Jeff S, our guitar and songwriting teacher from the greater NYC area has given us his insight on how to create a great title for your song:
Some songwriters start out with a patch of melody or a line or two of lyric 
As a general guideline, it is probably best to stay away from hackneyed song titles like ”I Love You” or “I Need You”. On the other end of the spectrum, it is also a wise idea to avoid leeching onto titles that are intrinsically and irrevocably identifiable with the original artist; that they almost become almost proprietary (and in some cases, they are).
Such iconic songs as Paul Simon’s “Bridge Over Troubled Water”, Carole King’s “You’ve Got A Friend”, Tom Petty’s “Freefallin’ ” Bill Withers’ “Lean On Me”, and Lynyrd Skynrd’s “Sweet Home Alabama” fit under this category. They are so woven into the pop cultural fabric that it would be fool’s gold to try to re-excavate them. These are but a few of such seminal songs, but I’m sure you get my drift.
And more recently there’s another stockpile of uniquely indelible songs/titles like Amy Warehouse’s ”Rehab”, Katy Perry’s “I Kissed A Girl”, Coldplay’s “Viva La Vida” or Beyonce’s, “If I Were A Boy”. All these are immediately correlated with these artists.
I am in the process of titling my 3rd artist CD and I wanted to see just how “fresh” my potential titles were. So I typed my 3 leading title contenders into the iTunes search engine and it gave me instant insight and tacit guidance. I emerged with the realization that I had to dig a bit deeper for a title that wasn’t overused and was able to immediately eliminate some titles that I was considering.
My curiosity was sufficiently ramped up by my research, so I decided to plug in some other titles that popped into mind. I found 147 songs under the title, “Always” and 75 entries called “The Hard Way” or “Hard Way”. I was surprised to see 150 songs listed under the title of Addicted “. And this was just on iTunes, so it reflects just a microcosm.
Besides itunes, there are some other fantastic sources you can utilize (for free!) to get a fix on the creative uniqueness of your song titles. The major performing rights organizations, ASCAP, BMI and SESAC, all have super extensive databases. ASCAP has the ACE Title Search. On the BMI site, look for the word search at the top of their home page. SESAC has a repertory search at the bottom of their home page. No matter what title you come up with, have fun and try to find a previously unexplored approach to your title and craft it into something that is truly you!
Jeff S
Suzy S.