5 Rejected Song Titles That Reveal What Famous Songs Really Mean
Songs go through tons of revisions, often in the form of crumpled notebook sheets discarded under the songwriter’s desk. Occasionally, we’ll have a recording of the original version of a hit, which has different words and a different title, and listening to it feels like a glimpse into an alternate universe. Other times, our only clue to the original is that rejected name — but even this is enough to tell us about what could have been.
We Have the Original Version of ‘Thriller,’ and It Was Totally Different
Before Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” became the song it is today, writer Rod Temperton gave it the title “Starlight.” It had the same melody we all know but different words because originally, the song wasn’t about beasts or ghouls. It was about oppressed people clinging to hope in an unjust world. Jackson recorded a demo, which is still available today:
We’re not going to try to convince you that “Starlight” is a better song than “Thriller.” There’s no way we could say that to anyone who already has “Thriller” etched in their minds, no more than we could go up to the Pope and tell him we’ve got an alternate tale that we think should replace the story of Jesus. But we are going to ask you to really work your imagination and picture yourself only knowing the demo, about two people uniting to fix the world. Now, imagine we pitch to you the idea of changing it to be about monster movies, transforming it into a song that will become newly popular each Halloween. It will sound like we’re making a mockery of a serious work.
This becomes all the more true when you see the few seeds of the final lyrics that were present in the original, around which the rest of the words were changed. “Starlight” sings that love can possess you. “Thriller” sings that demons will possess you. “Starlight” refers to a masquerade in which authorities lie to us. “Thriller” also sings of a masquerade — a masquerade of zombies, literal zombies. “Starlight” sings of you and I getting close together to cling to the dream that will save this nation. “Thriller” sings of you and I cuddling close together, because I’m using the horror movie on TV as an excuse to put the moves on you.
Of course, the original “Starlight” didn’t end on Vincent Price reciting rhymes. The idea of tacking on a rap by a 72-year-old actor must have seemed like the most ridiculous joke when someone first suggested it. Plus, they never did quite ever find a way to make “Thriller” fit into a refrain. The original sang, “Give me starlight.” But, “This is thriller”? That’s not a grammatical statement.
However, what if the meaning never did change? What if the thing with 40 eyes and alien with open jaws are all metaphorical and speak to the same injustices the song originally protested? Hold on. We need to listen to it all again now.
‘It Must Have Been Love’ Was Originally About Christmas
On the flip side, a song can also begin as holiday-themed, before a change makes everyone forget the holiday connection.
Roxette’s “It Must Have Been Love” was a worldwide hit in 1990. But three years earlier, in the band’s home country of Sweden, they’d already released it, under the title “It Must Have Been Love (Christmas for the Broken Hearted).” They’d written it following an instruction from their label to compose an “intelligent Christmas song.”
Lyrically, this version differs from the one we all know through just a single word. At the end of the second verse, the famous version goes, “And it’s a hard winter’s day.” In the original, they instead sing, “And it’s a hard Christmas day.” The original also has chimes playing in the background, and those changes are enough to mark it as a Christmas record. Now that you know that, you’re going to always hear the final version as seasonal-themed as well.
The Christmas version totally could have been released internationally and become a perennial holiday hit, like Wham’s “Last Christmas.” But they rerecorded it for the Pretty Woman soundtrack and cut the Christmas reference, because Pretty Woman foolishly never styled itself as a Christmas movie.
‘Brown Eyed Girl’ Was ‘Brown Skinned Girl’
If you believe Van Morrison, it was pure forgetfulness that led him to change the name of this 1967 song. He was going to call it “Brown Skinned Girl” right up until he recorded it. Then he did record it, he looked down afterward and he saw the recording was labeled “Brown Eyed Girl.”
The song was (and presumably therefore still is) a tale of interracial love in the 1960s. The original title might bring to mind the Rolling Stones’ similarly titled “Brown Sugar.” Though, maybe we shouldn’t be equating the two, since “Brown Eyed Girl” is about two people in love, while “Brown Sugar” is about someone having his way with a slave. Oh, and in case “Brown Sugar” wasn’t explicit enough already, it was originally titled “Black Pussy.”
We don’t have any recordings of Van Morrison singing the lyrics as “Brown Skinned Girl.” Beyoncé did do a song called “Brown Skin Girl” a couple years back, but it’s not about a Northern Irishman’s lust at all.
‘Oh, What a Night’ Was About Prohibition
“December, 1963 (Oh, What a Night)” was first recorded by the Four Seasons in 1975. A remix became popular in 1993, and some of you might know the song best from being sampled by Flo Rida another 30 years after that.
The 1975 version reminisces about a night from 12 years before — the modern equivalent would involve looking back wistfully at 2013. The 1990s remix takes the longer view of looking back at a night three decades in the past. But as originally written, it looked back even further than that. The song was originally titled “December, 1933 (Oh, What a Night).” It looked back on December 5, 1933, the day that Prohibition was repealed. This explains all the jollification.
The Flo Rida version might then be the most true to the original spirit of the song as a drinking anthem. Also, the Flo Rida song really does feel like a wistful throwback to 2013.
The Prohibition connection also explains why the night to remember is in December of all months. No one ever sets a song in December — unless, of course, the label instructs them to compose an intelligent Christmas song.
‘Breakfast at Tiffany’s’ Is About the Wrong Audrey Hepburn Movie
“Breakfast at Tiffany’s” is about a splitting couple whose only remaining shared link is a movie they both like. Deep Blue Something came up with the idea of the song when they saw an Audrey Hepburn movie on television. That movie was Roman Holiday.
Then they changed their mind and made the chorus name-drop the movie Breakfast at Tiffany’s instead. Hey, the extra syllable fits the line better.
That leads to a slight change in the song’s meaning. Roman Holiday is a fairy-tale love story, so we can imagine the sort of couple who’d bond over watching that together. Breakfast at Tiffany’s is more like a fairy tale debunked, as the glamorous society girl at its center is revealed to be on the run from a man she was forcibly married to at the age of 13.
It didn’t make a whole lot of difference to listeners, though. According to the band, fans had no idea Breakfast at Tiffany’s was a movie at all (despite the lyrics directly saying it is). Nor did many even know Tiffany’s is a store, though the store appears in the music video. So, fans would ask them, “Great song. But who is Tiffany?”
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