I am wondering because my blog is now being picked up by google news and my partner is adamantly against any boring clear titles and chooses to go for fun and obscure titles. I understand.
For example, if I write an article about rocky balboa, he might come up with a name that pertains to the article but it could be an obscure line from a kinks song. So I am wondering. Now that others are linking to us, I do feel like it makes more sense to have rocky balboa’s name in the article. When I look at a list of sites and see ours among them, I see this nice cute title, but it gives no clue as to what the article is about. I think we’d get more clicks if rocky’s name was in the title.
I don’t mean to sound like a newb, I know the titles are important, I guess, how important is my question. Is it important enough for me to fight with him over it?
Yes, titles are very important. It’s totally worth to fight for relevant ones.
Pretty much one of the most important elements on the web-page:
f you want people to find your articles through Google, the titles are very important !
If you want people (who already visit your site !) to click and read an article, the “fun and obscure” titles may actually be better…
So as with most other things, the answer is…it depends 
what constitutes a good title? The name of what you are talking about mentioned in it?
seriocomic is right. Title is one of the most important part for SEO purposes. Make the title relevant and short.
Why not use both, the keyword and the funny title? One to keep it relevant, the other to attract attention. Both are equally important.