Oct 9, 2008
Those are the wrong lyrics, but keep on singing. It’s fun for the rest of us.
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Mondegreen: a misinterpretation of a phrase, such as a line in a song, due to near homophony.
What lyrics have you misunderstood?
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© 2012 Abuyo. All rights reserved.
I’ll start:
Apparently, Beck is singing in Spanish during the chorus of “Loser” and not telling us to “soar over Canada.”
Also, the first time I heard “Cry Holy,” I thought the people performing it said “All the Asians cry, Holy, Holy Lord.” That would be good, I suppose.
One Sunday, we sang “Bow Down” by David Baroni & Tony Sutherland. Only when reviewing the recording did we notice that one of the team sang “Consuming Fire and Cheap Perfume”.
Then there was the time when singing “The Lord Almighty Reigns”, I heard myself sing “He has shown His Austin Powers.”
We don’t do that song anymore.
My nine year old was very impressed with God’s intelligence as he sang ‘God’s got brains’ as we all sang ‘ Our God Reigns”.
My now 25 year old son used to belt out these words at the top of his voice while riding in the back of the mini-van: Our God is an Awesome GUY!”
Also, we used to listen to Twila Paris alot back then and in regards to the song, “He is exalted, ” my son asked: “Why is God so insulted?” :)
I misunderstood the lyrics to an old Elton John song Tiny Dancer. The correct lyrics are: Lay me down in sheets of linen. I thought it said, “Lay me down in sheets of lemon.” That doesn’t even make sense! haha!
Friend of mine thought that the Creedence Clearwater Revival song which says “theres a bad moon on the rise” said “there’s a bathroom on the right”.
I still don’t understand the lyrics to “Blinded by the Light” by Manfred Mann
Not a song, but I love listening to my 4 year old say the pledge of allegiance: ” . . . one dalmation under God . . .
I always thought the Neil Diamond song was “Reverend in Blue Jeans.” It wasn’t until Jason Castro sang it on Americal Idol last year that I learned it is instead “Forever in Blue Jeans.” I thought Jason was changing the lyrics because he was anti-reverend or something.
There’s always the classic “Hold me closer, Tony Danza.”
Also, my wife and I once had a fight over William Joel’s “We Didn’t Start the Fire.” She swore it was “Turkey’s in Afghanistan.” I explained that that was both lyrically and historically incorrect– it’s “Russians in Afghanistan.” She said it was no big deal. I went to try and find the CD. Not one of my better moments.
When my brother and I were little we had a record of the songs from Mary Poppins. We used to dance around our room singing “Lick your elbows, step in tiiiiiiime” at the top of our lungs.
Never did figure out the contortion necessary to lick my own elbow.
When I was younger, we sang “Why so downcast, O my soul? Put your hope in God.” I thought people were singing “butcher hope in God” and wondered why we were singing about butchers in church.
Blew out my flip-flop
Stepped on a pop-tart
You know the call and response kids’ song…”Hallelu-, Hallelu-, Hallelu-, Hallelujah. Praise ye the Lord!” My daughter always responds: “Crazy the Lord!” It always gets us laughing!
My father and I were listening to Relient K’s song “Which to Bury; Us or the Hatchet” when the lyrics “I tried to hold your hand but you’d rather hold your grudge” came up. My dad misheard that as “I tried to hold your hand but you’d rather hold your crotch.” Suffice it to say, that song has been ruined for me.
Mine’s from the hymn “Victory in Jesus”:
Instead of “He sought me and bought me”, “He socked me and boxed me”.
i had never heard that song “party like a rock star” until i was at the all hall fall ball for my college. i was having trouble figuring out what the song was about, since i thought they kept singing “barking like a bulldog.”
it was pretty appropriate, though, because we are the butler bulldogs :D
When Saturday Night Fever came out…my little singer at four years old, would do the Karaoke thing and sing: Ah, Ah, Ah, Ah, Shakin Alive, Shakin Alive
Definitely one of his favorite songs. This was way before anyone knew Karaoke…Quite the dancer as well…*: )
The youngest of my little band of sisters used to sing loudest of all during Vacation Bible School…Love Gifted Me, Love Gifted Me…*: )
When I was really young, I thought “Angels We Have Heard on High” had the line “Gloria in eggshells and stable.”
My daugher, age 5, sings the praise song “step, by step, believe me, and I will follow you all of my days.” i guess she thinks it is a dialog between she and God, I hope, that step by step as we believe Him, we will follow all of our days. the real lyrics, “step by step you lead me, and i will follow you all of my days.” she sings with such heart, i just can’t correct her.
Also, when I had taken a postion at our church’s day care with two year olds…the kids took turns being “The Song Leader”…Top of the Top Ten…This is the Day….one little girl would start jumping up and down when we were choosing the leader saying…”I want to be Joyce!” When her turn came I always said, “Well come on up here Joyce”…*: )
As a young boy:
“Pretty Woman yeah, yeah, yeah…
Pretty Woman ‘lick my leg’….”
(instead of ‘look my way’)
Yeah, missed that one big time!
First time I have confessed this…
“May it be a sweet sweet sound in your rear.”
Even today, I can’t sing that song.
Back in the 80s, my Mom thought Madonna was singing “… I’m a cheerio… I’m a cheerio…” (“a material… a material world”)
Also… I can’t even write all the ways I misunderstood this song when I was a kid: “Life is a Rock” (http://www.lyricsondemand.com/r/reunionlyrics/lifeisarocklyrics.html)
Some of my favorites to realize now are:
“Baby Bumble in the Stinger” instead of “B.B. Bumble and the Stingers” and
“Teeth are purple, Satisfaction” instead of “Deeper purple, Satisfaction”
When my husband was younger, they would sing hymns before eating dinner. A family favorite was “Now Unto the King Eternal” but for years he sang the lyrics he was hearing…
“Now Unto the King Turtle, immortal, invisible…”
Amy Grant’s song “Livin’ a Legacy” became “livin’ Alexi”, by my daughter, yes, you guesssed it, Alexi. . . She could never figure out why somebody wrote a song about livin’ “her”. We still tease her about it.
Gloria Estefan–The Rhythm is Gonna Get You
Tricky Man is gonna get you…..
not sure who the tricky man is, but it made the tune a little more haunting :)
My college roomate and I got into a fight with some girls at Mcdonalds because we thought “Give me the beat boys to free my soul” was “Give me the Beach Boys to free my soul.”
We felt pretty dumb when we checked the internet and found out they were right, so, to redeem ourselves we downloaded the lyrics and changed them to “Beach Boys,” and used that to convince the ladies we were right. As far as I know, they still think its “Beach Boys.”
Who is laughing now?
Several years ago, a car dealership or manufacturer used a popular rock and roll song that I am not familiar with in one of their radio ads.
I jokingly asked my husband what a “bag of bones” had to do with cars.*
A few weeks later the TV version of the ad was aired and in one shot the bold words “BAD TO THE BONE” were shown on the screen.
I laughed and said, “I guess I’m not the only one who didn’t understand those lyrics; they had to show them on the screen for everyone else, too:)”
*(I hadn’t heard of the Stephen King novel either. I’m not sure if it had even been written yet.)
Sorry, neither a song, nor me, but I have to.
My nephew’s understanding of the Trinity? The Father, the Son, and the Whole Experience.
(I can remember my older brothers laughing at my misunderstandings of lots of lyrics, but can’t come up with any specifics at the moment.)
Dale,
Yes! That is the way that I sang “Victory in Jesus” too when I was a kid! I think I even did motions when I we got to that part like I was being punched. Unfortunately I was unable to creatively mishear the lyrics of “Softly and Tenderly”… I cringed at how sissy it sounded after singing “Victory in Jesus.”
“I’m dreaming of a wife for Christmas..just like the ones I used to know.”
Also, the song, “I Do, Cherish You” by 98 degrees..
“Your hair brush is mine and a thousand sensations suduce me cause I…” instead of “Your hand brushes mine..”
I actually thought it was sweet that couples shared hair brushes.
I have tons more, I’m sure.
I used to think AC/DC’s ‘Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap’ said ‘thirty beans for the dungeon chief’.
The old Genesis song, “She seems to have an invisible touch”
I thought, “She sees a hat and physical attraction!”
Don’t know how I even knew the phrase physical attraction, but hey…
Natalie Grant’s “Held” – I thought the 2nd half of the chorus went thusly:
this is what it is to be loved, and to know that the promise was worth everything fell we beheld
I think my misheard version is better for a few reasons, not least of which was that it used an archaic definition of fell (“able or disposed to inflict pain or suffering”). Imagine my disappointment when I discovered the true lyrics (“…when everything fell we’d be held”). The song’s still good, but that particular line will always feel to me like it’s lacking something.
My husband, Jake, commented above.
What he didn’t say was that he, the king of lyrical understanding, used to think that Paula Abdul’s “Rush, Rush” (early 90s) was actually “Mush, Mush.” As in sled dogs.
I have a second-cousin who would sing (very loudly) in church “Lead on O kinky turtle…” during the hymn, “Lead On, O King Eternal.”
I was too young to get it, but I always wondered why my mom chuckled during that hymn.
Years ago at Bethlehem we used to regularly sing “Glory be to the Father, and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost. As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, world without end. Amen. Amen.” The son of some friends of mine would sing “We’re at the end! Amen. Amen.” (No, Abraham, it wasn’t you. It was Eric Smith.)
Oh beautiful for “spaceship guys” and amber waves of grain.
~a friend just shared with me that this is what her young son has been singing and calls it The Spaceship Guy song.
BTW, I’ve been LOL reading through these!
Thanks!
I remember when my mom came home while my sister and I were watching “Little Shop of Horrors.” When we told her what we were watching, all our Rs ran together and gave our mom quite a shock.
I always wondered why REM wanted to “ask this guy and tell this guy: don’t fall on me.”
JoeS—laughing out loud about the REM one!
I remembered another one, not song-related.
Every morning during school we stood to say the Pledge of Allegiance.
I thought for YEARS that it said, “And to the Republic, for Richard stands.”
Any experts in angelic anatomy here?
My brother once sang the first line of “All Hail the Power” as “let angels prostate fall.”
“we thought “Give me the beat boys to free my soul” was “Give me the Beach Boys to free my soul.””
I can’t believe I’ve been singing that wrong all these years! Argh.
I used to think the song “How Bizarre” by OMC was “Pal pazonne” instead of “how bizarre”.
hey you should check out a music quiz show on Australian TV called ‘spicks and specks’ (named after a line in a bee gees song). There was a regular segment about mondegreens and it was hilarious!
http://www.abc.net.au/tv/spicksandspecks/
Why did Mr. Mister want to “carry a laser” through the darkness of the night? I suppose that a Star Wars reference was more 80s appropriate than Catholic liturgy.
The classic mondegreen:
“Blinded by the light,
revved up like a deuce,
another runner in the night”
I am sure that I do not need to elaborate on the many interpretations of that line.
“The Lord’s with it, and blessed be my rock!
Blessed be the rock of my salvation!”
Yep… instead of “The Lord liveth…” Well, God IS with it — good thing!
Don’t tell her I told you, but my mom thought the words were “There’s a bathroom on the right,” instead of “There’s a bad moon on the rise.” It didn’t really matter what my dad, an oldies DJ, said; it’ll forever be, “There’s a bathroom on the right” in our house.
Following the bodily function theme, we always sing “Walking in our winter underwear” at Christmas.
Putting this in writing makes me aware just how embarrassing it is.
My buddy’s mom used to get really upset when she heard the Canadian national anthem. She thought it said ‘We stand on God for thee’.
Apparently Phil Collins is saying “Oh Lord” not “Hold on” in ‘In the Air Tonight’. Is it wrong to prefer the lyrics you hear over the correct lyrics?
Rolling Stones: I’ll never be your pizza burnin’ (made more sense when I was young than “beast of burden”)…
“Blame it all on my roots, I showed up in boots at at rubinger black tie affair”
I can’t think of one of mine, but growing up, a friend of mine had some interesting interpretations of Phil Collins.
His song, “Invisible Touch” has a line “she seems to have an invisible touch” but my friend always used to think it was “she seems to have an invisible tongue shape.”
While belting out the theme song to The Jeffersons in the car with my husband (don’t ask me why), it was brought to my attention that they were movin’ on up to the East Side, not ‘the top’, which doesn’t even rhyme with east side so I can’t explain how I could have it sooo wrong. However, I can say I have met one other person who had been singing it incorrectly all her life as well. 30 years I had been singing it that way…..so embarrasing!
Shannon-
You have more company :) I thought it was that forever!
Madonna sings, “Last night I dreamt of some bagels…” in La Isla Bonita.
Sophie B. Hawkins’ song As I Lay has the lyrics “Who wants nachos?” and “We want tacos!” in the background.
“God of wonders beyond our gallancy…”
I’m with dBro, why would anyone want to be “wrapped up like a douche in the middle of the night”?
Plus,it’s not a lyric, but I overheard my 7 year old son cautioning his friends not to take the Lord’s name insane.
Apologies for the double post, but just remembered one from when I was little: “I’ve got the joy, joy, joy, joy down in my heart, down in my heart Tuesday.”
Occasionally I would change the day of the week to whatever day I was actually singing, because I thought it was silly that Tuesday was the only day I should have joy in my heart.
“Glory to the Lord”: real lyrics…
“Who holds the righteous by the hand? Who is the way in this marvellous hour?”
My 3 year old’s version?
“Who is the way when my mommy is sour?”
She is 9 now and as the story has been told and retold we always get a little snicker when we sing that song at family worship.
My sister had a few. We used to sing a song that had the line “A Rock Eternal is our great salvation.” This morphed into a rocky turtle being our great salvation. Also, “My life he lived and my death he died” because “My life he lived and my Daffy died” (yes, as in the duck).
I can’t remember any songs I’ve messed up (although I’m sure there’s one that I can’t remember), but I was another who got the Pledge of Allegiance wrong. I first thought of us having one nation, invisible – well, what does that mean? Can’t other people see America? After that, it took me a while to change my thinking on that word – for a while, I thought we were one nation, invincible – no one can beat us, man!! Especially when we’re under God! Maybe God made us invisible, too!
In the song Beautiful the lyrics are
Beautiful One I love
Beautiful One I adore
Beautiful One my soul must sing
I thought it was
my soul, my strength
But, when I saw the lyrics written, I thought, well I wouldn’t call Him my soul…doh!
I thought NOFX was “just doin’ it for the gods,” and that Morrissey was hoping in the “bong that will bring us together.”
My brother requested “the cheese song” once when we were singing hymns. We finally realized he meant “bringing in the sheaves”, he’d just been singing cheese instead of sheaves.
I’ve been told when I was really little I sang the alphabet song “h i j k gentleman pee” instead of lmnop
but I think my personal favorite is what my Mom said when she was little, “lead us not into Penn Station, but deliver us from evil”
It always sounds to me like Chris Tomlin is singing, “How gray is our God, sing with me how gray is our God…”
I thought “Secret Agent Man” was “Secret Asian Man”. Being Asian, I thought it was cool until my dad corrected me.
this old gem in church: “it’s all about you, Jesus [. . .] it’s all about me, as if you should do things my way” (or the alternate rendering, “it’s not about you, as if you should do things my way”). pronouns are so tricky!
i never really cared for this worship song growing up but i DID enjoy listening for people to mess it up so i could giggle. that sounds so much worse now i’m writing it down. sorry.
I thought Morrissey sang
“Sweetness, I was only joking when I said I’d like to smash doritos in your hair”
Actual lyrics:
“Sweetness, I was only joking when I said I’d like to smash every tooth in your head”
First, I was reading over these and almost peed my pants at “hold me closer tony danza”… thats stinkin’ awesome.
Next I used to sing “do a dear a female dear, ra a drop of golden sun…” as “Ra a fossilated insect…
” nobody corrected my mistaken until well past 5th grade…. not to mention the fact “fossilated is not a word…..
This is the funniest post ever. I think we can all sing, “Hold me closer, Tony Danza” from somewhere in our hearts. And we will!
My mom was watching a 4 year old boy a few years ago. While riding in the car he was singing along with the radio, “Woody is the man” instead of the correct lyrics “worthy is the Lamb.”
At the end of the song he asked my mom, “Why is he singing about Woody?” (His favorite Toy Story toy).
Am I the only one with “Gladly the cross-eyed bear” ???
Okay, I just remembered this one this morning:
my son told me “that song on the radio was about someone who learned to pee on the potty…” the real lyrics are: “if we are the body…” he was singing, “pee on the potty.”
At the comment about Beck’s “Loser”… he says, Soy un perdedor! :o)
This post is hilarious!
When I was little, I grew up in an old Baptist church in the South. So, we sang songs like “Order My Steps in Your World” which my friends and I thought, “49 Steps in Your Curl”… and “Never Heard a Mumbling Word” became “Never Heard a Bumble Bee Word”… :o)
And also in “El Shaddai” when it goes, “But the people couldn’t see what Messiah ought to be”, I thought it was, “what Messiah HOPED to be”… and thought, Man, that is soooo unBiblical.
Hehe!
I am lame.
I remember hearing the Canadian national anthem and believing the first line to be “Oh Canada, my dry and weary land.”
Awesome.
From the TV show, “Good Times” theme song:
“hanging in the jollee’!”
When it actually says, “hanging in the chow line…..”
How embarrassing lol. Anyone here familiar with the show??
to add to the list:
U2, Bullet the Blue Sky – My sister and I would always sing, loudly, “Tony Bu-bushka! Tony Bu-Bu…shkaaaa.”
and the Stones, “I’ll never be your beast of burden” became “I’ll never leave, your pizza burning!”
For all of you who remember the Music Machine albums, my 4-year-old son always sang
“and think of all the times when mothers have to wait for you”
instead of others having to wait.
the two year old that I watch is learning “Love the Lord with all your heart” and when her mom prompted her the other day she said,
“love the Lord with all or your toys.”
actually pretty profound I think.
I grew up in a very classical music oriented household. For many, many years, I mistakenly heard words from Handel’s Messiah. Here are the real words (taken from scripture, of course): “The trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible.” I mistakenly heard: “…the dead shall be raised in pah-rum-puh-pum.” Since I heard the Messiah at Christmas and also heard the Little Drummer Boy at Christmas, I must have mushed them together :)
REO Speedwagon’s “Can’t Fight This Feeling”
Actual: “You’re a candle in the window on a cold, dark winter’s night.”
Misheard: “You’re a candle in the window and a corndog when it’s right.”
I didn’t mis-hear this, (Rob and I found it on a mis-heard lyrics site) but we always laugh when we hear “You Learn” by Alanis.
She sings:
“You live you learn, you love you learn
You cry you learn, you lose you learn
You bleed you learn, you scream you learn”
Someone mis-heard it to say “nerd” instead of “learn”, thereby changing it to:
“You live you nerd, you love you nerd…”
hahahha. Love it.
As a kid, these were mine:
60′s song on my parents record “Little town Flirt” – I sang “Little town Squirt” for the whole song. Even after they told me it was flirt. I liked squirt better.
For the part of Handel’s Messiah “the Lord God omnipotent reigneth” – I thought they were singing “Cotton-pickin’ generation”. yup.
and the part where they sing “diety” – I thought they were singing BLT – as in the sandwich.
and for the Spin Doctors “Little Miss Can’t Be Wrong”, I sang, “Little Miss Candybar”.
Thought of another one the other night…
When the Rich Mullins song, “Hold Me Jesus” came out, I was a “poor” single woman and I thought the words “when the mountains look so big, and my faith just seems so small…” were “… my paycheck seems so small.” : )
A few years back, my three year old was telling me about a singer named Minnie Crablets. Yep, that’s Lenny Kravitz.
Roseanne, I almost died laughing when I read yours.
This is so late no one will ever read it, but I remembered another one!
“Jam ‘n jelly, who can I turn to? You don’t know me but you make me so happy…”
Real words: “Jenny Jenny” not “Jam ‘n jelly” from the song “867-5309″ (horrible song!)
OK, only a year or so late. :)
My dad was in a band with a guy who would sing the song “Back Then” which says “give me a flat top for strummin’” but he’d sing “give me a LAPTOP for strummin’”. Really? A guitar player who sang that wrong? At paid gigs?? Cracked me up!
When my sister was little, she used to sing Boot Scootin’ Boogie, only she’d say “boots, foots [what we called it when we tooted], and boobies!”
And just recently, after many years of singing Jo Dee Messina’s songs in the car, I realized that “Bye Bye Love” says “got my lead foot down on my accelerator.” I’ve totally been singing “left foot down” or “gotta let my foot down” for a very, very long time. How embarrassing!
I also thought Big and Rich were singing about “my old studley roy” in Save a Horse. About a week ago I thought, oh wow, it’s “my old stud Leroy.” Duh!
Late to the party aswell here. Growing up listening to oldies in the car with my dad, I’d sing, “I fought the log, and the…log won.”
Stephen Stills was always singing, “well there’s a roll, and a biscuit, love” to me rather than “Well there’s a rose in a fisted glove.” I only found out the truth a few weeks ago and still think my version fits better with the next line, “and the eagle flies with the dove!”
There’s a song by Needtobreathe, and the chorus starts, “‘Cause you give up all you wanted….” and my mom thought it was “Shakira- all I wanted…”
It took us a long time to convince us he wasn’t singing to a girl, (my mom’s pretty strict with the songs we’re allowed to listen to, or at least she was at that point…) and she still made us change the song!
It’s not as funny as most of the other ones on here, but WE laughed alot!
I always thought these lyrics to Huey Lewis’ “The Heart of Rock and Roll” were
They say the heart of rock and roll is still beatin’
And from what I’ve seen I believe ‘em
Now the OBOE (old boy) may be barely breathin’
But the heart of rock and roll, heart of rock and roll is still beatin’
I played the oboe in middle school and high school and I can tell you from experience that at times it felt like I was barely breathin’ so it made perfect sense to me!
Then with those same lyrics. My co-worker told me his sister thought it was, “The heart of rock and roll is Tibetan.” As in the place in Asia where the Dalai Lama hails from. But she would pronounce it with a long e sound.
Too funny!