Before it became “Chop Suey!”, System of a Down knew the song by a much darker name:
“Suicide.”
And more than two decades later, even the band’s own memories do not completely agree on why it changed.
THE TITLE THAT RADIO MIGHT NOT WANT
When the song was chosen as the first single from Toxicity in 2001, its working title suddenly became a problem.
Shavo Odadjian remembers Sony objecting to releasing a single called “Suicide.” But Daron Malakian tells the story differently. According to him, nobody directly pressured the band. They simply realized that keeping the title could give radio stations an easy reason not to play the song.
So System of a Down changed it themselves.
Even producer Rick Rubin remembers another version: he has recalled the title as “Self-Righteous Suicide” and Columbia objecting to it.
The details differ.
The result does not.
“Suicide” disappeared from the title.
HOW “CHOP SUEY!” APPEARED
The replacement was anything but random.
Odadjian remembers Malakian suggesting they chop the word “Suicide” in half — turning it into “Chop Suey.”
Malakian remembers another influence as well: old gangster movies in which someone might threaten to “make chop suey” out of another person — essentially, to kill them.
The new title therefore kept a connection to the song’s theme of death without putting “Suicide” on the front of the single.
But the old name never completely vanished.
At the beginning of the released recording, just before the song starts, a voice can still be heard announcing that they are rolling “Suicide.”
The title changed.
The tape remembered.
THE STORIES BEHIND THE NOISE.
SOURCES
https://www.theringer.com/2021/09/02/music/system-of-a-down-oral-history-toxicity
https://www.loudersound.com/music/tracks-singles/the-story-of-chop-suey-system-of-a-down
https://www.loudersound.com/features/system-of-a-down-chop-suey-10-facts