3 Unique Song Titles That Have Unexpected Meanings

Don’t assume that you think you know what a song is about, because you might be dead wrong. Sometimes, songwriters write a song as a disguise when they have the intention to say something else. Here are three classic tunes with titles that have meanings different from what they appear to mean.

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“Blackbird” by The Beatles

At first listen, this song seems to be pretty self-explanatory. A guy hears a “blackbird singing in the dead of night” outside his window and writes a song about it. However, Paul McCartney, who wrote the song with John Lennon, explained that the song was actually inspired by the civil rights movement at the time. “Blackbird” could also be interpreted as “black girl”, based on British slang at the time that the song was written.

“I was writing about the civil rights disturbances in Little Rock, particularly that we’d be hearing about—segregation and stuff — that shocked us so much,” McCartney shared on his iHeart podcast. “Sunken eyes seeing, broken wings flying. This is your moment to arise and be free. Then I realized I was sending it in that direction. It now wasn’t an ornithological piece; it was now to do with politics and to do with freedom, really.” 

“Poker Face” by Lady Gaga

Most people who listen to this song interpret “having a poker face” as meaning trying to hide their feelings from the partner they’re pursuing. Gaga explained to BBC One that, when she wrote it, there was more to the story. “The song ‘Poker Face’, it’s about um, ‘poker facing’ with your sexuality,” she shared. “When I was um, making love to my old boyfriend, I used to think about women sometimes.”

She continued, “I actually never told him, but I’m sure he’s watching now.” When you listen back to the lyrics, the line “bluffing with my muffin” makes a lot more sense given the context.

“Total Eclipse Of The Heart” by Bonnie Tyler

This ballad took the 80s by storm back in the day, but what you may not know is that it was actually originally intended for a musical about vampires. Jim Steinman, who composed the song, explained this to Playbill.

“With ‘Total Eclipse of the Heart,’ I was trying to come up with a love song, and I remembered I actually wrote that to be a vampire love song,” he admitted. “If anyone listens to the lyrics, they’re really like vampire lines. It’s all about the darkness, the power of darkness and love’s place in the dark.” The song was going to be used in the musical Nosferatu, but ended up being put to good use with Tyler’s vocal chops instead. In vampire speak, during an eclipse is the rare time when vampires can walk around in the daylight together without getting burned. So, I guess that’s what Steinman was getting at with the title.

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