I love singing along with songs, don't you? Problem is that the radio never came with a lyric sheet and, left to our own devices, we often had to make up our own words when the ones one the record were less than intelligible.
So, let's give out some "Louie Louie" awards to the ones you've been singing incorrectly for 40 years.
I'll start. "Blinded By The Light". Most of the time, Bruce Springsteen and Michael McDonald sing like they're eating a cupcake anyway. Take "Born To Run" for example. "Girls comb their hair in rear view mirrors and the boys try to look so hard" sounds like "We're golden air rnenrnrneenon oy di ool moor don tu gulsuard". At least to me.
When Manfred Mann's Earth Band took on an early Bruce gem (can you tell I just love the guy?) called "Blinded By The Light", we learned that it's not just his delivery that is garbled but his actual lyric, even when someone else sings it.. For years, I thought they were singing "Rollup up like a douche, another molar in the night". Turns out, that's not correct.
Another? Sure. Beach Boys. "Good Vibrations". There are parts of that lyric that I could swear are Danish. ""When I look in her eyes, she goes with me to a blossom world" has always sounded like "Oh, when hear her on, she goes with me to the bottom myrrh". Certainly that can't be what they meant.
OK.. I came clean. How 'bout you?
What you doin' on your back in bed.....you should be writing!
Posted: Dec 9, 06 9:53pm
I think it's a 70's classic by the Bee Gees - "Bald Headed Woman".
There is a bluegrass classic whose first line goes "I wonder, I wonder where you are tonight." I first heard it, very titillatingly as "I want to wear your underwear tonight."
Posted: Dec 24, 06 3:52pm
Oh, listen, we could do an entire web site of Bee Gees lyric interpretations on a global basis. When they went up into that falsetto, all bets were off.
Posted: Oct 19, 07 8:03pm
My son always sings " Don't go breaking my arm!" for Elton John's song "Don't go breaking my heart"
Posted: Dec 16, 07 6:42am
Hi Isadora,
hahahahaha!
Someone sang that song to me as..."Three legged Woooman"!
CCR: "There's a bathroom on the riiiight", (er, Bad_Moon_Rising). For many years, I kind of thought that the above was correct...then someone corrected me, and, oh, I felt so dumb.
Fun! www.kissthesky.com > miss-heard lyrics!
Posted: Mar 2, 08 2:32pm
I'm a big Bee Gee fan, so let's not start knocking them. If you're not sure of some of their lyrics I bet I could help you out. I've also met them numerous times and they are the nicest guys you could ever meet.
Posted: Mar 5, 08 12:41pm
My brother also thought the BeeGees song was called "Bald Headed Woman". I thought he was the only one!
Posted: Dec 26, 06 9:08pm
I love The Clash, but almost every song had that lyric that just sort of faded to "blah, blah, blah" when I sang along. Rockin' the Casbah is a favorite one to mangle...Sharif don't like it? My sheets don't like it? The beats don't like it?
And pretty much any song Janet Jackson every recorded. The woman does not believe in consonants.
Posted: Jan 19, 07 8:30am
Have you seen the new Cingular commercial that takes it to the next level? It's an all-time favorite. Here's a link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eOLPrdd8JvU
Posted: Jan 23, 07 4:54pm
Lucky for the ad agency I wasn't on the creative team behind the Rock The Casbah commercial for Cingular. There are SO many songs they could have used for mistaken lyrics...but they chose one that, actually, doesn't work. That's because on the Cingular handset, the read out shows you the title of the song you're listening to. And the line the two guys can't get straight is the title! I could have thought of so many other songs for them to use that would have been just as hip. Oh well...I guess no one asked me....
Posted: Oct 12, 07 9:29am
I always heard it as "Sharif, are you drivin'?"
Posted: Jan 18, 07 9:39am
A friend of mine thought for the longest time that kd lang's song, "Constant Craving" was really "God sent gravy." That makes me laugh every time I hear that song!!
Posted: Jan 23, 07 4:52pm
You mean she's NOT saying "God sent Gravy"?
Posted: Oct 20, 07 6:39pm
What kind of God doesn't send gravy? :-D
Posted: Dec 16, 07 6:45am
Hey Mindful,
I'm laughing out loud! That's so funny.
Posted: Dec 29, 07 10:57am
I'm with Carol.
I mean, we're already getting daily bread; would a little gravy kill us ?
Posted: Jan 1, 08 9:36am
I thought God sent gravy, too. I think I need to clean out my ears!!
Posted: Oct 12, 07 8:41am
I do not know how long I thought Creedence Clearwater was singing, "Bathroom on the right" before someone informed me that it was "Bad moon on the rise." When I'm not thinking about it, I probably still do.
Posted: Nov 24, 07 6:42am
You mean it's NOT "...there's the bathroom on the right..." ???
Posted: Dec 16, 07 6:45am
Hi Antonio,
Hah! Me too.
Posted: Jan 1, 08 9:39am
How could so many people misunderstand so many lyrics the same way!! That's funny!!
Posted: Feb 3, 08 9:53am
Me too! John Fogerty will actually sing those lyrics in concert - and get everyone to sing along "There's a bathroom on the right..."
Posted: Oct 12, 07 10:02am
From Blind Melon's Rain:
I heard "I'd like to keep my cheating strategies" when they sang "I'd like to keep my cheeks dry today." BTW, there is an entire website devoted to this phenomonom called the Archive of Misheard Lyrics. You could spend hours there and the submissions are pretty funny!
Posted: Oct 14, 07 10:47am
I was puzzled for the longest time by that one line in the theme song of "All in the Family" where they sang what sounded like: "Boy, but that was salary great. Those were the days." (I guess it's "Boy, but that LaSalle ran great," but I didn't find that out until it had been off the air a few years.
Posted: Dec 16, 07 7:11pm
I used to think they sang "Boy, how 'bout those sour grapes"!!
Posted: May 6, 08 3:44pm
I thought it was "Boy that salad was great!"
also I thought it ,
Didn't need no welfare steaks,
everyone pulled off weight"
Boy that salad was great"
those were the day!
Posted: Oct 17, 07 11:19am
I was laughed at by a girl I was trying to impress when I was singing along to "She's a Brick House" and came up with the line "built like a leximicon."
Posted: Dec 4, 07 2:15am
That's hilarious!!! You want to hear worse? Even though its slightly off topic (and too bad its no longer true) --- When "She's a Brick House" was popular, my mother one day tells me that if a guy ever says "you're built like a brick shit house" that really is a compliment even though you'd think it would be an insult. However, she wouldn't explain why. Boy, did I feel dumb when I had to ask just exactly what does THAT mean....
Posted: Oct 17, 07 12:34pm
I worked in grocery for years, so the distant between me and the 16 yr old baggers got greater.
Once when I was in my late 30s I had a bagger that started singing, "Hang on Snoopy, Snoopy hang on..."
After I stopped laughing, I told her that it was "hang on sloopy, sloopy hang on..."
Maybe it was because I was working in a grocery store in Sonoma County, not far from where Charles Schultz lived.
Posted: Oct 17, 07 1:26pm
Not all that many people ever really got that, Sloopy thing ...
< ggg >
Posted: Oct 17, 07 8:17pm
http://youtube.com/watch?v=oxULYcZlEuM&mode=related&search=steve%20martin%20john%20belushi%20gilda%20radner%20guido%20sarducci%20bill%20murray%20whip%20master%20chris%20farley%20saturday%20night%20tom%20snyder%20snl
Posted: Oct 17, 07 8:32pm
I always loved Gilda Radner as Emily Litella, and I still say, "Never mind."
Posted: Oct 17, 07 9:28pm
Maybe I should have entered that Raga and it's 'misheard' lyrics, Here ...
Eric a.k.a. 'Off The Island'
Posted: Oct 18, 07 10:59am
Hey CarolT
I loved everything that Gilda did, including this...
Warning foul....or in this case fowl language is used.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cV5adfBLAKo&NR=1
Posted: Apr 25, 08 10:51pm
And let's not forget Roseanne Roseanna Danna
Posted: Oct 19, 07 8:27pm
Jimi Hendrix ...... Purple Haze; where Jimi says " excuse me while I kiss the sky " I once heard a friend sing "excuse me while I kiss this guy " I never found out if he was kidding or not.
Posted: Nov 2, 07 10:43pm
You-guys are killin' me. Up until tonight I thought Emily Litella was Emily Pletella, and my all time favorite of hers was "Make Porta Rico a steak... the next thing you know they'll be wanting a salad bar."
Remember the song "Feelings"? It was much better when I thought it was "Felix"
Never mind
Posted: Mar 19, 08 12:50pm
I'm 51 yrs old, and until this DAY I thought it was "Scuse me, while I kiss this guy", which I always thought was so metrosexual before the word existed!Actually, I think I prefer it.
Posted: Nov 6, 07 3:48pm
I've misheard the radio commercial "Crematorium of Venice... we treat people right..." (it was a singing commercial) and was horrified. It took me a year or so to realize what they were really saying - "Cramer Toyota of Venice" and so on.
Posted: Nov 6, 07 5:06pm
The technical term for these misheard lyrics is "mondegreen", coined in1954 by Sylvia Wright. It comes from "Lady Mondegreen", itself a mondegreen from an old Scottish ballad:
Ye Highlands and Ye Lowlands
Oh where hae you been?
They hae slay the Earl of Murray,
And Lady Mondegreen.
The last line should read "And laid him on the green".
Jon Carroll of the San Francisco Chronicle wrote a number of columns about mondegreens:
http://www.sfgate.com/columnists/carroll/mondegreens.shtml
Posted: Dec 26, 07 5:02pm
This was the best site! I had to go get a tissue.
An excerpt:
The pledge of allegiance is such a hotbed of Mondegreens that one could create a composite of submitted entries: "I pledge a lesion to the flag, of the United State of America, and to the republic for Richard Stans, one naked individual, with liver tea and just this for all."
This formulation is elderly enough to have predated "under God," which is just as well; it would be a shame to lose "one naked individual."
Posted: Nov 8, 07 8:32am
OOPs, a problem..tried replying to something else go here instead.hope I was able to take off my last comment...if not sorry! :)
Posted: Nov 9, 07 8:22pm
I don't care who you are, thats cute.
Posted: Nov 12, 07 3:19pm
I had a day by day calendar on my desk for a couple of years that was called "Scuse me while I kiss this guy and other misinterpreted lyrics". Some of them were pretty corny, but some of the ones that I remembered were:
Just brush my teeth before you leave me, in Angel of the Morning.
Will you still need me, will you still feed me, when I'm six feet four.
I am a rock. I am in Thailand.
And my favourite memory from Emily Litella ....
"I love him, I love him, I love him, and where he goes I'll swallow, I'll swallow, I'll swallow.
Posted: Nov 14, 07 7:40am
totally agree about Louie Louie-don't think anybody knew the lyrics,but we loved the song..
and I could never figure out the lyrics to "blinded by the light." could never figure out why you might sing about "rollup like a douche?' as far as I know douche doesn't come in a rollup..
How about Carolos Santana's "oye como va."everybody sang along-it was even used in commericals, but no one really understood what the words meant..think it means how's it going -how do you like my rhythm..something like that..
Have you heard Carrie Underwood's new song "Before he cheats again?" Definitely understood every word in that song..
ladyrue
Posted: Nov 24, 07 6:15am
It's reved up like a duece...refering to a cars carb..it's true!
Posted: Dec 26, 07 3:52pm
LMAO
Understatement of the year, m'Lady!
When my buddy Carla got mad, we'd call her Darla... I think we can all agree Carrie's lead is more like MARLA.
Ooo, bet THAT'LL leave a mark.
Posted: Nov 14, 07 8:05am
My story is more about misunderstood meaning of lyrics. My sixteen year old daughter and I were jamming to Nickleback's "Rockstar". The part of the song that goes " I am going to join the mile high club at 37000 feet." She casually asked me if I had ever joined the mile high club. I told her if I had, it was none of her business. She looked stunned at my response.
I asked her is she knew what that meant. She said yeah, something about flying a plane. The look on her face as I explained the meaning was priceless.
Posted: Nov 19, 07 9:02am
Prince's "controversy"----argument raged for days whether the chorus was "controversy" or "count your blessings". We still laugh about it today!
Posted: Nov 19, 07 9:09am
There's a great website www.amiright.com with misheard lyrics, and the actual ones.
My personal favorite is Twilight Zone by Golden Earring. I didn't figure out what the lyrics really were, until I had a friend in a band that covered the song. Even then, I had to hear it about 15 times before I got it right...