How to Capitalize Song Titles Correctly | TitleCasePro

Quick answer: Song titles use title case — capitalize the first word, the last word, and all major words (nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, pronouns). Lowercase articles, coordinating conjunctions, and short prepositions. Put song titles in “quotation marks” in running text.

Song titles follow the same title case rules as book and article titles. Whether you’re tagging your music library, writing liner notes, citing a song in an essay, or formatting a playlist, the capitalization logic is identical.

The Rules for Song Titles

1. Capitalize the first and last word — always.
2. Capitalize all major words: nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, pronouns.
3. Lowercase articles (a, an, the) mid-title.
4. Lowercase coordinating conjunctions (and, but, or) mid-title.
5. Lowercase short prepositions (of, to, in, on) mid-title.

Real Song Title Examples

Song title	Why
Bohemian Rhapsody	Both major words capitalized
Come as You Are	as lowercase (short word); Are capitalized (last word, verb)
With or Without You	or lowercase; With capitalized (first word)
Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door	on lowercase (preposition)
(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction	I, Can’t, Get, No capitalized; first word after paren capitalized

⚠️ Verbs always capitalized: In Come as You Are, the word Are is a verb and is also the last word — capitalized on both counts. In We Are the Champions, Are is capitalized as a verb.

Quotation Marks vs. Italics

A formatting rule that often confuses people:

Work	Formatting
Song title	”Quotation marks”
Album title	Italics
Book title	Italics
Article title	”Quotation marks”

Rule of thumb: The smaller work (a song, an article) goes in quotation marks; the larger work that contains it (an album, a book, a journal) is italicized. So a song appears as “Bohemian Rhapsody” on the album A Night at the Opera.

Handling Parentheses and Featured Artists

Parentheses: Capitalize the first word inside parentheses as if it started a title:

• Sweet Child o’ Mine
• (Sittin’ On) The Dock of the Bay

Featured artists: The “feat.” or “ft.” tag is conventionally lowercase, and the featured artist’s name keeps its proper-noun capitalization:

• Empire State of Mind (feat. Alicia Keys)

Stylized Titles

Some artists intentionally stylize their song titles in all lowercase or unusual capitalization (e.g. thank u, next). When citing formally, most style guides allow you to either preserve the artist’s stylization or apply standard title case — be consistent within your document.

Get It Right Automatically

Paste your song title into the title capitalizer to apply correct title case instantly. The tool capitalizes major words, lowercases minor ones, and handles the first-and-last-word rule automatically.

Related Articles

• How to Capitalize a Book Title
• What Is Title Case? Rules, Examples, and Style Guides
• Is “the” Capitalized in a Title?
• Do You Capitalize Conjunctions in a Title?
• Title Capitalization Rules: The Complete Guide