History Main / NonAppearingTitle

* The All American Rejects' "Mona Lisa". The phrase "When the World Comes Down" appears multiple times in the chorus, and seems like the most likely title of the song. It's the title of the album instead.

* Music/{{Creed|band}}'s "Ode," from their first album ''My Own Prison''.

* Music/CrowdedHouse's "Kare Kare" off ''Music/TogetherAlone''.

* Down Low: "New Monday" – random WorkingTitle that was never changed –, "The Moldau" – retaining the title of the Music/BedrichSmetana piece they sampled, even though [[TheCoverChangesTheMeaning the lyrics aren't about the river at all]] – and "The Final To The World", which is simply a remix of "Start The Riot". Downplayed with the latter, where the actual phrase in the chorus is "start ''a'' riot", and perhaps notably averted with [[SequelSong "Murder (Part II)"]].

** More Music/{{DragonForce}}: "Black Winter Night", "Heroes of Our Time", "Soldiers of the Wasteland", "Storming the Burning Fields", "Scars of Yesterday", and "EPM".

* Actually fairly common in Music/{{Drake}}'s songs, though the titles may have something to do with the subject matter. Some examples are "Marvin's Room" (also an example of NonIndicativeName), "Headlines", "Karaoke" and "The Resistance".

* Music/BillieEilish has a few songs like this, such as "ilomilo", "listen before i go" and "Billie Bossa Nova".
* Many Electric Valentine songs, including "13 Reasons", "Chasing The Sun", "The Opposite of Name Dropping", and "A Better Class of Criminal".
* Music/{{Elisa}}'s "Rainbow".
* Emerson, Lake and Palmer's "Karn Evil 9".

** "She Won't Be Home", which may be mistaken as "Lonely Christmas" or "He Won't Be Near".
** And "The Circus", which could be called something like "Pieces of a Broken Dream".

** "Cloud Nine", "The Change", "Haunted"

* Music/FairportConvention - "Genesis Hall", "Autopsy" and "Percy's Song" on ''Music/{{Unhalfbricking}}''

* Music/FaithNoMore's "Epic", "Jizzlobber", "Cuckoo for Caca", "Caralho Voador", "King for a Day", "RV", "Malpractice", "A Small Victory", "Zombie Eaters", most of ''We Care a Lot'' and half of ''Introduce Yourself'' and ''Album of the Year''. This doesn't include "Paths of Glory", which is only an "s" away from averting the trope. It does include "Anne's Song", in which Anne gets a number of mentions.

* Most songs by Music/FallingUp, including "A Guide to Marine Life", "How They Made Cameras", and "The Dark Side to Indoor Track Meets".

* All of Music/FallOutBoy's songs ''except'' for *deep breath* "Alpha Dog", "America's Suitehearts", "Calm Before the Storm", "Dance Dance", "Dead On Arrival", "Golden", "Grand Theft Autumn/Where Is Your Boy" (half of it, anyway), "Growing Up", "Hum Hallelujah", "I Don't Care","Immortals'', ''The Music or the Misery", "Saturday", "Star 67", "This Ain't a Scene, It's An Arms Race", "Thnks fr th Mmrs" (in spelled-out form), "Sugar, We're Going Down", "Uma Thurman", and "What A Catch Donnie" (part of it).

** Averted entirely on the 2013 album "Save Rock and Roll", in which every song's title appears in the track's chorus, more or less verbatim. Furthermore, there is also a track on the album entitled "Save Rock and Roll", showing that the band has finally learned how to use titles sensibly.

* Music/FatboySlim has many songs like this, including "The Rockafeller Skank", "Gangster Trippin'", "Song for Lindy", "Song for Shelter", "Don't Let the Man Get You Down", "First Down", "Santa Cruz", "Going Out of My Head", "Everybody Needs a 303", "Everybody Loves a Carnival", "10th and Crenshaw", "Next to Nothing", "Soul Surfing", "Sho Nuff", "Love Island", "Acid 8000", "Ya Mama", "The Sound of Milwaukee", "Star 69", and countless others.
* Music/FooFighters have "Hey, Johnny Park!", "Oh, George", "Weenie Beenie", "Cheer Up Boys (Your Make-Up Is Running)" and "White Limo" (the limo is there, but its color is never referenced).
* Music/TheFlamingLips are fond of this trope. Examples include "Race For the Prize", "Fight Test", "Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, Pt. 1", "Pilot Can At the Queer of God", "Psychiatric Explorations of the Fetus With Needles", "Free Radicals", and "Flowers of Neptune 6", among many, many others.

** "Same Old Lang Syne" -- Doesn't appear in this form; the closest it gets is "another 'Auld Lang Syne'".
* Steve Forbert's [[OneHitWonder only hit of note]], "Romeo's Tune".
* [[Music/FosterThePeople Foster the People's]] "Helena Beat", "Houdini", and "Life on the Nickel".
* Music/FranzFerdinand has "Auf Achse", the only example in any of their studio albums. Counting b-sides, there's also "Better in Hoboken" and "Brown Onions" (which is an instrumental, regardless).
* An interesting case is the mid-1980s song "Friends and Lovers", which both plays with and averts this trope.

* Music/{{Garbage}} has on the studio albums "Supervixen", "Vow", "Parade," "Blood For Poppies," "Anonymous XXX," ("anonymous" does appear) and the TitleTrack of "No Gods No Masters" (the closest lyric is "no master, no gods to obey"). A few B-sides too, namely "#1 Crush," "Driving Lesson," "Subhuman," and "Sex Never Goes Out of Fashion".

* Music/GeorgeHarrison's "Ballad of Sir Frankie Crisp". It is subtitled "Let It Roll", however, which appears repeatedly (it's the main part of the chorus).

* Glass Animals frequently invoke this trope; examples include "Flip", "Walla Walla", "Hazey", "Wyrd", "Cocoa Hooves", "Life Itself", "Season 2 Episode 3", and "Cane Shuga". Additionally, "Youth", "Mama's Gun", and "The Other Side of Paradise" contain variations on their titles but not the titles themselves.

* Music/GunsNRoses' "Estranged", "Shackler's Revenge", and "Chinese Democracy".

* Music/JackHarlow did this with "Baxter Avenue", a track from his debut album ''Thats What They All Say''. While the track is named after a street in Harlow's hometown of Louisville known for its nightlife, and the lyrics basically tell the story of his life in the city, the street name is nowhere to be found. %% The album title has NO APOSTROPHE.

Compare NonIndicativeName and WordSaladTitle. Often leads to RefrainFromAssuming, when a phrase from the lyrics starts getting mistaken for the title; e.g., some people think Music/{{Queen}}'s "Bohemian Rhapsody" is called "Mama", "Scaramouche", or "Galileo".

** One example that's actually with ''Japanese'' title: "Izanagi", the opening theme of [[Characters/KamenRiderZiORiderTimeShinobi Kamen Rider Zi-O Rider Time: Kamen Rider Shinobi]] miniseries, does not feature the word "Izanagi" at all in the lyric. Closest in the lyric is the word "izanau", which is an actual word that means "calling out", while "Izanagi" is the name of a Japanese deity.
* Almost any song with [[TheSomethingSong "Song"]] or [[SomethingBlues "Blues"]] in its title (e.g. "Mercury Blues", which at least has the "Mercury" half).
** With the notable exceptions of Music/NickCave's "The Weeping Song" and "Higgs Boson Blues", Music/{{Queen}}'s "Melancholy Blues", Music/BobDylan's "Tombstone Blues" and "Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again", Music/TheWhiteStripes' "300 MPH Torrential Outpour Blues", The Music/ManicStreetPreachers' "Watsville Blues", Music/EddieCochran's "Summertime Blues", Glenn Frey's "Smuggler's Blues", Music/DavidBowie's "Running Gun Blues," "Existential Blues," and "I Got Those Wake Up 7:30, Wash Your Ears They're Dirty, Eat your Eggs and Oatmeal Rush to School Blues", Steely Dan's "Deacon Blues", Music/{{Robert Johnson}}'s "Walking Blues", Blind Willie [=McTell=]'s "Statesboro Blues", Weird Al Yankovic's "Buckingham Blues", Brian Setzer's "'49 Mercury Blues", George Harrison's "Sue Me, Sue You Blues", and Elton John's "I Guess That's Why They Call It the Blues".
** A double exception: Music/NeilDiamond's "Song Sung Blue".
** Another exception to this and the above J-Pop rule (sort of) is the ''Anime/CowboyBebop'' end theme, "The Real Folk Blues".
** The musicals ''Love Life'', ''Celebration'' and ''Theatre/{{Pippin}}'' each averted this with a song titled "Love Song".

** Film/TheDevilWearsPrada's "Hey John, What's Your Name Again?".
** Heavyheavylowlow's "3000, 100 Points, 100 Pts, Gummy Octopi".

* 4 Non Blondes' "What's Up" was specifically given that title to prevent it from being confused with the Music/MarvinGaye classic "Music/WhatsGoingOn", due to the latter phrase being the one used in the chorus.
* {{Music/ACDC}}'s "Rock N Roll Train" - the chorus repeatedly refers to a "runaway train", but the words "rock and roll" are never mentioned in that particular song. The WorkingTitle was in fact "Runaway Train" and it was considered for a TitleTrack for the album, but they decided it was too overused as a title [[note]]Music/SoulAsylum, Music/EltonJohn, and Music/TomPetty all have different songs of that name, among others[[/note]]; so the song became "Rock N Roll Train" while the album became ''Black Ice''.
* Music/AdamAndTheAnts' "Kings of the Wild Frontier".
* Music/{{Aerosmith}}'s "Adam's Apple".

* Music/AlterBridge's "Metalingus" (which you may know better as [[NoIndoorVoice "ON THIS DAY!"]], especially if you've been watching [[Wrestling/EdgeWrestler Professional Wrestling]] for the past decade), "White Knuckles" and "Words Darker Than Their Wings".

** "Diamonds In The Sidewalk" is just Creator/JackKerouac reciting a passage from his poem "Mexico City Blues", with instrumental accompaniment. The poem does not say "diamonds in the sidewalk" at any point.

* A number of Music/ArcadeFire songs, including "Antichrist Television Blues", "Black Wave/Bad Vibrations", "Intervention", "Rebellion (Lies)", and "The Well and the Lighthouse" (though at least that one actually is about a well and a lighthouse).
* Music/ArcticMonkeys has "D is For Dangerous", "Da Frame 2R", "Brianstorm", "Fluorescent Adolescent", and a few others.
* Music/TheArrogantWorms' "The Last Saskatchewan Pirate", and "The Tokyo Love Story".
* Music/{{Audioslave}}'s "Bring 'Em Back Alive", "Cochise", "Exploder", and "Hypnotize".
* Music{{Ash}} have "Petrol", "Goldfinger", "I'd Give You Anything", "Let it Flow", "Lost in You", "Low Ebb", "Jesus Says", "Numbskull", "Orpheus", "Polaris" and "Planet of Excess" (originally intended to be called "Suicide Girls" which does appear in the lyrics) among others.
* The Avalanches' "Saturday Night Inside Out".
* Music/AvengedSevenfold has "Bat Country", which doesn't appear in the lyrics but makes sense if you actually understand the [[Literature/FearAndLoathingInLasVegas reference.]]

* Backyard Babies "Minus Celsius" could as well have been called "Minus Fahrenheit", but it's a Swedish band. (Eric Half-A-Trope - the "Minus" appears.)

* Music/TheBangles, if you don't count [[TheSomethingSong "The Rain Song"]], have only done this four times: "[[Music/AllOverThePlace Dover Beach]]", "[[Music/AllOverThePlace Silent Treatment]]", "Between the Two," and "Song For a Good Son".

** "The Ballad of John And Yoko", "A Day in the Life", "The Inner Light", "Tomorrow Never Knows" and "Yer Blues".

* Music/TheBeeGees' first big hit "New York Mining Disaster 1941", probably better known by the first line of the chorus: "Have you seen my wife, Mr. Jones?"
* Music/HarryBelafonte's "Banana Boat Song", though "Day-O" (part of the lyrics) is used as an alternate title.
* Music/BenFolds Five has "Song for the Dumped" and "Rent A Cop", though both titles are descriptive of the song's subject/topic.

* Music/TheBirthdayMassacre's "The Dream", "Looking Glass", "Movie", "Red Stars", "Play Dead" and "Science". "Play Dead" gets pretty close, with the line "I'll cast you a spell, a magic where everyone play'''''s''''' dead forever." "Red Stars" also comes close, with "red star [note the singular]" appearing in the chorus.
* Music/{{Bjork}}'s "Jóga", "Bachelorette", "Pluto", "Heirloom", "You've Been Flirting Again", "Hyperballad", "Pneumonia", "Domestica", "Frosti", "Batabid", "Ancestors", "Dark Matter" and "Cosmogony"

* Blessid Union of Souls' "Hey Leonardo", though the alternate title "She Likes Me for Me" does appear.

** "Josie", more recognizable by the chorus, the repeated "I know that everything/know that everything's gonna be fine."
** "Edging", which features Tom [=DeLonge=]'s return to the band, refers to the sexual practice of the same name.
%%* Music/BloodhoundGang's "The Bad Touch" and "Mope".
* Music/BloodRedShoes' "Say Something, Say Anything" in ''Box of Secrets''.

** Also true of "Sexual Powertrip", which is also called "Sexual Powertrip (One Big Lie) Bla Bla Bla". The second two titles appear, but the primary title - the first one - does not.
* Music/BlueOysterCult: "Morning Final", "Divine Wind"

* Music/TheBooRadleys didn't seem that bothered whether their titles appeared in the lyrics or not. Some of their better known songs with non-appearing titles are "Lazarus", "Barney (...And Me)" and "From The Bench At Belvidere" (and just to add to the confusion, "From the Bench at Belvidere" ''does'' contain the phrase "Barney and me").
* Brand New have more than a few, especially on their first two albums. "Jude Law and a Semester Abroad", "Sudden Death in Carolina", "Logan to Government Center", "Okay I Believe You, But My Tommy Gun Doesn't", and "[[UsefulNotes/SpanishCivilWar Guernica]]", among others.

* Accidentally occurs in Ken Boothe's cover of Bread's ''Everything I Own''. Throughout the record Ken sings 'Anything I own' instead of the title.
* Bronski Beat's SignatureSong, "Smalltown Boy".
* BT: "Superfabulous", "Somnambulist"("somnambulating" appears, but not "somnambulist"), "Paris"(although "Parisians" appears), and "The Last Moment of Clarity"(not "Deeper And Deeper" or "Life's A Twisted Road") from ''Emotional Technology'', "Movement in Still Life"(mostly LoopedLyrics anyway), "Mercury & Solace", and "Love on Haight Street" from ''Movement in Still Life'', and "Firewater", "Lullaby for Gaia", and "Solar Plexus" from ''[=ESCM=]''(US version).
* Buffalo Springfield's "For What It's Worth". The title comes from the record company misunderstanding David Crosby when he told them "I have a new song, for what it's worth", making the title a form of ThrowItIn.
* Music/{{Bush}} has the songs "Bomb", "Testosterone", "Disease of the Dancing Cats", and "Altered State" among others.
* Music/ButtholeSurfers: "Strawberry", "Some Dispute Over T-Shirt Sales", "Goofy's Concern"...And that's just ''one'' album (''Independent Worm Saloon'').
* Music/CabCalloway's "Hep Cat's Love Song".
* Music/{{Cake}}'s "Shadow Stabbing" and "Nugget".
* Music/ColbieCaillat's "Iris".

* Rosanne Cash's "Blue Moon with Heartache", sort of. "Blue moon" and "heartache" occur in the first verse, but they are separated by quite a few words and do not reappear in the chorus.

* Several songs by Music/ChildishGambino, especially on ''because the internet''. Examples include "II. Shadows", "IV. Sweatpants", "III. Flight of the Navigator" and more. Many of the song titles only make sense if you have read the album's accompanying screenplay. Also his most radio-successful song, "Redbone".

* Music/LeonardCohen has 'Master Song', 'The Stranger Song', 'Ballad of the Absent Mare', 'Villanelle for Our Time', 'To a Teacher', 'Death of a Ladies' Man', 'Memories', 'Anthem', 'Tacoma Trailer', 'Story of Isaac', 'The Partisan', 'One of Us Cannot Be Wrong' and 'Hunter's Lullaby'.
** "Chelsea Hotel #2" is a borderline example, with the words "Chelsea Hotel" appearing but not the number, as is "Paper Thin Hotel", which has all of the words in the title but not in the same order.
* Music/{{Coldplay}}'s "Amsterdam", "Don't Panic", "Parachutes", "The Scientist", "X&Y", "Life in Technicolor" (mostly instrumental), "Life in Technicolor II" (not mostly instrumental, but still no TitleDrop), "Viva la Vida" (the title track for an album, but this phrase isn't in any of their songs; supposedly it was a LineOfSightName found while recording the album), "Twisted Logic", "Lovers in Japan", "Chinese Sleep Chant" ([[IndecipherableLyrics probably]]), "The Escapist", "Charlie Brown", "Ink", "Midnight", "Hymn for the Weekend", "Adventure of a Lifetime", and probably more in the future if this is any indication...

* Covenant's "Theremin", which [[NonindicativeName doesn't use]] the [[{{Theremin}} instrument of the same name]] either. Same for "Leviathan", "Pulse", "20hz", and others.
* Music/TheCowsills' "The Rain, the Park and Other Things", often assumed to be "Flower Girl". "The rain" and "the park" do appear in the lyrics, but in different verses.

* Music/{{Creed|band}}'s "Ode", from their first album ''My Own Prison''.

* Music/DaYoopers do this a lot: "Chicquito War", "Bingo Fever", "Fishin wit Fred", "Yooper Kid", "Pizza in My Shorts", "Da Fishing Trip", "He Thinks He's Elvis", "My First Time Ever", "She Don't Make Good Pasties"...

* Music/DeathCabForCutie's "Steadier Footing", "Lightness" (not "Ivory Lines"), "Expo '86", "Marching Bands of Manhattan", "Grapevine Fires" (not "Before We All Burn"), "Transatlanticism", and "President of What?" (not "I Saw The Scene Unfold" or "Break You Down").

* The Devin Townsend Project: "March Of The Poozers", "Stormbending", among others...
* Music/{{Disturbed}}'s "Bound", "Numb", and "Conflict", with the latter featuring the word 'Enemy' at least over fifty times. Interestingly, the classic demo-tape/underground recording of "Perfect Insanity" does feature its title throughout, but the ''Indestructible'' re-recording drops this, making it one of these.
* Music/{{Donovan}}'s "Sunshine Superman".

** The latter does have "see them long trains run".
* Music/TheDoors' "Shaman's Blues".

* The Darkness song "Knockers", it does mention a girl's breasts though.
* Music/{{DragonForce}}'s "Heartbreak Armageddon", "Operation Ground and Pound", and "Revolution Deathsquad". They were all named solely for the sake of having [[RuleOfCool cool]] song titles.

* All of Music/FallOutBoy's songs ''except'' for *deep breath* "Alpha Dog", "America's Suitehearts", "Calm Before the Storm", "Dance Dance", "Dead On Arrival", "Golden", "Grand Theft Autumn/Where Is Your Boy" (half of it, anyway), "Growing Up", "Hum Hallelujah", "I Don't Care","Immortals'', ''The Music or the Misery", "Saturday", "Star 67", "This Ain't a Scene, It's An Arms Race", "Thnks fr th Mmrs" (in spelled-out form), "Sugar, We're Going Down", ''Uma Thurman'' and "What A Catch Donnie" (part of it).

* All of Music/FallOutBoy's songs ''except'' for *deep breath* "Alpha Dog", "America's Suitehearts", "Calm Before the Storm", "Dance Dance", "Dead On Arrival", "Golden", "Grand Theft Autumn/Where Is Your Boy" (half of it, anyway), "Growing Up", "Hum Hallelujah", "I Don't Care","The Music or the Misery", "Saturday", "Star 67", "This Ain't a Scene, It's An Arms Race", "Thnks fr th Mmrs" (in spelled-out form), "Sugar, We're Going Down", and "What A Catch Donnie" (part of it).

* Boz Scaggs' "Lido Shuffle" is about a man named LIdo, with his name dropped many times, but the word "shuffle" doesn't appear at all.

* Music/{{Petra}}'s "The Coloring Song."