disturbed person, referring to Section 5150 of the California Welfare and Institutions Code. Guitarist Eddie Van Halen actually named his home studio in a reference to this code as well. 

April Wine’s 1982 single from the album Power Play was a minor hit for the Canadian rock group. The album’s second single was “If You See Kay,” a wordplay precursor to the Britney Spears hit also featured on the list. Phonetically, the song title spells out a select four-letter word that matches the lusty content of the lyrics.