Everyone, and I mean EVERYONE, has at least one song that they’ve always sung with the wrong words.
One of my worst lyrical moments:
From Michael Jackson’s “Black or White”
Misheard Lyric: It’s Black, It’s White, It’s W.
Real Lyric: It’s Black, It’s White It’s Tough For You
And those of us living in our college apartment on Fruit St. will never forget our roommate Joe butchering the opening line from this song:
From Alanis Morissette’s You Ought Know:
Misheard Lyric: I want you to know, that I’m half-baked for you.
Real Lyric: I want you to know, that I’m happy for you.
Speaking of songs written about Dave Coulier, my all-time favorite flub is from my brother Jordan – who used to help me review LOST here on the blog – who for the longest time sung along to this as he was growing up watching Uncle Joey and the gang.
From the Full House theme song
Misheard Lyric: You miss your old familiar friends, waiting to surround the bear.
Real Lyric: You miss your old familar friends, but waiting just around the bend.
Have a favorite misheard lyric from your youth? Have a friend who completely destroyed the lyrics to a popular song?
Those are great!
My biggest one is as a child, I always thought L M N O P was “elemenopee” and just another word to the ABCs song.
i always thought the lyric for the full house theme song was ‘waiting just around the bend’
Blinded by the Light:
Heard: Wrapped up like a douche.
Real Lyrics: Revved up like a Deuce.
My husband’s world is shattered. He ALWAYS says, “Wrapped up like a Deuce,” and now I’ve just had to break the news to him that he was wrong.
Classic!!!
I agree about this one. The Manfred Man version right?
Oh and some added trivia. The actual lyric (that Springsteen wrote) was “cut loose like a deuce.” Manfred Mann changed it to “revved up like a deuce.”
Yeah, I hear that too when I hear the song. I always chuckle.
Another Michael Jackson goof I’m proud to say was my own.. from “Man in the Mirror”:
Misheard Lyric: And no mustache could have been any clever.
Real Lyric: And no message could have been any clearer.
Also, I had a friend once who that the lyrics to “Tiny Dancer” were “Hold me close, I’m trying to dance… uhhhhhhh.”
Yep.
My friend Sarah on Breathe’s great 80s ballad “Hands to Heaven”
Misheard – “Tonight, we get undressed, oh yes. Hold me in the darkness.”
Real – “Tonight, I need your sweet caress. Hold me in the darkness.”
Not a massive difference, but Sarah was really going for it apparently.
‘Scuse me while I kiss this guy.
Purple Haze- Jimi Henddrix
I’m terrible at hearing and understanding lyrics. I often make up my own words.The funniest one is that I always thought “Everybody plays the fool” was “Everybody plays the flute.”
I thought the same thing! It didn’t help that there was a flute-like instrument playing in the background either.
I always thought the TLC waterfall was… DONT GO JASON WATERFALL … oops lol
I once got the chance to interview Jars of Clay for my college newspaper. I asked them about troublesome lyrics I couldn’t figure out from their song Unforgetful You.
My friend (now husband) heard: “I want you always.”
I heard: “I’m watching a whale.”
They actually sang, “I want to know why.”
I thought it was “I’m watching always.” Good to know!
“hold me closer Tony Danza” for “hold me closer tiny dancer” and “just like the one winged dove” for “just like the white winged dove”
aw, snap. I thought it was “just like the one window….”
Count the head lice on the highway
My own worst flubs: John Mayer’s “City Love”:
Misheard Lyric: “I got a cigarette / I found it and lit it up”
Real Lyric: “I got a city love / I found it in Lydia”
and “Shameless” by Garth Brooks:
Misheard Lyric: “I’m shavin”
Real Lyric: “I’m shameless”
Apparently I need to pay closer attention to song titles, as they tend to reveal the actual lyrics…
I thought it was : “i got a city love, i found it in Lybia”
There’s a Shania Twain song called You’re Stiil the One. One line is supposed to be “just look at us holding on” but I was pretty sure I heard Shania singing “just look at a scalded nun”.
kelly clarkson… “what happened to my cinnamon buns?”
When we were kids my sister and I loved the Eagles, especially “Life in The Vaseline” (Life in The Fast Lane).
I never outgrew mishearing lyrics and apparently passed it along to my daughter because recently we were in an Italian restaurant and didn’t recognize the song playing in the background. I thought it was “Time to Lick The Donkey”. My daughter thought it was “Dominate the Donkey”. We later found out it was actually “Dominick The Donkey”.
I say it’s not our fault that singers don’t enunciate more clearly.
For years, I loved Our Lips Are Sealed, but never really knew all the words.
“Can you see them? See out groovin’. They have to steal nothing to reveal” is really “Can you see them? See right through them. They have no shield, no secrets to reveal.” To be fair, I only had a cheap radio.
In the song “How Bizarre” by OMC, I thought for months that they were saying “Cal buh-zon” instead of “how bizarre.” Apparently I didn’t pay attention to the title of the song either.
I honestly thought it was “Oprah’s on” – but couldn’t figure out how that fit into the song.
it only took me 30 years to figure out “you had a busy day today” from Elton John’s Tiny Dancer were actually words.
This one’s on my husband! “Give me the Beach Boys, and free my soul, I wanna get lost in your rock ‘n roll and drift away…” Sorry, Jack! It’s a classic.
That’s what I always sang, lol!
I thought it was “Beach Boys” until last year!!!
I cannot believe that I wasn’t the only one! I always sang, “Give me the Beach Boys,” and it’s “Give me the beat boys,” hahaha. I found out about three or four years ago and things were never the same again. xD
These are all mine…and, of course, I was caught singing outloud when I was “educated”.
ACDC- “Dirty Deeds, Thunderchief”
Rolling Stones-”It’s a Stopeeeya!”
Michael W Smith- “Question Man”. I was recently introduced to Jesus, I had lots of questions, too. I thought Michael W and I just had lots in common.
Two favorites that were NOT me are “Cheese and Bread…..WOW!” (Brickhouse)
and “Secret Asian Man”.
Bry, this one’s for your older skewing demo:
Credence Clearwater Revival
Misheard: Ohhh, there’s a bathroom on the right….
Actual: Ohhh, there’s a bad moon on the rise…
Misheard: I’ll never be your big suburban…
Lyric: I’ll never be your beast of burden.
Sorry Mick.
james taylor’s “suzanne the plans they made put an end to you” is always sung by our family as “suzanne flanziemay put an end to you” because that’s what my mama though it was.
I have so many. My wife just waits for me to get a song wrong, and then she laughs. She knows it’s coming almost every time I decide it’s time to sing along.
Her favorite of mine was “Wilderness,” by the Supertones.
I sang, “Animals always trust in feelings.” This doesn’t even make sense in the context of the song, but sometimes that guy was hard to understand.
The real words were, “I’m not one who always trusts in feelings.”
This isn’t a song, but every time misheard lyrics come up I think of my friend who as a child believed that the Lord’s Prayer began, “Our father who art in heaven, how did you know my name?”
Oh shoot!! I laughed out loud at this one! That’s great!
Well, I know someone who sang Amazing Grace thusly:
“Amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a RANCH like me.”
(wretch)
And my big goof? When I first got “saved,” I heard (and sang):
“All hail the power of Jesus Name, let angel’s prostates fall.”
(angels prostrate)
My friend Vicky was the champion of this. My favourite: Don’t Let Go by En Vogue
“Don’t you want to be old and frail?”
“Don’t you want to be more than friends?”
“I’m a cheerio girl”
Can you guess which song I’m referring to?
Material Girl!
Awwwwwww yea!
When I was little I would sing U2′s “I still haven’t found what I’m looking for” as
“I still haven’t found all of the people”
To this day I still sing Bon Jovi’s “You give love a bad name” as “You give love a band-aid” and I always will.
I know that I’ve sung wrong lyrics before, I simply can’t remember any of them right now…
When I was a little kid, I had a 45rpm of a couple songs by some Aussie including “My Boomerang Won’t Come Back.” On the flip side was “Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport”, which I always heard as “Tiny kangaroo, down sport” which I thought was him telling the little kangaroo to stay down. Nope.
My oldest son was about 2 when Lion King came out. In “Hakuna Matata” where it says “it’s our problem free philosophy” my son insisted and would argue that it was saying “it’s our problem free Frosty Freeze”. Who can argue with that?
In the Lifehouse song, Broken, I heard “I may have lost my weiner, haven’t forgotten my way home.” I giggled and then googled the lyrics. “I may have lost my way now…” I think others must have thought the same thing because when the single came out for the radio they re-recorded it.
As a teenager I was convinced that Billy Joel sang “We started the fire!” Got into a big argument about it with my sister (pre-Internet).
In R.E.M.’s “The One I Love,” I mistook “fiiiiiiire” as “viagraaaa.”
I used to think “Secret Agent Man” was actually “Secret Asian Man.”
Total Eclipse of the Heart:
“Living in a pollygaggin givin’ off parks”.
“We’re livin’ in a powder keg and givin’ off sparks”. Yeah.
I jumbled up fake words for that one too before I knew the lyrics haha.
From Michael W. Smith’s “Missing Person”:
Instead of hearing “Guarded and cynical now” in the first verse, I swear I always thought it was “garden botanical now.” Yeah that makes no sense, but it’s what I heard.
These are hilarious! I had a few as a child too, but the funniest I ever heard was my 3-year-old niece singing her rendition of “Oh, What a Beautiful Morning,” from the musical “Oklahoma.”
Her version: “I’ve got a beautiful fanny; everything’s blowing my way.”
Real version: “I’ve got a beautiful feeling everything’s going my way.”
She loved to preform this for any adults who would listen, and let me tell you! We always felt like we were about to have an aneurism as we tried to stifle our laughter!
One of my close friends always thought the Metallica song lyric was “Sand Patrol” when in reality it was “Sad but true”.
For myself I always thought the song “Hungry Eyes” said “Home Pretty Eyes” don’t ask me what Home Pretty Eyes means I have no idea but that’s what I thought they were saying.
My wife’s is from Edwin McCain’s “I’ll Be”:
Real – “So tell me that we belong together; dress it up in the trappings of love”
Misheard – “So tell me that we belong together; dressin’ up in the droppings of love”
One of the million of mine is from Hendrix’s “Bold As Love”:
Real – “Once happy turquoise armies lay opposite ready”
Misheard – “What’s happened to coarse Siamese lay-ups serrated”
Growing up, I thought the Rocky song Working Hard Now was Eating Dog Chow and I always wondered why he’d want to do that!
hey, i was the one that thought it was waiting to surround the bear! not than.
wow, how did i screw that up! It’s been corrected and I will issue a full Twitter apology! such a fantastic lyric flub.
My friends still make fun of me for this one. It’s from All I Wanna Do by Sheryl Crow.
Misheard lyric: Send your mom a cup-full of art.
Actual lyric: Santa Monica boulevard.
My sister always gets Toby Keith lyrics wrong.
The first one, was from Should Have Been a Cowboy:
She heard: Wearing my sex-shooter riding my pony on a cattle drive
Real lyric: Wearing my six-shooter riding my pony on a cattle drive
and the other was Wish I didn’t know Now:
She heard: I’d rather go on lovin’ blind girls, than go on lovin’ without you
Real lyric: I’d rather go on lovin’ blind, girl than go on lovin’ without you
These are making me crack up laughing.
My FAVORITE one from childhood that I still sing is….
Paul Young’s “Every Time You Go Away”
Real: Every time you go away, you take a piece of me with you….
Misheard: Every time you go away, you take a piece of MEAT with you….
My sister’s and I would always wonder why she would grab a slice of turkey out of the fridge every time she left. LOL
Wasn’t there something in a Michael Jackson song about Billie Jean’s kid not being his but being a chair?
These all cracked me up but my all-time favorite was one of my Mom’s …
DamseyDotesandDoseyDotesandLittleDamseyDivey – a – KiddledeyDiveyDoo wouldn’t you.
Which is really:
Lambs eat oats and does eat oats and little lambs eat ivy. A kid will eat ivy too, wouldn’t you?
Course – don’t get me started on the actual song – Sheesh! Must have been born from a farming community!
I thought it was “Mare’s eat oats and does eat oats and little lambs eat ivy…” LOL I remember my mom singing this to us as kids and we sing it to our kiddos now too!
Its isssss Mares! My bad! Wouldn’t want to give this song a bad rap or anything!
LOL….I never understood it either! LOL
When I was a kid (or 3 years ago) I thought the Chevrolet commercial theme song said “lack her up” instead of “like a rock”.
Me (age 3)
Song – The Beatles – “Ticket to Ride”
Actual lyric – “She’s got a ticket to ride”
My lyric – “She’s not a chicken to ride”
My sister (probably to this day)
Song – Michael W. Smith – “Go West Young Man”
Actual Lyric – “Go west young man”
Her lyric – “Qu-e-stion man”
Friend Jeff
Song – Destiny’s Child – “Independent Women Pt. 2″
Actual Lyric – “The shoes on my feet, I bought ‘em”
His lyric – “The shoes on my feet, I farted”
There’s plenty of them out there but I was thinking of just doing parodies of songs about Harry Potter
In my younger years, I misheard the Transformers theme:
Real lyric: Transformers: robots in disguise
I heard: Transformers: they’re not ve-ry nice
Which is true of some of them, I suppose…
Anybody said this one yet from Ice, Ice Baby?
Misheard Lyric: A1A detroit avenue!
Real lyric: A1A beachfront avenue!
When Lady Gaga’s “Just Dance” first came out, I never thought about the beginning well.
Misheard: “Red Wine,”
Actual: “Red One,”
My worst was when Bowling For Soup’s “1985″ first came out. The first two times I heard it I was waaay off.
Misheard: “Springstein Madonna. Way before their mother. There was you two and blondie (I thought they were referring to Madonna) and her music still on MTV. Her two kids in high school they tell her that she’s uncool ’cause she’s still preoccupied with 19-19-1985!”
Actual: “Bruce Springsteen, Madonna. Way before Nirvana there was U2 and Blondie. And music still on MTV. Her two kids in high school, they tell her that she’s uncool ’cause she’s still preoccupied with 19-19-1985!”
Now I knew Bruce, Madonna, Nirvana, U2, and Blondie. I just don’t get how I couldn’t make out their names in that song! So embarrassing, but I will never forget it. I kept wondering why they would say Madonna had two kids in high school then I thought that maybe they are talking about what Madonna will soon be like one day. I was wrong haha. My biggest flub.
Mine was Billie Jean.
Misheard Lyric: She Says I Am The One, But The CHAIR Is Not My Son
Real Lyric: She Says I Am The One, But The Kid Is Not My Son (I swear ‘kid’ sounded like ‘chair’! If you don’t believe me, YouTube it).