The Surprising Names 50 Classic Albums Were Almost Called

May 9, 2015 Tim Card Music News, Rare & Vintage Vinyl & CDs, Record Collecting News, Uncategorized 0
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Kanye West’s claim that his forthcoming album will now be called ‘SWISH’, after he’d previously said it would be called ‘So Help Me God’, isn’t the first time that a high profile act has retracted their original title for something new.
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The Smiths – ‘The Queen Is Dead’: Morrissey might have intimated that he was thinking about voting UKIP in 2013, but back in the 1980s he was a staunch left winger, and ‘The Queen Is Dead’ was originally going to be called ‘Margaret on the Guillotine’, inspired by the then incumbent Prime Minister. A song of the same name was eventually recycled for ‘Viva Hate’.
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The Beatles – ‘Revolver’: The Beatles had a hard days night working out the title for the follow-up to ‘Rubber Soul,’ with ‘Abracadabra’ favourite until they found out it had been used elsewhere. John suggested ‘Four Sides of the Eternal Triangle’, while Ringo came up with ‘After Geography’ (a weak play on words in response to the Stone’s ‘Aftermath’)
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Pixies – ‘Doolittle’: ‘Hey’ might just be the most popular Pixies song there is, and it’s certainly the most popular never released as a single. The dark lyrical underbelly of the song inspired the working LP title ‘Whore’, though Black Francis and co changed it to the more animal friendly ‘Doolittle’ and we’re kind of glad they did.
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The Beatles – ‘The White Album’: It’s those indecisive mop tops again, who this time couldn’t think of a name for ‘The White Album’ (and given that it’s not really called ‘The White Album’ – that’s just a nickname – they never really did find one). ‘A Doll’s House’ was the working title for the record they eventually put out bearing nothing more than their name and a white sheen.
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Nirvana – ‘Nevermind’: Kurt Cobain was rather concerned about all the sheeple (sheep people, obvs) following his band, a theme represented in many of the lyrics on the follow-up to ‘Bleach’, so it stood to reason he’d call it ‘Sheep’. In the end Nirvana opted for ‘Nevermind’ – a record that would sell a staggering 30 million copies (and counting). Baaaaaaaa.

Read more at NME

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