10 Standout Songs With The Word 'Truth' In The Title

Feature Photo: Heinrich Klaffs, CC BY-SA 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

Truth can mean honesty between two people, a hard fact nobody wants to hear, or something bigger involving politics and how people live together. Songwriters have used the word in all of those ways, which is why these ten records sound so different from one another. The list moves from punk and soul to electronic music, country, blues-rock, and psychedelic rock. What connects them is how each song treats truth as something with consequences.

# 10 – Truth Hits Everybody – The Police

“Truth Hits Everybody” appeared on the Police’s 1978 debut album Outlandos d’Amour. Sting wrote the song, and the band recorded it during the rough early sessions that gave the album much of its nervous energy. Stewart Copeland’s drums and Andy Summers’ guitar drive the track at a pace much closer to punk than the more spacious records the Police would make later. The lyric is blunt about mortality and the fact that nobody gets to escape certain truths forever. There is no attempt to soften that idea with a pretty arrangement. It is a short, hard song from a band that was still figuring out exactly how much ground it could cover.

Read More: Top 10 Police Songs

# 9 – Three Chords And The Truth – Van Morrison

Van Morrison released “Three Chords and the Truth” on his 2019 album of the same name. Morrison wrote and produced the recording, which arrived during one of the most productive stretches of his long career. The title borrows an old phrase about the basic ingredients of honest music, and Morrison uses it to celebrate simplicity rather than limitation. The track stays rooted in the blues, soul, and jazz language he has worked in for decades. The arrangement is nothing flashy, which is part of the point. Morrison sounds most comfortable when the band locks into a groove and leaves him room to sing.

Read More: Our 10 Favorite Van Morrison Songs

# 8 – Don’t Tell A Lie About Me And I Won’t Tell The Truth On You – James Brown

James Brown put “Don’t Tell A Lie About Me And I Won’t Tell The Truth On You” on his 1974 double album Hell. Brown produced the album and surrounded himself with musicians from the J.B.’s and a larger group of studio players. The title is almost the entire argument of the song: leave him alone, and he will return the favor. Brown turns that threat into a groove rather than a sermon, with the band giving him plenty of room to jab at the words. Hell came during one of his most aggressive funk periods, and this track has the same hard rhythmic feel. Nobody could make a warning sound quite as danceable as James Brown.

Read More: Top 25 James Brown Songs

# 7 – Truth And Honesty – Aretha Franklin

Aretha Franklin recorded “Truth and Honesty” for her 1981 album Love All the Hurt Away. Burt Bacharach, Carole Bayer Sager, and Peter Allen wrote the song, giving Franklin a polished pop-soul setting rather than the tougher Atlantic sound of her earlier years. The lyric asks for the two things a relationship cannot survive without, and Franklin gradually turns that simple request into something far more urgent. Arif Mardin produced the album, reuniting with a singer whose greatest records he had helped shape years earlier. Franklin does not need to oversell the message because the lift in her voice does the work. By the end, “Truth and Honesty” sounds less like advice than a demand.

Read More: 10 Essential Aretha Franklin Songs

# 6 – Policy Of Truth – Depeche Mode

Depeche Mode released “Policy of Truth” in 1990 as the third single from Violator. Martin Gore wrote the song, Dave Gahan sang lead, and Depeche Mode produced it with Flood. The lyric turns honesty into a problem rather than a virtue, warning that telling the truth can carry consequences that cannot be taken back. That uneasy idea fits the dark electronic production perfectly. The single reached number fifteen on the Billboard Hot 100 and number sixteen in the United Kingdom. Like the rest of Violator, it sounds sleek on the surface while something much less comfortable is happening underneath.

Read More: Top 10 Depeche Mode Deep Tracks

# 5 – Truth N’ Time – Al Green

Al Green released “Truth N’ Time” on the 1978 album of the same name. Green wrote the title track and produced the album himself at American Music Recording Studios in Memphis. The record came at a turning point in his career, just before he moved much more fully into gospel music for the next several years. “Truth N’ Time” still carries the smooth Memphis soul sound associated with Green, but there is a reflective quality in the writing that fits that moment of change. His voice remains relaxed even when the lyric is weighing what honesty and time can do to a relationship. It is an overlooked track from a period of Green’s catalog that deserves more attention.

Read More: Top 10 Al Green Songs

# 4 – The Truth About Arthur – Golden Earring

Miracle Mirror - Limited Gatefold 180-Gram Crystal Clear Vinyl

“The Truth About Arthur” opens Golden Earring’s 1968 album Miracle Mirror. George Kooymans and Rinus Gerritsen wrote the song, and Fred Haayen produced the recording. Barry Hay had joined the group by this point and sings lead on a record that sounds very different from the harder rock Golden Earring would become famous for in the 1970s. The track belongs firmly to the band’s psychedelic period, with an arrangement that is stranger and more compact than later hits such as “Radar Love.” Its odd mood makes the title feel less like an explanation than another mystery. For listeners who only know the international hits, early Golden Earring can be a real surprise.

Read More: Top 10 Golden Earring Songs

# 3 – What Is Truth – Johnny Cash

Johnny Cash wrote and released “What Is Truth” in 1970, turning the generation gap and the Vietnam era into one of his sharpest protest songs. The lyric moves through older people judging young music, a child asking why wars happen, and a young man whose appearance matters more to people than whether he is telling the truth. Bob Johnston produced the single, which reached number nineteen on the Billboard Hot 100 and number three on the country chart. Cash performed the song at the White House for President Richard Nixon on April 17, 1970. That setting gave the questions in the lyric an extra edge. Cash could sound traditional enough to be invited into the room while still singing something that challenged the people running it.

# 2 – Tell The Truth – Derek & The Dominos

The Layla Sessions: Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs by Derek and the Dominos

“Tell the Truth” appears on Derek & the Dominos’ 1970 album Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs. Bobby Whitlock developed the song with Eric Clapton, and both men share the official writing credit. The group first recorded an earlier, faster version in London before remaking the song at Criteria Studios in Miami with producer Tom Dowd. The album version gives Clapton and Whitlock’s voices room to push against each other while the band settles into a heavy blues-rock groove. Carl Radle and Jim Gordon keep the rhythm moving underneath the guitars and keyboards. Like so much of the Layla album, the performance sounds less polished than urgent.

# 1 – Gimme Some Truth – John Lennon

John Lennon released “Gimme Some Truth” on his 1971 album Imagine. Lennon had been working on the song for years before finally recording it at Ascot Sound Studios, with Lennon, Yoko Ono, and Phil Spector producing. George Harrison plays the sharp slide-guitar solo, while Nicky Hopkins, Klaus Voormann, Alan White, and others fill out the track. Lennon aims the lyric at politicians, newspapers, hypocrisy, and anybody else he thought was trying to sell people a line. The vocal sounds irritated from the first verse and never settles down. Where “Imagine” asks listeners to picture a better world, “Gimme Some Truth” sounds like Lennon demanding that the existing one stop lying to him.