text:
When she was a toddler, my daughter used to sing from "There's always tomorrow…" (musical Annie) a stanza as "bet your bottom on a dollar".
Have you ever heard someone sing the wrong lyrics to a song? Maybe a child gave the nursery rhyme "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" a new meaning by replacing the line "life is but a dream" with "life's a butter dream," or an adult belted out "Hold me closer, Tony Danza" instead of "Hold me closer, tiny dancer" to Elton John's "Tiny Dancer." Misinterpreted song lyrics are a fairly common phenomenon, and they're called mondegreens.
A mondegreen is a word or phrase resulting from a misinterpretation of another word or phrase that we hear. Mondegreens share homophony (meaning they sound like) with the original wording, but often change the meaning of the word or phrase entirely—with amusing results. The term mondegreen is usually applied to misheard song lyrics or lines of poetry, but can also refer to other types of speech. For example, someone might think the sarcastic saying "Thank you, Captain Obvious" is actually "Thank you, Katherine Obvious."
Mondegreens are not to be confused with malapropisms, "the act or habit of misusing words ridiculously, especially by the confusion of words that are similar in sound" (as in, "dance the flamingo" instead of "dance the flamenco") or eggcorns, "a word or phrase that is a seemingly logical alteration of another word or phrase that sounds similar and has been mishear or misinterpreted" (as in "old wise tale" for "old wives' tale").
So why do we call these misinterpretations mondegreens? The term is actually a mondegreen itself. Sylvia Wright, an American author, coined the term after a phrase she recalled mishearing as a young girl. According to Wright, she believed the first stanza from the 17th century ballad "The Bonny Earl O'Moray" featured two unfortunate aristocrats:
Ye Highlands and ye Lowlands,
Oh, where have ye been?
They have slain the Earl O'Moray
And Lady Mondegreen.
The correct phrasing of the fourth line is actually "And laid him on the green." While Wright gave us a name for this phenomenon in 1954, people have been misinterpreting words and phrases since the beginning of speech.
Children prove an especially entertaining source of mondegreens. Younger students in the United States are known to confuse lines of the Pledge of Allegiance, leading to mondegreens such as "I led the pigeons to the flag" ("I pledge allegiance to the flag), "to the Republic for witches' dance" (instead of "for which it stands"), "invisible" (for "indivisible"), and "liver tea and just us four, all" (rather than "liberty and justice for all").
Mondegreens can often be a great source of entertainment. In 2013, a six-second video on the social media platform Vine went viral for its portrayal of a young girl misinterpreting the lyric "You can call me Queen Bee" from "Royals" by New Zealand artist Lorde.
Now it's your turn! Share some of your favorite mondegreens in the comments below. Which lyrics have you misinterpreted before?
When she was a toddler, my daughter used to sing from "There's always tomorrow…" (musical Annie) a stanza as "bet your bottom on a dollar".
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I heard this song that had the lyrics, "Things you never knew", and I thought it said "pigeon the canoe"! Lol lol
One of my favorites is when a spouse describes that their loved one "has that old timer's disease" instead of "Alzheimer's disease!"
To me in Heartache Tonight by the Eagles, towards the end it sounds like he says "Let's get down to the bowl" not Let's get down to the bone.
My favorite one is Bad Moon Rising: There's a bathroom on the right.
Bruce Springsteen's Dancing In The Dark is one of the most misheard songs of all time, purposely. I suspect that's also why the vid was shot on a live concert. The studio rec's supposed to be similar as being on stage. When I first heard it I prejudicedly associated with selfconscious sex for some reason. But the more I listen closely, I started to realize that there was more than meets the ear. I guess you project and interpret your own take that better makes sense to you. And I just wanted to add some of the lyrics I funnily "heard" when I first listen to it a long time ago…
Hey there baby, I could use just a little head [instead of]
Hey there baby, I could use just a little help
This calls for higher [instead of]
This gun's for hire
There's a joke takes a while and it's on me [instead of]
There's a joke here somewhere and it's on me
Come on baby the laughs on me [instead of]
Come on baby this laugh's on me
And they'll be calling you up alright [instead of]
And they'll be carving you up all night
I need a little reaction [instead of]
I need a love reaction
My daughter sang Frosty the Snowman…"with a corn cob pipe and a butt and nose…" Ha!
The Australian National Anthem begins: "Australians all, let us rejoice" but my school friends and I would stand each morning to earnestly belt out: "Australians all are ostriches". …Also my 8 y/o niece loved Macy Grey's song "I Try" and would sing "I wore goggles when you're not here" whilst making circles with her fingers i front of her eyes. The line should be "My world crumbles when you're not here".
Growing up I had the same pediatrician that my mother had as a child, Dr. Danger. He was a towering man with broad shoulders and monstrous hands, but moved with unhurried grace. It wasn't until I was in my early teen that I actually read the name on his door to discover that his name was Dr. Dentinger. Thanks Mom, all those years I was always scare to go see Dr. Danger.
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Heard someone drunkenly singing " Don't cry for me MARGE an TINA"
Great, more spam. Try at least attempting on the grammar next time.
Hi . I stumbled along your comment on this strange place about lyrical misinterpretation.
My question is just I'm curious with all the misinfo and so much the web is huge . I am sometimes naive . But is it true what you wrote on the cancer and the herbal Doctor ? I'm sorry to hear of your hearing of the bad news and very happy to hear of the negative test results . That's great . I just hope it's real and bless you for your report . I will look it up thank you .
I've heard that the Mexican word Gringo came from the popularity of the song 'Green Grow the Lilacs' with non-Hispanic border country folk
You are reading I suppose
the texts that you read are for a purpose.
That you may know my heart is with you
that's why I chose to compose this short prose
for the woman I love,
the princess that I chose to love.
Good morning
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"Row, row, row your boat, gently down the street" And so I have wondered, Why is there a street in a song about rowing a boat? Maybe some of my classmates were missinging it.
When I heard Feliz Navidad for the first time, I misheard the title lyric as She's Not Enough".
And that other Christmas song: "…In a one horse soap and sleigh".
My Dad mishears the line "…folded hands" (in a Randy Travis song) as "Polish hands".
I used to mishear "Prince Of Peace" (in various Christian songs) as "Take a pee". No longer, after learning the words prince and peace.
That must be why kids mishear lyrics. They'll match up the words with those they already know, and write off those they cannot match up an nonsense. I did. In addition to issues from words being run together (also applies to spoken words). E.g. Grand Parade as Grandpa's Raid. and 72nd Street as 77th Street. When talking numbers, I'll say "Seventy Two Street", to avoid being misunderstood.
Same goes when the volume is low. When I heard Jaci Velasquez's version of Feliz Navidad, in the part she sings in English, I heard the lyric, "I want to wish you a Merry Christmas" as "I want to wish you a Merry , I want to wish you a Merry ".
Glory And Honor as Glory And Donor is another one, especially in church, and in the Carman song Jesus Is The Lamb.
Any word in a song that starts with a vowel or soft consonant often sounds like it starts with a D when preceded by the word And.
I thought Wizard Of Voz was correct (That's how my Sister says it), until I saw it in writing. Speaking of Oz, I thought the dog's name was Total. An Eggcorn, since "In Toto" means In Entirety.
About that "Feliz Navidad" song. It sounded like " Felix Navy Dude" to me when I first heard it at a Christmas Party. After hearing the song again under clearer circumstances I laughed and asked a Friend that was Puerto Rican , why this blind guy was singing about some Hispanic sailor named Felix at Christmas time? Was their Santa a guy in a boat instead of a sled? After a beer or two, He saw the humor in it. Taking nothing for granted, even though it's only May, I'll take this moment to wish everyone , next December, a Happy and Merry Felix the Navy dude.
When my son's age still in single digits, he sang along to his favorite song: "Wanna pie! Wanna pie! Wanna pie down to dessert, yes!" by the Pet Shop Boys. aka "What have I done to deserve this?"
Duran Duran's, "My Own Way," was often sung with "I'm never bothered what you say, someone's denture slips for today, ain't your problem anyway," instead of "I'm never bothered what you say, someone's kid just lives for today, ain't your problem anyway."
Aww, what a precocious little faker! Has he grown up to become diabetic DJ?
Kids… people really have them, huh? I just don't understand the appeal (but I hear I'm not the only one who finds her accent and broken English difficult to comprehend).
The appeal = Thea Peel
I always misread longer words especially in Nepali.
The one hilarious moment I had and I tell everyone was
"Prime Minister's Sachiwalaya" (Prime Minister's office)
which I misread as
"Prime Minister's Sauchalaya" (Prime Minister's toilet).
And for few days I kept pondering why they had to lable Prime Minister's toilet on a big hoarding board until I re-read and correctly-read the signboard. haha
Maybe your still not reading it quite right just yet:
"Prime Minister's Sauchalaya"
"Prime Minister is such a liar"
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Bleepin' spam – although it's funny that this remark has such horrendous grammar on a DICTIONARY blog.
Well, they found out about e kaka spell temple email address, so it fits.
Sometimes, to see how well a road was built, you have too see where it started, not judge the highway based on a short stretch. Perhaps, this shows a very measurable improvement in it's development. After all Development is the reason we no longer use " Olde English"
In the Covenant song Dead Stars, when performed live, the line "My favourite game, I suffer from misuse" sounds like "My favorite game, soft foam shoes."
On the malapropism front…
In the Madonna song Bad Girl, I think, "In my heart I know we're double-parked" when she is actually singing, "In my heart I know we've grown apart."
Both pretty much mean the same thing.
And in the K.D. Lang song Trail of Broken Hearts, I think "trail of broken farts"
Hello Laura Ramey,
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My mother used to sing "Everything i do (I do it for you)" by Bryan Adams when I Lived in Cuba and when Bryan says "You know it's true ….." my mother thought it said in Spanish "Un Avestruz" (ostrich in English)…Nowadays when I hear this song I always say "Un avestruz..everything I do..hoooo, I do it For you"…
Goody goody for him,
Goody goody for you,
And I hope you're satisfied you asshole you. (rascal).
And at Catholic mass children say,
Blessed art thou among women,
And blessed is the Fruit of the Loom Jesus. (fruit of thy womb).
My son used to say: "Hail, Mary, full of grapes…"
My grandson: "Stop! In the neighborhood" (name of love)
Back in the day my poor old aunty would sing along to the Go-Gos, Alex The Seal. (Our lips are sealed.)
I always thought it was Mamma don't take my coat and comb from me….instead of Kodachrome, which makes even less sense
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Wrong kind of spell-casting, lady.
When we were kids my bff thought Guantanamera was 'One ton tomato'
What a fun thread!
I always assumed Guantanamera was about the Hubble Telescope. "One ton-a mirror/they built a one ton-a mirror—"
My grandma told me that when she was a child, she boldly sang the old hymn,
"The Consummated Cross I Bear" as
"The Constipated Cross-eyed Bear"…
I guess both are worthy of prayer.
I almost died laughing when a co-worker was offended by the lyrics of the Heart song, "
"Dog and Butterfly".
She thought it was "God Damn Butterfly"! Funny in so many ways!
I have destroyed the lyrics to the "Good Times" jingle for years. If it wasn't for the internet, I probably never would have gotten these lyrics right. My version is in parenthesis.
Good Times.
Any time you meet a payment. – Good Times. (anytime you're on the pavement)
Any time you need a friend. – Good Times. (anytime you feel free)
Any time you're out from under. (anytime you have to wonder)
Not getting hassled, not getting hustled.
Keepin' your head above water, (keeping your head over water)
Making a wave when you can. (making your way when you can)
Temporary lay offs. – Good Times.
Easy credit rip offs. – Good Times.
Scratchin' and surviving. – Good Times. (stretching and sunrising)
Hangin in a chow line – Good Times. (hanging and jiving)
Ain't we lucky we got 'em – Good Times.
Funny reading this (lyrics to Good Times). I have actually been singing some of the same wrong yrics as you have all these years.
Oh, dear, this article itself contains a malapropism. "They have slain the Earl O'Moray" (who was not Irish) should be "They have slain the Earl o' Moray" (that is, "of Moray", the fertile county east of Inverness).
I first heard of 'mondegreens' in Stephen Pinker's fascinating book "The Language Instinct". I wrote to him to tell him that I had always mis-heard the title of the Creedance Clearwater Revival hit of the late 60s as "There's the bathroom on the right', instead of "There's a bad moon on the rise". When later I looked up a web site which listed similar 'mondegreens' it said that, of course, everyone knew about the CCR title, and I wondered if they did so because Stephen Pinker had subsequently used it in a revised edition of his book (acknowledged or not), or whether others had misheard in the same way as I had. I'll never know!
That is how I always thought it was, bathroom on the right. I didn't find out the real words until I was in my thirties.
My friend thought the song by Glen Campbell was I'm a Nine Stone Cowboy lol
My friend told me years ago that her mother's friend thought Glen was singing, "like a right strong cowboy" (country folk, aka culshies, in N. Ireland, use "right" as a synonym of "very")
Tell me if I have this right… you would have liked Mr. Pinker to have acknowledged you as the source of the ERROR in interpretation of the CCR song Title…Bad Moon on the Rise?? Perhaps you could make it your business to mishear and/or misinterpret other items and gain fame for this later : )
I would just like authors who quote other people's observations to acknowledge them as such, if this is the case, It's what academics are honour-bound to do in their professional work, anyway, so they should credit any source, whatever its origin. I will be generous and assume that your final sentence was intended to be humorous and not as a snide snipe.
I thought born on the bayou by CCR was born on a valume. =0)
I always thought that the song Street Life by the Crusaders was called – Street Lights!
The most recent, and for me, prominent, is the Malachy McCourt book "A Monk Swimming". This was how he (and I) had for years heard the phrase in our prayer 'Hail Mary", the actual phrase being "……and blessed art Thou
"amongst women". Ah, to see and hear the world as a five year old!
Mondegreen website for song lyrics kiss this guy dot com
!0 cc– I'm not in love
"big boys don't cry"
I heard "be quiet, stay quiet"
I always heard the words "chew the hot dog" instead of Do the Hustle. Never could figure out what hot dogs had to do with the song. Even after friends pointed out the correct lyrics, I still heard them as "chew the hot dog".
Weird Al Yankovic, Master of the Mondegreen!
Thanks for putting a name to this phenomenon, which it seems many people have experienced. Our mistaken interpretations can often be quite creative, even attributing to lyrics an originality and profundity their author never intended. The first time I heard Abraham, Martin and John I caught it part-way through, and I thought a child was asking, 'Has anyone here seen my old grandfather? Can you tell me where he's gone? I thought I saw him walking, up over the hills… (etc.)'
I thought the child's grandfather had died, and I pictured him politely asking this question of a group of men sitting around outside, smoking long-stemmed pipes (no idea where this image came from). But the men were at a loss for a response, and none of them was making fun of the child, because they didn't know the answer any more than he did.
The actual lyric, I later discovered, is, 'Has anybody here seen my old friend, Martin…' It's a perfectly good song with a poignant message but not, I think, as central to human experience as the song I'd imagined.
Especially if your grandfather has Alzheimers, and escapes from the house!
Similarly, I no longer hold the Beatles song "A Day In The Life" in as high regard as I used to, after having discovering that I was mishearing one line all along. Each verse of the song begins with the line "I read the news today, oh boy…" Later in the song, there is a stanza which does not really thematically connect to the rest of the song at all, "I saw a film today, oh boy/The English Army had just won the war/A crowd of people turned away/But I just had to look, having read the book". Anyway, I thought that it ended in "having read the news" and thought it was a great tie-in to the rest of the song, the narrator having been somehow enlightened by "the news", whatever that is a metaphor for, to the point at which they stand out from the crowd and do things differently. I thought it was an amazing idea for a song. Upon discovering that I had been mishearing it, my entire perception of the song collapsed.
I had a similar mondegreen experience enjoying the song 'Cristalena' by punk band MxPx. There's a line that I appreciated 'Cristalena happens to the boys, but not me'. I thought 'finally here's a pop/ punk band that isn't sex-crazed!' I was so disappointed to find that the line is actually 'happens to like boys, but not me'. Meaning the singer isn't actively choosing a safer, healthier lifestyle, but it's simply because she doesn't like him. It changed the whole meaning. Oh well!
Wasn't that the song that everyone thought was in code and was informing the world of the death of Paul McCartney. That was one of the early "play the record backwards for a secret message" records from a craze of that time. I think it said in a soft raspy voice "Paul is Dead" 3 times or so. There were a couple of other Vinyl's that were released that way back then. Beautiful Publicity stunt that skyrocketed sales of that song and album. They did everything Top Shelf with their productions.
…every now and again, in this age of internet trolls, one happens upon a comment of profound authenticity. This is one such comment; thank you for sharing your soulful intellect.
My friend in the Navy introduced me to "To Nowhere," from the anime Hack Sign. There is a line which I always hear as "On the rolling bumpy sea, shiver with coldness." That seemed to describe very well our lives on board ship. But when I see the lyrics written out, they give the line as "On the rolling boat we sit, shivering with coldness."
When singing "This is my Father's world" in Sunday school, of course I would sing "the music of the spears" instead of spheres. This was about fourth grade. I still remember the image it gave me, of scantily-clad natives with spears, standing around in a jungle.
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What does that have to do with this article? At all?
@Katy – The country code of the telephone number (234) in that "comment" is for Nigeria, and 81 means it's a mobile phone. That and the atrocious grammar would indicate an obvious scam at play.
This "ad disguised as a comment" is most likely inserted in the comment sections of many, many websites. It's like a mass mailing where you fully expect a tiny percent return or success rate (0.5 – 2%), but the cost is so low it doesn't matter.
Incidentally, Nigeria is infamous for their telephone and Internet scams, posing as bank managers trying to find distant relatives of non-existent rich uncles to pretending to be friends or family members in serious trouble and needing money. Here in Canada, they have been known to specifically target seniors and make off with their retirement money. Slimey, eh?
Ouch. I'm Nigerian, and your comment just . . . ouch. Though it is true, I wouldn't like to be thought of a slimy. Just . . . ouch.
I heard (via Steve Fry on the TV show QI), that it all comes from an old scam called "the Spanish prisoner of War"
… so really we should be praising them for keeping this tradition going
…phone now and you'll be back together with the (wo)man you swore never to love again before sunset/ sunrise if they've moved.
I always hear the lyrics to the famous Aerosmith song as "Loving and elevate her". Always thought it was a very endearing song about a man who wanted to love and elevate his woman. Come to find out the real lyrics were "Love in an elevator". I think I like my version better
Your interpretation IS better!
hello there
Two that I CANNOT hear correctly, even KNOWING the proper words:
"Climb every woman . . ."
" Ooooh, Wally! Ooooh, Hooo, Ooooh, Hoo"
The second is the backup singers on the segment of "Who are You?" used as the theme for CSI — I'll let you figure out the first one yourself.
I like "Climb Every Wo-man"! LOL!
When a man loves a woman?
Five for Fighting , Not easy being me . I always thought he said In Sodomy instead of inside of me.
I have sooooo many of these. For instance, in the song "Bette Davis Eyes" by Kim Carnes, I always thought she was singing, "All the boys think she's a SPAZ, she's got Bette Davis eyes." And I felt this total kinship with the girl in the song, because I was like, "You know, the boys think I'm a spaz a lot, too, but I, too, can be unexpectedly cool."
Woe was me when I found out years and years later that the actual lyric was, "All the boys think she's a spy."
Well, now, I don't relate to that at all.
Lol. Love it!
You just ruined it for me too. I also thought it was spaz. Do you think that she sang "spaz" and subsequently wrote "spy" because she thought it sounded cooler? I'm going to stick with spaz, I like that version better.
No longer Catholic but when I was a 7ish year old boy, the priests would say "Thy fruit of thy womb, Jesus". Everybody would be saying the words along with the priest but I'd mistakenly say "The fruit of the loom," after the underwear.
Ha! L.O.L.!
The only thing that worries me now is that having read all these I'm going to start hearing them in the songs.
My friend spent some thirty years thinking the line in "Feliz Navidad" that says "Prospero ano y felicidad" (prosperous year and happiness) said "Los perros anos y felicidad" (dog years and happiness).
Since she admitted that I can no longer hear that song without laughing. My all-time favorite mis-heard lyric!
Felize navidad was always "fleas on my dad"
My kids always sang "fleas mommy's dogs"
In Ariana Grande's "Break Free", I thought the line "Like a deadly fever, yeah, babe" was "Like a deadly feeling, babe".
In the same song, I used to sing the line "I only want to die alive" as "I only want to die a lie". Whatever I thought it was, it's not like it made sense anyways.
And in her song, Why Try, the lyrics I heard were: 'I know I should have farted at least I'm being honest'
When the actual lyrics are: 'I know I should have thought it, at least I'm being honest.'
My older sister deliberately taught me "Maresy dotes and dosey dotes and little lambsy divey. Kidzelly divey too. Wouldn't you?" I always thought it was just a children's nonsense song. As I have seen the lyrics printed that way in various collections of children's songs, I apparently wasn't the only one who thought so. Years later my sister told me the real lyrics were: "Mares eat oats and does eat oats and little lambs eat ivy. Kids will eat ivy too. Wouldn't you?"
With regards to "Mairzy Doats," that's one case where the mondegreen is intended. There is a verse that clarifies, "if the words sound queer and funny to your ear and a little bit jumbled and jivey, sing, 'Mares – eat – oats – and – does – eat – oats – and – little – lambs – eat – ivy!'"
My favorite mondegreen was from a roommate fresh out of college, who was singing along to a Duffy lyric which should have been, "You've got me begging you for mercy": you've got me begging you for birdseed. Yeah, yeah.
1. Morris Albert's song "Feelings" was "Felix" to my sister…made perfect sense!
2. Scorpions song "Rock You Like A Hurricane" – at ~1:50 my husband used to sing "he's licking his lip-sees, ready to win", the actual lyric is "he's licking his lips, he's ready to win"
see-same instead of sesame
pretty simple he or she is singing
Here's a Beatles belly-laugh among our Boomer friends. In the song "Help", we hear: "Help me get my feedbag on the grou-ou-ound" ('Course should be 'feet back')
Just horsin' around! LOL!
Fifty Ways to Leave Your Lover. Just drop off the key lee…(sounded like) Just drop of the tea leaves.
When was 3 when Madonna came out with "Material Girl" So, I didn't know at the time the song was actually called "Material Girl."
When she would sing "I am a Material Girl" I thought she was singing "I am a Cheerio Girl" (I soon became a huge Madonna Fan & loved Cheerios because of that)!
Probably one of the most famous from the 60′s from Jimi Hendrix.
Excuse me, while I kiss the sky,
Often heard as ….
'scuse me, while I kiss this guy.
A further step; Listen to Meddle – Pink Floyd. At about 3.30 into tyhe song the voice say's "One of these days I'm going to cut you into little pieces".
Or does it say "One of these days I'm going to dance with the evil queen or prince or pretty much anything else in your head at the time.
Try it.
Phil Collins "she seems to have an invisible touch yea, – she reaches in and grabs like polio" lol
many years ago, i caught a friend singing: "we go to bed with the lights on" to what should've been: "big ol jet airliner." it is a treasured memory. now, i know that it is a common phenomenon and it has a name..
I used to think it was "one of these days I'm going to get you in the name of Jesus".
The Bee Gees "more than a Woman – Bone headed woman to me. I got married QED!
I thought it was 'Bull Headed' woman. LOL!
Had people called you stubborn? LOL!
My aunt used to sing "Bald – Headed Woman!" At the top of her lungs!
My wife, inspired by her French lessons, was feeling romantic when she returned home – so she flung the door open and enthusiastically declared, "Je t'adore!" (I adore you!)… to which I responded, "Shut it yourself!"
Needless to say the mood was spoiled.
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Are we plagiarizing Reader's Digest circa (ca.) 1974-1976 or is it from the original circular (pre-digestation), (and I would be truly humbled and reside in a state of anticipation awaiting further mondegreens and insights into the moments that make life special and endearing).(hope you like this!) Or, are you the oar in the water propelling the S.S. Wordplay forward?
Thank you. I didn't get it either. I thought it was just me.
When we were young, our house had a party line (telephone service shared with neighbors). Sometimes our mother would pick up the phone and would find that someone was using the service. She would say, "The line is busy." We would then ask, "What is the lion doing, mommy?" Never could figure out why there would be lions in the phone building.
My Great Aunt used to have a party-line phone in the 60,s and she would listen to other peoples conversations. My dad got a private phone installed in his new home and my Aunt asked him if he was going to be on her party-line and she said, "I thought you were going to be on my line!" When my dad graduated High School he was telling a classmate (girl) about his ring and my Aunt spread rumors that he had given an engagement ring to her! Hillbilly Headline News!
I heard someone quietly say, after burping, "I[t] kills me…" (compare "excuse me" but which is not a lyric)… perhaps a non-English-native-speaker…
When I first listened to Enya's song, "this way ends together far-and-away" alluding to parallel-tracks, but it was not readily hearable, I came-up with a possible phrase, 'this day ends tomorrow around the world'—a lyrical truth.
As a young kid growing up in the North End of Boston, I always interpreted this verse in "Jingle Bells"…"in a one horse open sleigh", as, "in a one horse 'soap and' sleigh/slay". First of all "sleigh" wasn't a familiar word for us, as "sled" would be more common. Secondly, not that sure about sleigh, would never conceive of different "kinds" of sleigh, i.e. "OPEN" ones?!
I thought it was 'One horse dope and slay'. It's still a joke to me and my friends to this day.
My son's version when he was young was "one house opens three".
I used to think it said 'and one horse opens leg'
In Imagine Dragon's radioactive, my little brother mistook the words "Enough to make my system blow" as "Enough to make my sister broke."
I thought the Imagine Dragons lyric was "enough to make my sister moan" and was fairly scandalized.
After reading these, I feel among kindred spirits.
As a small child, I was taught to say this bed time prayer:
Gentle Jesus, meek and mild
Look upon this little child
Pity mice and plicity
And suffer me to come to thee.
One night, I asked my mother what plicity was. What? Well I know what mice are, I just don't know what plicity is. On realising that I had been reciting without understanding, my simplicity was pointed out in no uncertain terms and further prayers were abandoned!
- I always got a laugh from my friend Lisa, circa 1984, when she'd sing along with The Police's song 'King of Pain' for
"There's a little black spot on the sun today"
she would sing,
"There's a little Black Spider that's on the way."
– & in their other song, 'Don't Stand So Close To Me' for
"This girl is HALF HIS AGE!"
she would sing:
"This girl is HALF DISEASED!" – LoL!
…fun stuff
…oh, and how about Stevie Nicks' song 'SARA'? When, about 22 seconds into the intro, she sings:
"Said you'd give me life, but you never told me 'bout Papayas"
My Mom tells the story of misunderstanding the hymn "Gladly the cross I'd bear" as "Gladly the cross-eyed bear."
This is the funniest one of all!!!
Yeah, that was my mistake as a child too. That, and misinterpreting the last line of "Silent Night" as "sleep in heavenly peas". That one was confusing; as a child I detested peas and couldn't imagine why anyone thought they were heavenly.
There are tons of these available on the website KissThisGuy.com, so named because of the famous misinterpretation of Jimi Hendrix "Purple Haze" lyric "'Scuse me while I kiss the sky." The mondegreen is obviously "'Scuse me while I kiss this guy."
Anyway, the first time I heard the Eagles "Hotel California" album, I wondered who Victor McGlove was. I was listening to the song "Victim of Love."
For a long time I thought the song "Please Don't Stop the Music" was about weasels. "Weasels got to move it." wow.
OMG!!! LOL!!! I really can hear that in my head right now! My dad's probably going to come up and yell at me because I'm laughing so loud right now!!!!!!
Jimi Hendrix – 'scuse me while I kiss this guy for 'scuse me while I kiss the sky
Eddie Murphy – my girl wants to potty all the time (the correct word is "party", but the song was popular when my little girl was potty-training, and the word stuck)
The Police – Walking In Your Food Stamps for Walking In Your Footsteps
The Police-So Lonely chorus when I was young sang "Salami"
When I went fishing with my dad when I was little he explained to me about the bait we were using and it made perfect sense to me. It wasn't until I was starting college that my mom looked at me oddly and said "It's salmon eggs." All this time I thought we were feeding the trout a breakfast of "ham and eggs!"
National Anthems are always a source of entertainment when "We loyal sons and daughters all" become "We loyal sunshine daughters all"
I thought in Back in Black it was "back on the crack" instead of "back on the track"
I have always thought back in black was back in play. Of course Brian screams instead of sings, not until I heard Axl Rose sing it did I know the real lyrics. Did I mention that I never liked AC/DC because Angus let Brian ruin a bunch of great songs by singing them!!!
I always had to laugh when we were kids, and my brother used to insist that the lyrics for the Stampeders' "Wild Eyes" were pronounced as 'woun eyes'.
Our Father
Who art in heaven
Howard be thy name
A song about Jesus speaking to the disciples went:
"I will make you Fishers of Men if you follow me".
Or, according to my friend when we were 5-ish:
"I will make you vicious old men if you follow me"!
I used to think that too! Also, I used to think it was this:
Our Father
Who art in Heaven
Howard be thy name (also sometimes mistook it for "How low be thy name")
My kingdom come
I will be dumb
On Earth as is in Heaven
Give us to stay our holy bread
And forgive our trespasses
As we forgive those who tres (like spanish 3) pass against us
And lead us not into temptation
But deliver us from evil
For thine is the kingdom, and the pow er (like POW! er…), and the story forever.
A men. (like several men, but with an a instead of the men.)
Our Father, Art, in heaven. but God's name is Harold, 'Hark, 'cause Harold's angels sing"
Most people think TSwift, in Blank Space, is singing " all the lonely Starbucks lovers " instead of " got a long list of ex-lovers ". Even I had to look it up.
I hear:
"Got some lonley stomach-scrawlers"
A guy calling in to a radio station said he thought it was, "..got a lot of cervix lovers". Lol.
Shouldn't the title be "What It's Called When You Misinterpret Lyrics?" Or "What Is It Called When You Misinterpret Lyrics?"
Anyhow, when my daughter was preschool age and learned the ABC sing, she sang it….
Animal Pee
I use to giggle to my self everything I heard her singing to her self.
Rather I would giggle "every time" I heard her signing it. Didn't catch that auto fill mistake on my phone.
Don't you mean 'singing' rather than signing?
She nailed it.
Oh Naomi !
I was just about to laud you with praise for correcting the autofill mistake (We're still better than computers! And why didn't the auto correct correct the auto fill? ), but then we come upon "my self and her self" tsk, tsk, tsk.
Anyway, I agree with Kxyz…You "nialed" it! ; )
And great call on the title!
Why is dictionary dot com asking me what it's called? Really?
Maybe they mispelled it too…Monday Greens!!!
On Willie Nelson's Album Red headed stranger there is a song that says, "Can I sleep in your arms tonight lady." I thought it said , " can I sleep in your arms one eyed lady." I always asked myself who would want to sleep in the arms of a one eyed lady?
As a kid I never wondered about what kind of underwear Jesus wore. "Blessed is the Fruit of the Loom, Jesus." I thought America the Beautiful went, "America, America, God spread his grapes on thee and crowned thy good with Robin Hood . . ."
I also thought the Battle Hymn of the Republic went,"He is tramping out the vintage where the grapes of Welch are stored." I usually pronounce words very clearly, and by the time I was 10, I had cleared up most of my Mondegreens, except for the last one. "Grapes of Welch" doesn't even sound like "Grapes of Wrath," but I was so sure of my interpretation, that I had to look up the lyrics.
Usually in class after the Pledge of Allegiance, we sang some patriotic song or other. Whenever we sang "My Country 'tis of Thee" (Greek right there), the part where the words go "of thee I sing," to me was "of the icing" and I always thought we were singing about a cake.
I always thought that line was 'of V. I. C.' Though i had no idea what that might mean.
- The Police, Canary in a Coma > Canary in a Coalmine
- The Police, Don't stab your claws in me > Don't stand so close to me
- England Dan/John Ford Coley, I'm not talkin bout my linen > I'm not talking about moving in
I have never known they were singing "I'm not talkin' 'bout movin' in" I have ALWAYS heard it as "I'm not talkin' 'bout the linen." And I knew it was wrong, and always forgot to look up the correct lyrics! Thanks!
For many, many years I thought the Beatles song about the "paperback writer" said instead, "take the back riser" and I supposed it was directing a driver to take a certain road! And back when my daughter was still in grade school she liked the Beach Boys song about the girl who drove the T-bird — except she sang "drives like an ape now" rather than "drives like an ace now"! She insisted the song said "ape"!
Similar – but I thought they were saying, "Take the back right turn"
Gladly, my cross-eyed bear.
Did you ever play "hide and seek" as a child?
What did someone say at the end of the game when they finally gave up?
"Olley Oxen Free" right?
Talk about a mispronunciation…..
How about "All The Outs In Free" instead??
Well, that makes a lot more sense!!
Instead of "All the" I learned that it originally was "All ye" which would translate to "all you" today.
Actually that's not correct.
The whole "ye" thing is a misinterpretation in itself, due to the way that in old English they used a letter 'thorn' to represent the T and H of 'the' which looks similar to a Y. This later fell out of popularity.
So "ye" as in your example above and common faux old-sounding names like "Ye Olde Pubbe" really just means "the" – not "you" or "your" as is often assumed.
Now you know!
Credence Clearwater Revival "Bad Moon Rising"
Wrong lyrics: "There's a bathroom on the right"
Correct lyrics: "There's a Bad Moon on the Rise"
Heck, back in those days we appreciated directions to the bathroom…
too stoned to find it and too paranoid to ask!
Mariah Carey song "Without You"
Original lyrics (Chorus):
I can't live
If living is without you
I can't live
I can't give anymore
I can't live
If living is without you
I can't give
I can't give anymore
Ken lee
Tulibu dibu douchoo
Kenl ee
Ken lee meju more
Ken lee
Tulibu dibu douchoo
Ken lee
Ken lee meju more
Listen to Harry Nillson's version, he actually enunciates!
R.I.P. Harry, you musical, lyrical & vocal GENIUS!
That's the funniest song, you've made up there.
In iggy Azalea's song "Black Widow" my boyfriend thought the line "I'm gonna love you like a black widow, baby!" Was "…like a black little baby!"
Mylie Cyrus "You Came in Like a Wrecking Ball." It was only very recently that I saw it in print and realized she wasn't singing "You came in like rainbow"!
Had a friend in middle school back in 77-78 who thought the verse in Queen's "We Will Rock You"…somebody better put you back into your place…was… somebody better put a bag on yo face.
Do you know what a great name that is?
Word lover??? Or did you make it up, by any chance?
NO, WERDNERD. You made it up – funny.
I always thought that the Shirelles were singing (in "Will You Love Me Tomorrow") "Can I believe the magic of your size" rather than "magic of your sighs" !!!!
I always thought the Shirelles were singing (in "Will You Love Me Tomorrow?)", not, "Can I believe the magic of your sighs", but "Can I believe the magic of your size" !!!!!
What about Jamaican singer Desmon Dekker and and his song "The Israelites".
The line – Darlin' she said, "I was yours to be seen"
sounds like- Darlin' she said "I was yards to greasy"
and the next line – Poor me Israelites
sounds like – Oh me my ears are alight
Always difficult to understand native Jamaican speakers.
Talk about misinterpreting lyrics I laugh when I heard the hymn "Bringing in the Sheaves" as Bringing in the Sheets l" and how about the Christmas Carol " Hark the Herald Angels" as Hark the Hairy Angels..
I can certainly relate to "Bringing in the sheaves." I heard: Bringing in the CHEESE!!" I knew I wasn't right, but has no ideas what the actual lyrics were–ha! Thanks… My lesson for the moment. Now I'll read on and laugh some more and possible learn some more.
Love the Pogo mondegreen:
"Deck us all with Boston, Charlie
Walla-walla Washington, Kalamazoo"
Or… "What a friend we have in cheeses".
Your story is very much like one my mother tells me. She sang to me all the time when I was young. I was maybe 3 years old, but I was very precocious and was reading when I was just 2 years old. Because of this, my mother thought I understood the words she was singing. I also possessed a vivid imagination, which was unfortunate in this instance. She sang this one old hymn that had a line, "row me over the tide". Well, what I HEARD was, "roll me over the tie." In my mind I can still recall the bizarre image of a dinner roll and a necktie. Mom still wonders if she scarred me for life with her songs!
I thought it was, "Bringing in the Leaves."
Back in 1975, Hot Chocolate's "You Sexy Thing" ("I Believe in Miracles") was playing regularly on the radio. A girlfriend of mine asked her friend what the singer was saying. The friend told her he was saying, "I believe in Malachai." When my girlfriend asked who Malachai was, her friend said, "I believe he was one of the twelve disciples." LOL.
I thought it was "i believe in marigolds"!
Wasn't Malachi the crazy red-headed crazy kid from Children of the Corn? Because of him I always was afraid of redheads, until my youngest daughter was born.
When I was very little, I thought that L, M, N, and O in the alphabet were one letter with a very long name, "elemeno". So H, I, J, K, elemeno, P…
Again, I can relate, as I've heard this from many of my nieces and nephews. Totally cute…
Your story is very much like one my mother tells me. She sang to me all the time when I was young. I was maybe 3 years old, but I was very precocious and was reading when I was just 2 years old. Because of this, my mother thought I understood the words she was singing. I also possessed a vivid imagination, which was unfortunate in this instance. She sang this one old hymn that had a line, "row me over the tide". Well, what I HEARD was, "roll me over the tie." In my mind I can still recall the bizarre image of a dinner roll and a necktie. Mom still wonders if she scarred me for life with her songs!
I used to sing the alphabet and when I got to the L M N O P part, I always thought and sang it as a small fish urine .. thus singing it H I J K L " a minnow pee" ..Q R S etc..
Coming from the Hawaiian culture where "haole" means "foreigner" in general, but non-native Caucasian in particular, what I heard as a kid was:
"Our Father, wart in Heaven, haole be Thy name."
For several years as a pre-teen, I misunderstood the words to the first verse of "Silent Night": "Round yon version, mother and child." I kind of new what version meant, while I had no idea what a virgin was.
"Round John Vergent" is a portly character who frequently finds his way into that carol.
My mother was astonished once to hear we were about to sing "With One Green Eye" ("With Wond'ring Awe"). She said she didn't know that was in the hymnal.
When my little sister was younger, she thought that, for the song "We Are The World", they were saying, "It's true, a Michael, Michael Joe, just chu and me." instead of "It's true, we'll make a better day, just you and me." I found it HILARIOUS!!!
My favourite one is the first line of the third verse of "To God be the glory"; which to my childish brain sounded like, "Great things He has TORTOISE!"
Every Christmas I hear a hymn and the words in my mind are from "Pogo" —- "Deck us all with Boston, Charlie — Walla-Walla Washington, Kalamazoo"
… And the second line:
"Nora's freezing on the trolley,
Swaller dollar cauliflower alley 'garoo."
Walla walla, Wash and Kalamazoo
Nora's freezin' on the trolley
Swaller dollar cauliflower, allygaroo!
U2′s song The Sweetest Thing – I used to hear "oh oh oh the Swiss Maid"
Daft Punk definitely sang "Around the world, around the woodle"
But the original one for me, and perhaps the strangest is Madonna singing "Bubble down squeak", when in fact she was singing "Papa don't preach".
My mother told me that, as a child, she misinterpreted the title of a hymn, 'Gladly The Cross I'd Bear.' She loved to sing about 'Gladly, The Cross-eyed Bear."
The song "Hot n Cold" by Katy Perry where she goes like, "You PMS…" I used to think it said "You pee a mess"
Back in the '70s, there were song titled, Sister Golden Hair, with lyrics that read, in part, " . . . make it Monday, but I got so damned depressed . . ." My friend's little sister thought the lyrics were, " . . . but I've got some pants to press."
Oops trying to comment but in wrong place.
And who doesn't know there's no mayonnaise in Ireland ?
Customer: What is this?
Waiter: It's bean soup.
Customer: What is it now?
I used to carol loudly "Olympic Wax" instead of "a whip that cracks" … I take the 5th on how old I was when I finally learned better
I always thought the Thunderclap Newman song / Tom Petty cover of "Something in the Air" said in the verse:
"We've got to get together sooner or later
Because the Rabbi Lucien's here"
My wife has always misheard Cirque du Soleil as Circus Ole, until she saw it in print.
My father swears he thought the Van Morrison song "Brown-Eyed Girl" was called "One-Eyed Girl," but that may just have been a joke he was trying to pull on me.
A friend thought Neil Diamond was singing "For Reverend Bluejeans" instead of Forever In Blue Jeans.
Same friend, having never heard of Scotland's Mull of Kintyre, thought Paul McCartney was singing about "Ma, Lookin Tired" !!
No, it's an advert for an Irish car parts firm, "Mulligan's Tyres".
How about these? I have a reputation for not understanding songs. Almost had a panic attack when, as a grad student, I had to bring my Spanish II students to the language lab to listen to and discuss songs sung in Spanish.
More than highway (actual: poison ivy)
I bow a tree to protect me (actual: poetry to protect me)
Sentimental cup full of lard (actual: Santa Monica Boulevard)
I'm your penis, I'm your fire (actual: I' m your Venus, I'm your fire)
And to the flag for widget stans. (Actual: And to the flag, for which it stands)
Give my anus a twirly whirly (actual: Came by in his curly-whirly)
I could go on, but you see how I got my reputation…
I thought Mull of Kintyre was Mulligans Tyre
My piano teacher thought I should learn "Mulloch Entire." When (a) I didn't recognise the name and (b) I obviously had no idea how to break the sounds up into words (I said, "Mulloch???") , she got really mad.
I was only a kid, and I had never heard of Mull, or Kintyre – and without an f, even o' didn't make a lot of sense. So I thought then, and I think now, that my incomprehension was entirely justifiable.
Maybe I'll learn the piece now – it's only fifty years too late.
I got some:
-Pink Floyd's "Another Brick in the Wall":
"We don't need no Education…We don't need no 'Birth Control' "
-Falco's "Rock Me Amadeus" is "Hot Potatoes, Hot Potatoes..Ho-Ho- Hot Potatoes"
-One of the Go-Go's songs I thought had to do with Smelly Feet…Can't remember which one!?
First-graders learning to sing the Advent hymn, "O Come, O Come Emmanuel," when asked to pronounce the second line individually ("and ransom captive Israel") came out with:
"and random cats of Israel" and
"and randy Captain Israel."
I would like to see the latter take on the Whore of Babylon!
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My mom thought Geico was saving people "15 percent moron car insurance"
That's hilarious!
A friend of mine told me once that she kept hearing an ad on TV for Mobil, or some other petrol station (gas station). Without paying much attention she kept thinking they were proudly offering "Service with a smirk". She thought it was rather odd, but shrugged it off, picturing attendants filling your car while smirking at you.
It was quite some time later that she realised that they were offering "Service with a Smurf"–and were giving away blue cuddly toys with a tank fill.
some of my best include "have some snickers and snacks and just relax" from an old tune whose name i can't recall, and if I must be honest I never really believed my interpretation was correct but i just loved the idea of someone saying that! the song must have been from the '50′s cause the original lyric goes like this, "put on your sneakers and slacks and just relax". and we all know nobody says "slacks" anymore!
another winner was from the song "sway" by dean martin. I was convinced he was singing "when we sway i go WHEE!" only to find out he was in fact saying "when we sway i grow weak". not really as exciting….
As a kid I was convinced that the 1960s song by Johnny Tillotson went:
"Oh a tree in motion, walking by my side…" instead of "Poetry in motion…"
Still like my version better – I still see a tree walking by his side whenever I hear that song!
Also, I thought a dual carriageway was a 'jewel' carriageway because there were once jewels lining the central reservation as they used to be special routes reserved for the king or queen to drive down in their carriages.
My dad used to think it was a "George carriageway"
One more from my mum – when her school closed for "voting" on polling day she thought it was closed for "boating", which was something only adults were allowed to do!
Peter Paul and Mary sang…"the ants are my friends; they're blowin' in the wind."
My youngest daughter had several wonderful mondegreens. In the end of "The Itsy Bitsy Spider went up the water spout", she would sing "out came the rain and dried the ball the rain." And a popular Christmas carol began "Dashing through the snow, with a one horse soap and sleigh." Joyous memories!
I'm an Australian and I particularly like this one ' Australian's all love ostriches' instead of the correct 'Australians all let us rejoice' from our national anthem 'Advance Australia Fair' which I love. There's a line from 'The Boxer' which I have heard as 'All lies and jests', 'All life's a jest'. and 'All'
I suggest.' Does anyone know what the actual line is?
"All I suggest is a man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest ….."
The lines in question are, "Such are promises/All lies & jest." One of the most moving songs ever, IMHO.
I though it was Advance Australia Square!
Catholics will appreciate this one. In the Act of Contrition, we pray "O, my God, I am heartily sorry for having offended thee…" The kids in CCD/Religion class would almost always say "O, my God, I am hardly sorry for having offended thee…" Nothing like saying the exact opposite and dissing God in the process.
Love this site! By best friend growing up was the KING of mondegreens! In Sympathy for the Devil, "Pontius Pilate washed his hands and sealed his fate" became "washed his hands in the Sea of Spain." Same song:
" Anastasia screamed in vain" was "Anastasia fleed the bay." Questionable grammar there. He would fight you if ever questioned. Love it!
Also, The Stones " Hang Fire" was " Hang Five."
Just north of Sydney, Australia, is the lovely waterway known as Coal and Candle Creek. The older locals insist it is named after Colin Campbell.
"All in all you're just another d___ (rhymes with rick) with no balls"
- Pink Floyd
I like my version better
As I read, I've smiled at many of these, but yours is the only one that made me actually bust out laughing. Nice work!
Now I understand why the song was banned in South Africa, not politics but filthy porn
Oh man, I like your version better too…I am laughing all the way to the bathroom before I pee my pants. That is absolutely TOO funny!
When I was very young, I was convinced that everybody was saying "L-bone" rather than elbow. … 'made sense to me.
When my son was about 3 years old, he would refer to the screen door as the "scream door." Plus, in the day camp he attended, the little kids his age played in the "tot-house" which he referred to as the 'hot house.'
Me too! Hate to say that my sister and I were teenagers when our mother said "you DO know it's elbow don't you" and we said "wait, what????." She thought we'd been joking all along.
I sang "fingerprints that leave me covered for days" from Little Mix's DNA as "fingerprints that leave me cold for days." I still like my version better…
Little Miss Muffet
Sat on her tuffet
Eating her courage away, it should read: (eating her curds and whey)
My big sister said this when we were little. Love her!
Little Miss Muffet
Sat on her Tuffet
Eating her curtains away!
In the Christmas carol "Silent Night" my younger brother changed "Round yon virgin" to "barnyard virgin". That's how the family sings it now!
This thread has been going on for over four years now! But I still feel the need to contribute…
1) When my grandmother was little, the lesson reader in church always ended by saying, "Here endeth the lesson." However, she heard "Here rendeth the lesson" and thought that the page had been torn at that point and they couldn't go any further!
2) The song "Oh, What a Night" by the Four Seasons has a part that goes:
Oh, I got a funny feeling
When she walked in the room
And I, as I recall
It ended much too soon
When I listen to it, even now when I know what it's supposed to say, I still hear what I heard when I was younger:
Oh, I got a funny feeling
When she walked in the room
I got a funny itchin' in my two shoes
(I could only assume that she made him want to dance!)
Dirty Deeds! Done dirt cheap!
Dirty Deeds! Thunder Chief!
I always heard it as Thunder Jeep! It's close enough. The Thunder Chief can do dirty deeds and use his Thunder Jeep to get away.
In that same song, there's a lyric I mangled until I was in my 40′s. I couldn't even come up with real words, so for most of my life I just sang "spinnin' mah head around and taken fo ma deh undah". It was so enlightening to find out the words are "spinning my head around and taking my body under"!
Two I remember from my childhood were…
A "chester drawers" in the bedroom, and
a "bowen arrow".
Dam!!! I have been saying Chester drawers for 39 years!!! The worst part??? NO ONE has EVER corrected me!!!! Thanks
My gf thought Metallica's Enter Sandman had the lyric
"sleep with a coyote"
instead of
"sleep with one eye open"
no sh*t
For a long time I misunderstood Peter Gabriel's "Sledgehammer":
"This amusement never ends" sounded to me like
"There's amusement in the rinse."
It never occurred to me wonder what was in the dryer.
I knew a singer–and non-native speaker of English–whose favorites songs included "Blue Spinach Eyes."
I am one in the same with those who thought "There's a bad moon on the rise" was "There's a bathroom on the right."
Actually, sometimes it is. Though the official words are "There's a bad moon on the rise", John Fogerty, being a good sport and knowing of this humorous mondegreen, sometimes actually sings it in concerts as "There's a bathroom on the right." Perhaps you've heard this version. You can find it on YouTube where he sings it like that with a smirk on his face.
"Dirty deeds
Done with sheep"
They should rerecord it that way… hilarious
When I 1st heard the song "Brave" by Sara Bareilles was on a Dog Food commercial.
and I thought the line
"I want to see you be Brave." was
"I want to see you be Great."
but with the "T" being under emphasized. I took a while before I learned I was wrong. And I understood why I couldn't find the song when I searched 4 it online. LOL
From the CCR hit song "There's a bad moon on the rise." One will often hear "There's a bathroom on the right."
For the first 40 years of my life, when I heard the phrase "The Devil May Care", it conjured up images of a Rumpelstillskin-esque guy sitting at a spinning wheel because I thought the phrase was: "The Devil Make Hair".
that's a good one!
….and one for the little boy who lives down the drain.
Of Monsters and Men: Little Talks
"And though the truth may bury this, sh*t will carry on"
When the real line is
"And though the truth may not be, this ship will carry our (bodies strait to shore)"
Are you aware that the two most commonly used 4 letter words are anagrams. Ship High In Transport, which refers to the time when fertilizer was shipped over seas in Wooded ships which created such a stench that the crates used for the shipment of this substance were marked S.H.I.T. so the said stench would be stowed on a high section of the ship.
The other is Fortification Under Consent of the King, which dates back to a time when sex,except betwixt married persons, was illegal .
I still am not "aware" of this, because I doubt if either explanation is at all an accurate recounting an etymology -although the stories are humorous.
And I heard it was from the Puritan punishment of being put in public stocks if caught in an extramarital affair, with the abbreviated sign meaning For Using Carnal Knowledge.
Your use of the word "anagrams" is incorrect. Anagrams are words or phrases that are comprised of the mixed-up letters of other words or phrases. For example LISTEN and SILENT are anagrams of each other. Or a more advanced example, "The country side" and "No City Dust Here". I believe the word you meant to use was "acronym" which is a word that is comprised of the first letter or letters of the words in a phrase. One example of an acronym is the word RADAR, which originally was an acronym of the phrase RAdio Detection And Ranging.
Also, in your F.U.C.K. story, while I doubt the truthfulness of this, I believe the story says that it was FORNICATION Under Consent of the King, and not "Fortification". Both are useful words, but not really interchangeable. Who do you know goes on on Friday night looking for a little "Fortification"?
It sounds like you are very familiar with the tenants of writing well! That one is now going through press like wildfire. It's everywhere.
" the tenants of writing well" – Was that a deliberate mondegreen for " the tenets of writing well?"
I heard the latter was an abbreviation court clerks used to represent For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge.
I thought it was "And though the truth may vary, this ship will carry our bodies straight to shore"
I thought it was
"though the truth may vary, this ship will carry our bodies safe to shore"
I also remember thinking as a kid that in the song "Funk Soul Brother" that it said "the funk is your brother"
FINALLY, a mondegreen I can relate too hahah I was thinking that something was off about that line…
In "Escape (The Pina Colada Song)," I misheard "If you like pina coladas" as "If you like bean enchiladas."
…I do!!!
Another popular example of misheard lyrics is Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit" and especially the part of the lyrics which goes "A mulatto. An albino. A mosquito. My libido." There are different variations of mondegreens, one of them being "I'm a lion! I'm a vinyl! I'm a skittle I'm a Beatle!"
"That song about cleaning up dog poop."
"It's my litttle doo scoop (you dont know what I got)"
- B. Wilson
I thought it was duce coupe… once I decided it wasn't spruce coupe
"And I'm feral. You're my wonderwall."
instead of
"And after all, you're my wonderwall."
- Wonderwall by Oasis.
I thought it was "and after all, you're my one and all" LOL !! I really did!!
How about: "I led the pigeons to the flag" from the US pledge of allegiance
Got a lot of STARBUCKS LOVERS haha
I was waiting for someone to say this haha
"Got a Lovely Starbucks Lovers!" – had to look that one up, 'cause I knew it wasn't right. I still prefer to sing it this way in my head, though.
Some mondegreens
the holy cross-eyed bear (the cross I'd bear)…
in the father, in the son & 'in the hole he goes'
(in the father, in the son & in the holy ghost)…
Southpark made a song out of a modegreen:
Don't wanna be… Obama's Elf!
Don't wanna be… Obama's Elf, anymore.
(Parody of All By Myself)
ALSO, my sister's name Aftyn originated from a mondegreen of
Bruce Hornsby & the Range – Mandolin Rain.
"And Aftyn, she'd smile
It would last for awhile"
"I laughed and she'd smile
It would last for awhile"
Wow, that's pretty neat!
I thought it was "often I'd smile…"!
I actually prayed … in the holy goat
The story I recall is about the little boy who named his teddy bear "Gladly."
His father asked him how he chose that name. The boy said, "I named him after the hymn "Gladly, the Cross-eyed Bear" (Gladly the Cross I'd Bear) It is a perfect mondegreen because the sounds are identical.
How about the old Boney M song … "Ra, ra, rice puddin …"
Back in the 80′s, people in Latin America were so hopelessly hooked on Michael Jackson music, they cheerfully sang
"jabón" ("Keep On)
"cloroformo" ( With The Force Don't Stop)
"papel higiénico" ( Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough)
I hear that song as, "Keep on with the French toast, don't stop till you get enough."
Weird Al seems to have based his lyrics on misinterpretations.
'Mondegreen' seem so common that its infused in the evolution of human language and understanding. Adopting words from other languages, until all languages become one.
My favorite was from Madonna, "Pappa don't preach" "cause I'm keeping my babay". My friends liked my interpretation of how Madonna was going to have a baby, and her father could not stop her from having this child. Of course I knew that wasn't how it was meant to be understood.
That's exactly what "Papa Don't Preach" is about.
Sting misheard as I'm an alien,I'm a little alien I'm an Englishman in New York.Really is I'm a legal alien.
Up until I was well into my 40s, I thought "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" said, "The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down of the peg leg they called Gitchigumee." It really does sound like that, due to the singer's style where he sort of mumbles/slurs the words, but rather than a person with a peg leg, Gitchigumee apparently refers to a big lake (one of the Great Lakes, in fact).
My husband, who corrected my misunderstanding, and I still laugh hysterically any time we discuss it.
I always thought it sounded like "The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down to the big lake they call itch me goolies". I didin't realise what they really called it until just now!
My brother used to think Beyonce's "all the single ladies" was "I'm a single lettuce"
"I am the lord of the dance, said he" was apparently "I am the lord of the downstairs loo"
and my friends used to think "Build me up, buttercup" by the Foundations was "Build me a barnacle"
In "Angels We Have Heard on High," as a kid I would sing "We make Chelsea's Day-o" instead of "In excelsis Deo."
It still makes me smile when I hear the song.
That seems to be an easy one to mess up! I used to think that it said in Chelsea's Name-o,(like Bingo was his Name-o). I laugh now every time I hear that song now that I know what it really says!
There is also a song I know called "Until the Whole World Hears" by MercyMe….https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hc8y0DL8Hr4
at 0:45 especially, it sounds like "Radio says" or "Radio sells" instead of "Ready yourselves"….my mom thought that that was the funniest thing ever when she heard me sing it. I still think my lyrics fit the song just fine.
In the song 'Get Lucky' by Daft Punk ft. Pharrell Williams and Nile Rodgers nearer to the end it sounds like "Threw up on Mexicans"
My little brother thought it was "We'll rob a Mexican."
"Shirley [surely], Goodness, and Mercy will follow me all the days of my life" (The 23rd Psalm/The Lord's Prayer).
When I was little and recited this prayer at night, I thought three people named: Shirley, Goodness, and Mercy would always be walking behind me my whole life following me everywhere I went!
surely you can't be serious!
I am serious — and don't call me Shirley
The life of everyone on board depends upon just one thing: finding someone back there who can not only fly this plane, but who didn't have fish for dinner.
Bryan: No, no, no.. its "ni-guhh on mess-i-canz.."
Oh..but NOW, its offensive, huh?!
Maryann, not sure if you're joking but one of those things is racially insensitive and one of them is just a nationality. Nothing personal, especially seeing as it really does sound like that if you listen to the end of the song. It could be anything I guess, if you want to hear it you will hear it. It's like a…forced mondegreen.
I thought it was "We'll rub a Mexican monkey"
Another Christmas theme gone awry: Until I was 27 or so and my three-year niece told me otherwise, I always thought that the line in Jingle Bells was "dashing through the snow, on a one-horse soaping (soapin' in NewYorkese dialect) sleigh". For years I imagined big bubbles trailing behind the sleigh. Imagine my disappointment when a three-year old niece burst my bubble so to speak. À one-horse open sleigh still sounds like fun although perhaps a tad less festive without the bubbles…
I can't help hearing "we're all for mexican" even if I know the true words
For some people, like my husband and his brother, this is a disease, not a childhood phase. My favourite (among MANY): from Suzanne Vega's Luka. My brother-in-law thought she lived on the kitchen floor, instead of the second floor. She was beaten up by her husband but apparently he let her sleep on the bed…
Luka was the name of a boy who lived in the same building as Vega.
The song was not based on him.his name just fitted the lyrics.
Precious and few are the moments we toucans share…
The Styx song "Come Sail Away" starts out ",…
"I'm sailing away,..set an open course for the virgin sea"
A friend of mine in high school, when this song first came out (oops!,.aged myself!), used to sing it "set an open course for emergency"
Uhhh, until right now I thought it was "set an open course for emergency"! I'll need to listen again.
[…] What is called when you misinterpret lyrics? | dictionary […]
[…] What is called when you misinterpret lyrics? | dictionary […]
[…] What is called when you misinterpret lyrics? | dictionary […]
I think the song unwell is by matchbox 20, but anyway, when it comes on the radio I think the first line in the chorus is "I'm not crazy, I'm just a little, um…well" instead of "I'm not crazy, I'm just a little unwell." Just for clarification "um" and "well" are sentence fillers in my interpretation.
Our family loved the Huron Carol. One of my younger siblings couldn't hear the line "That might gitchi Manitou, sent angel choirs in stead" and sang instead, "that itchy itchy manitou.."
She hates to be reminded. LOL.
edit: "that MIGHTY gitchi manitou" …
Or, for an entire mondegreen choral work, see
(O Fortuna)
Excellent! "You don't get cheese or chicken!" Heh!
My little sister would always sing to this American Authors' song called "Luck." The chorus goes "I am my own man, I make my own luck" but she sang it as "I am my own man, I make my own lunch."
I liked her version better so I didn't correct her.
Recently, Belvita has begun airing a commercial with a catchy tune, all about how a woman had a great day because she ate their biscuits. The song ends with a chirpy "morning win", but every single time I hear " morning wood".
I hear "morning wood" too! I know what it's supposed to be, but I always get a laugh..
The director of the hockey games I used to televise was the king of Mondy Green – He would break into song over the intercom, but I can't recall him ever getting 100% of the words right!
My mother hates when I sing "Blah, blah, blah" (Love, love, love)
A friend's wife used to think "freeze frame" was Grease face.. LOL
Long live Weird AL!!
Hi, I often laught thinking at a very simple sentence, used on books here in Italy when you teach English to pupils:
"Look: my pen is on the table!"
I can't help imaging it as
"Look my penis on the table!"
The Metallica song "No Leaf Clover" has a pair of lines that go like this:
"Good day to be alive, sir.
Good day to be alive, he says."
My fraternity from college was called "Lancer" and we were based on King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, so in my head I've always heard:
"Good day to be a Lancer,
Good day to be a Knight, he says."
Greetings! I've been following your website for a long time now and finally got the bravery to go ahead and give you a
shout out from Humble Texas! Just wanted to tell you keep
up the fantastic work!
ROFL! for a minute there, I thought you were referring to Texas as humble. I was like- Texas is a lot of things, but humble has never been a word associated with that state! Then I realized you capitalized Humble and understood you were saying you are in Humble, TX. Thanks for a good laugh!
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Not for a song, but something that used to pass on TV back in the 90s. I can only remember this on Nickelodeon, but it's possible that other channels used it, too.
When saying what the next shows would be, they would the next show, then say, "Followed by…" and the next show after.
I always heard "Bollowed by…"
"Cris on August 12, 2011 at 10:19 am
Kids say the darndest things! Here's a couple from my family experience:
A daughter wanted to sing the "donzer song". Upon further inquiry, we learned it was the one that Francis Scott Key wrote about the "donzer lee light" so he could see the star spangled banner flying above Fort McHenry. "Oh say, can you see? By the donzer lee light." Ha!"
That's pretty good, but it was originally a key plot point used by Beverly Cleary in "Ramona the Pest". Unless your kid is over 60 years old I doubt your veracity. She spelled it "dawnzer", if you want to keep using the story.
Another Beatles mondegreen:
To my surprise, their song "Dead Irene" is actually supposed to be "Dear Diary!" [My version fits better with the music, since it's in a minor key, as are almost all laments.]
I blame the simply cr@ptastic radios [& speakers] in the cars & clock radios of my youth, since that's about the only way/place I listened to music at the time…
The Beatles' song "Here There And Everywhere":
"I want her everywhere and if she's beside me
I know I need never care
But to love her is to need her everywhere
Knowing that love is to share"
I sang along as a teen but I sang ".. and if she's besides me I know I need medicare"!
The debate in the news at that time was about medicare. (Those who spoke of the slippery slope of Leviathan, were astute.)
[...] When a word comes about from a mistaken pronunciation, it's called a mondegreen. Find out [...]
i used to think "ruffle" was "waffle"
so when i heard "ruffled your hair" i thought someone would put waffles in your hair
i also mixed up s and t
so the alphabet was Q R T, SUV
i thought Q, R, & T had an SUV
i used to think "L M N O P"
was "Elmo had no pee"
in Finding Nemo, the little baby octopus, seahorse, and fish say butt instead of boat
so when
Nemo touches the boat they say "Look! He's touching the butt!"
we watched Nemo in class
our class cracked up when we saw that
Hehehe…I actually wrote this as its own comment before finding yours. I thought L, M, N, and O were one letter called "elemeno".
My father told me that when he was very young, his friends from church would practice baptizing each other. They would stand in the bathtub, shut the drain, and then say, "I now baptize you in the Father, The Son, (open the drain), and in the hole he goes"!!! It was supposed to go, "I now baptize you in the Father, The Son, and in the Holy Ghost."
"Santa Claus" is actually a mondegreen derived from "Saint Nicholas"! I heard something about how children in a different country couldn't pronounce Saint Nicholas correctly in their language…? So the mondegreen became popular and spread!
Unless it's a song lyric, it's not a mondegreen.
Actually Andrew, you are mistaken:
a word or phrase resulting from a misinterpretation of a word or phrase that has been heard.
would of, could of & should of are mondegreens for
Would've, could've & should've
It's not "would of", "could of".
It's "would HAVE", could HAVE
"Santa Claus" had it correctly, and you're missing the point. "Would of", "should of", and "could of" are incorrect—that's what makes them mondegreens (though not very meaty ones like 'Lady Mondegreen"). "Would have" etc are merely the full, correct forms of the contractions "would've" etc.
Having lived in Germany, I guessed that "Santa Claus" originated as a mishearing or mispronunciation of the German "Sankt Niklaus", which is pronounced approximately like "ZAHNkt nicLOUSE", very close to Santa Claus. The case is a little more complicated, as etymologists trace the English name through the dialectical Dutch "Sinter Klaas", for Saint Nicholas.
There's a line in the song "Hook" by Blues Traveler that says something about "hip three-minute ditties". It's sung very quickly so it kind of all mashes together, and the first few times I heard it, I swore it said "hit them in the ti**ies".
In the article it should be "The bonny … " (not "The boony … ")
Also, James Stewart was "the Earl of Moray", and the "of" becomes "o'"; it isn't like O'Brien: there should be a space before "Moray".
Ye Highlands and ye Lawlands,
Oh where have you been?
They have slain the Earl o' Moray
And layd him on the green.
My great aunt told me that when she was a child, she thought the hymn "when the roll is called up yonder" was "when the roll is called a p-yonder"… She was raised on a ranch and they had a piece of machinery referred to as " the roll." she thought someday it would be renamed, and she'd be there.
In Don Henley's "End of the Innocence" I thought he said "tired old man with the electric grin", when it was actually "that we elected king". I liked my version, since the song was talking about Reagan, and sometimes he could come across like we needed to plug him in before he would function.
"I'm shaving!" instead of Garth Brooks "I'm shameless!"
"stepped on a pop-tart" instead of Jimmy Buffet's "stepped on a pop-top"
Jermaine Stewart, "We don't have to take our clothes off"
# I'm not a piece of meat and you lick my brain"
Stereophonics "Have a nice day"
#Lie around all day, Have a drink of cheese"
"A pink Paradise" and put up a parking lot…should be "Paved Paradise" and put up a parking lot. I swore that song was called pink paradise.
Whenever I hear the word "paradise" in almost any song, my brain automatically translates it to "pair of dice" for some reason.
"…Have a Cheeseburger in Paradise…"
"…Have a Cheeseburger and pair of dice…"
When I was a small child, my parents had a Christmas album by the Mormon Barnacle Choir. I guess they came from Salt Lake.
After singing the children's folk song, "Hop, hop a little horse, Hop, hop again, sir" then 5-year-old Chris asked, "What's a ghinzer?" Now, in my family's lexicon a 'ghinzer' is code for any misheard word or phase. We apparently created a mondegreen for mondegreen, if I'm understanding the term correctly.
After hearing the kindergarten rule, "No running on the black top," Elizabeth reported to us that there was to be "No running on the lap top." A rule we would use sardonically for many a MicroSoft product.
"And all this longing, and the sheeps all left to rust," from What the Water Gave Me by Florence and the Machine. I sang it like that for months, not having a clue what sheep had to do with the song and wondering why Florence said "sheeps" anyway, until a friend pointed out that it's "the SHIELDS all left to rust."
"Strummin guitar love" instead of "Come and get your love".
Tom Petty and Stevie Nicks are, to me, two of the worst annunciators in the music business. And they did a duet together. "nothing better to do . . . than make a meal of some bright eyed kid" came through to me as ". . . than make some innocent bright eyed kid" which I took as careless conception.
infanso instead of infant so in silent night.
I heard of a little kid adding a small fat man to his depiction of the nativity. When he was asked, he said that's Round John Virgin, mother and child.
Animal Collective sampled a Grateful Dead lyric "whoa I walk sky" and called their new song "What Would I Want Sky"
Here we come a-waffling among the greasy trees… (instead of Here we come a-wassailing among the trees so green).
When we were in middle school, my friend thought the line from Roxanne's It Must've Been Love was "Lay a WHISKER on my pillow" instead of whisper.
i don't know what you guys are talking about. can't hear you over the beach boys singing that old fave, 'little loose tooth'.
Marsey dotes and dozy dotes and little lamsie divey
A kiddly divey too, wouldn't you?
I learned it with "wooden shoe" instead of "wouldn't you".
It's clearly about what to feed an animal. Mares eat oats, and does eat oats, and little lambs eat ivy, a kid'll eat ivy to wouldn't you?
I always thought Kim Mitchell's song was about an Irish woman named Patty O'Lanterns.
Frankie Valli had a song called, "My Eyes Adored Ya," but I misheard it as "My Satorja." I remember thinking that it was the most stupid song ever because there was no such name as 'Satorja'.
I'm blue da ba dee da ba dah
I'm blue i'm in need of a guy
Oh Lord, won't you buy me
A Mercedes Benz.
My friends all drive porches
I must make amends.
Don't you know that I'm
Hurtin' through the grapevine!
Oh, I'm hurtin' through the grapevine!
Just about, just about, just about
To lose my mind.
Takes care of C-P-T!!!
um… those Joplin lyrics are correct… what's the misinterpretation?
" . . . my friends all drive Porsches" (NOT "porches"!)
I'm a particular fan of the BBC Radio 4 programme Crossing Continents.
… which *always* sounds, when announced like Cross Incontinence – I rather different programme.
Oh man, I am staying up late reading all these comments:
My daughter was 2 or 3 and we caught her singing the line in Deck the Halls as "follow me and be very careful" instead of "follow me in merry measure" (that on melted our hearts)
My sister thought Neil Diamond was singing " For Reverend Blue Jeans " instead of "Forever in Blue Jeans"
A friend at work was singing "Rock the cashbox" instead of "Rock the Casba"
Here's a more obscure one:
There's a song by an old death metal band called Hypocrisy, which is about seeing UFOs. At one point, the lyric is: "I must debate it, because when I walked out they were all gone."
I've always heard it as: "I masturbated, because when I walked out, they were all gone."
I think mondegreen is a fantastic result because a male represents penetration of nature, thus nature being female of equal essential.
So really… I mean if they slain that man and "Lady Mondegreen" that logically may signify Lady Mondegreen is of personal acquaintance of the man who was slain.
"Laying him on the green" can be the same thing as "and Lady Mondegreen", especially since NAMES are WORDS. They both can mean the same in the sense that when he died, she died, too. Don't think I am wrong. It's only because of Christianity or whatever nonsense going on today that really makes you displease in a male. We'rE ALL in the same pot, when talking about which gender is guilty. But if you want to go back in time, I say this child's interpretation is poetically correct… even JUST CORRECT!
I honestly feel Sylvia Wright is half right there. I mean TRUE: The child's misinterpretation weren't the original lyrics, but essentially works the same.
you are an idiot
OR HOW ABOUT Smells Like Teen Spirit?
"With the lights out, it's the stages!"
When it's really "it's less dangerous!"
That's my mondegreen.
And I always thought it was "Blinded by the light, ramped up a fiduciary rofer in the night."
Hey, there wuz some WEIRD business deals in those days.
" The Dog Say Goodnight" should be " The dark sacred night" from " What A Wonderful World" ( Louis Armstrong )
Elton John's Rocket Man
What it really is:
And I think it's gonna be a long long time
Till touch down brings me round again to find
I'm not the man they think I am at home
Oh no, no, no, I'm a rocket man
Rocket man burning out his fuse up here alone
What I heard: And I think it's gonna be a long, long time
Til touchdown brings me what I've yet to find
A ma ma minakick I ever known,
No whoa, whoa, whoa, I'm a rocket man
Rocket man, burnin' all the shoes off farranon
(Wrong to the point of being ridiculous, but it was great fun
to sing! )
I always thought the song "Tell Me Why" by Taylor Swift said: 'you might think I'm full of poop but I'm not!' Instead of 'you might think I'm bulletproof but I'm not!' makes so much more sense haha
How to Save a Life by The Fray
"And I pray to god he hears you"
"And I paid a guy to kiss you"
if you listen to the song it sounds so much like the latter
The song Cupid by Sam Cooke,
Until I was 12 I thought he was singing "Hubert".
When my friend heard me singing this to the car stereo, he couldn't help but break out into roaring laugh.
In Jingle Bells thought the lyric was "In a one horse soapin' sleigh"
The Bee Gees "Bald Headed Woman", turned out to my surprise to actually be "More than a woman".
And "wake me up to pour your cocoa" instead of before you go-go, in the Wham! song
Answering my own question: "Mondegreen" is an "autologous" or "homologous" word. Interestingly, "autologous" is autologous, too, along with common words like "common" (it is common) and "short" (it is short). Ironically, "long" is not long, so it's the opposite of autologous, it's heterological — it does not describe itself.
What is the word for a word like "Mondegreen" that is an example of itself? We know that a "Mondegreen" is a misheard line or lyric, as has been fully explored in the 900 comments before mine, but "Mondegreen" itself is a "Mondegreen". Is there a word for its recursive quality?
Paul Young – "Everytime you go away, you take a piece of meat with you".
Song by Calvin Harris: Sounds like he is saying "You used the whole beef" in the chorus of his song "You used to hold me"
check it out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YzujNk-yYrE
especially at 0:50
In the Lord's Prayer, in addition to "Harold be Thy name" one of my young students would ask "deliver us from eagles" and in the Creed thought Jesus "suffered under Qantas pilot".
I spent most of my life (over 60 years) saying "for all intensive purposes" until one day when I was reading a novel and saw in print "for all intents and purposes" but I still trip over the phrase when I'm in a casual conversation!
Oh my god… you just blew my mind, I still say that! I hope I can stop
Sorry, Slipknot's song, not Iron Maiden's. My apologies.
Iron Maiden's "Before I Forget"
Original proper lyrics: "I was a creature before I could stand"
My misheard mondegreen: "I was a creature before I could sin"
I think that was vastly improved.
Depeche Mode "Everything counts"
Everything counts in large amounts. My version for years was "Everything counts by Roger Maus"
No one confused Europe's "The Final Countdown" with "A fire downtown"? Seriously?
Many people now write "should of" rather than "should've," because they've heard it pronounced that way often and never took the time to look it up (they really shouldn't have to… it's ridiculous). But I suppose that would be an example of a mondegreen, right?
A former girlfriend once told me hysterically about hearing her middle son absent-mindedly singing the Barry Manilow tune "Looks Like We Made It" in the car as she was driving him to football. His lyrics were, "Looks like tomatoes!"
Any of the notice of Red Hot Pepper Chillies!
"Crazy Little Thing Called Love" – Elvis
Real – "Take a backseat hitch-hike"
Mine – "Take a taxi hitch-hike"
"Sweet Emotion" – Aerosmith
Real – "Sweet Emotion"
Mine – "Feel the ocean"
Crazy Little Thing Called Love is not an Elvis song. It's done by Queen and written by Freddie Mercury. He was quite a musical chameleon as, I agree with you, it sounds for all the world to be an Elvis song but it's not.
These are songs I misunderstood until I saw the lyrics
"Heaven … On Earth" – Belinda Carlisle
Real – "And you lift me up
In a wave of love"
Mine – "And you lift me up
In a web of love"
- Favorite song-artist
"Leave a Light On" – Belinda Carlisle
Real – "Cause when the world takes me away
You are still the air that I breathe"
Mine – "Could swear the world takes me away
You are still the edge that I need"
Real – "Baby that's your heart
Baby that's your heart
Baby that's your heart"
Mine – "Baby is that so hard
Baby is that so hard
Baby is that so hard"
-Favorite artist
"Heartache Tonight" – The Eagles
Real – "There's gonna be a heartache tonight"
Mine – There's gonna be a whoring tonight"
- Always thought virgin prostitute
"Oh Sherry" – Steve Perry
Real – "Oh Sherry Our love"
Mine – "Our cherry boat's rough"
"Crazy Little Thing Called Love" – Elvis
This is a song my teacher misunderstood
"House of the Rising Sun" – Bob Dylan
Real – "My mother was a tailor
She sold these new blue jeans"
Hers – "My mother was a traitor
She stole my blue jeans"
House Of The Rising Sun is by The Animals, not Bob Dylan. And the correct lyric is : my mother was a tailor/she sewed my new blue jeans…
Another one in reverse is the old song from the 1920s:
Maresy dotes, and Doesy -dotes and Little Lambsy Divey/a Kidle tivey too wouldn't you?
Oh it may sound queer, and funny to your ear: a little bit jumbled and jivey, but mares eat oats, and does eat oats, and little lambs eat ivy
My brother thought it was "thirty thieves in a thunder jeep" instead of "dirty deeds done dirt cheap"
Rocket Man (Elton John):
"burning out his fuse out here alone" sounded like "burning out the duodecagon".
Another One Bites The Dust (Queen):
"Steve walks warily down the street" sounded like "Stink bug's family down the street".
My Country 'Tis Of Thee:
"of thee I sing" sounded like "of the icing". Made me salivate when we sang it as kids.
Mine was "ev'ry down ring," which never made any sense to me… until I found out it's "Let freedom ring." Never made me the least bit hungry, anyway!
When I was younger I thought the line "He just smiled and gave me a vegemite sandwich" from the Men at Work song "Land Down Under" was "He just smiled and gave me a piece of his sandwich"…. Being American I had never heard of vegemite; It wasn't until I moved to Australia ( where I still live ) that I finally realized what was being said…I still like to sing my original version
Our family has at least three.
1. My youngest daughter thought the chorus on Gloria by Laura Branigan was
Gloria (Gloria), I think they got your number/
{I think they got Elliot's}
I think they got the alias/that you've been living under
2. My oldest, as a two-year-old thought in Beauty and the Beast that Belle
was not singing about a "provincial" life but an "elemential" life.
3. I thought Floor Filler by A-Teens was "Go, Miller!"
Stevie Wonder's lyric "massed her braided hair" used to confuse me as a kid. How could hair play with itself?
Foreign languages are great for Mondegreens !
This Dutchman got an unexpected surprise from an american au pair girl for introducing himself.
Shaking hands with the sixteen year old, I said "Stef Kok" .
(Stef being short for Stephen, while Kok is dutch for Cook)
A loud slap in my face was her answer.
It took me years of learning English to find out what her naughty ears heard.
Got something to do with a male chicken standing up.
My daughter thought the 12 days of Christmas said "and a par tra-gennapear tree" so when she saw a gilded pear ornament one holiday season she exclaimed with much delight, "Look! Mom! A gennapear!"
After days of reading, I finally hit bottom. A lot of repetition here. A lot seems staged. Some songs were parodies by Weird Al and Bob Rivers. I can't believe how many credited songs to the wrong people!
This is the day of the internet… which doesn't always get things right either. I usually check more than one source. I've seen plenty of pages that credit Mrs. Robinson to the Beatles!
Anyway, I didn't see this listed. When singing My Country Tis of Thee, I used to sing "sweet land of liberty, of the Hi-C." Hi-C was big back then…
When hearing the song:
After midnight .. we're going to let it all hang out….
for years I was hearing:
Captain Midnight .. we're going to let it all hang out.
Me too
I pledge alligance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for Richard Stans(which it stands) lol
I always said … one nation, under God is invisible to liberty and just is for all… it's actually one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. My version is truer though, huh?
My daughter ended the PofA…. "with liverty & justice for ROB"
The transformers theme song, i always thought they said instead of
"Robots In The Sky"
i thought
"Ho Bot In Your Eye"
I couldnt help but laugh and wonder if that was even appropriate
You get another point. The line is, "robots in disguise".
(Loosely in disguise when time ends. *wink*)
omg in "Dynamite" i thought it said "lighz eez ohz" instead of "light it up"
they should really sing clearer.
My father told me about how as a young child he heard someone talk about how they were going to fly a "Paper Cup". My Pops told me about all the different things he would imagine when he thought of someone flying a "paper cup". Then One day, many years later when he was in his preteens he was in the back of the family car while my grandfather drove, there in the airfield next to them was park a single-prop Piper J-3 Cub and suddenly it became clear: Not a "paper cup" a "Piper Cub"! Myself, I couldn't figure out the "knock-knock" joke: "knock, knock" "Who's there?" "Centipede" "Centipede who?" "Centipede on a Christmas Tree…". I literally pictured a centipede on a Christmas tree ("Centipede" apparently was "Santa peed") though my father told it to me until I was about 15 before I asked him to explain it to me. After which I literally laughed 'til it hurt!
Super Smash Bros. Brawl theme song: "Call Me Papa!" or "Haheeyahah!–though it's Latin, something like "A iliad."
Better part of the song: "This is for people speaking Mormon–WHO CARES! This is for history."
True story.
As a child I always sang the song verse "Michael Row Your Boat Ashore" as "Like a Rose Upon the Shore."
Only until a few months ago I thought the lyrics to Sade Smooth operator was Sue got it better, or Sue does it better.
A lot of kids have problems with the Australian National Anthem, so here it is:
Australians all are Ostriges,
for we are one, two, three.
With golden foil and silver foil,
Our home dirt by sea
Australians all let us rejoice
for we are young and free.
We've golden soil and wealth for toil
Our home is girt by sea.
Until about two years ago (shamefully), I interpreted the line in Billy Joel's song "Only the Good Die Young" as "when you were counting on your ovary" instead of "when you were counting on your rosary".
When I was very young, I thought it went like this:
"Mares eat oats and do-si-dos and little lambsy dive-y. A kidly dive-y too, wouldn't you?"
I apperently thought that female horses ate square dancers.
When we were very young, our missionary parents had us sing at the missionary services. One song was names "Dusky Hands" and part of the lyrics were:
Dusky hands are reaching for the bread of life
The chorus was
Send the gospel tidings over land and over sea
Til the power of Jesus sets the captives free
My little sister was singing
Send the gospel pirates over land and over sea
Till the pow of Jesus sets the Baptists free
And, no, she still has not lived this down
For years I thought Joni Mitchell was singing about those big fuzzy dice that high school boys used to hang from the rear view mirrors in their cars. I heard:
Wrong: Big pair o' dice. Put up a parking lot."
Right: "Pave paradise; put up a parking lot."
Joni's lyrics make sense. We need a place to park before we can get out and enjoy paradise. LOL
this happens all the time
In 27 dresses when they sing "Bennie and the Jets" and get every word of the song wrong.
Wrong: "She's got electric boobs, below her shoes,"
Right: "She's got electric shoes, a mohair suit,"
Just about a year ago, my brother was playing a video game and with the classic nasally voice of a horse race announcer, I heard him say: "Paul's bein' a ham!" I turned from the computer to ask him, "Did you just say, 'Paul's bein' a ham'?" He laughed and replied, "No! I said, 'Full speed ahead'!"
We might have almost killed ourselves laughing so hard. But now, we openly joke and say, "Paul's bein' a ham!" just for the fun of it. XD
The best one I can think of, aside from Bruce Springsteen's lyric, "…wrapped out like a deuce, another runner in the night." and most Bob Dylan songs, was in fact "mondegreened" by Bob himself…
In the Beatles' song, "I Wanna Hold Your Hand", there is a line that says, "…I can't hide…". Bob Dylan misinterpreted this to be, "I get high", and the story from there is that Bob went to visit the Beatles and ended up introducing them to Mrs. Cannabis Sativa and Mrs. Cannabis Sense". They pretty much took off from there, arriving in San Fran for the Summer of Drugs…er, Love…where Paul thought it would be a great idea to drop a few stamps from Uncle Syd…they didn't like it so much. But, we do have the song, "Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds"…on one hand, John maintained that it was named after a drawing he made when he was four, with the same title. And there are also influences from Through The Looking Glass. Hmmm…coincidence that 1. The nouns in a song title are capitalized…"LSD" 2. Through The Looking Glass was an inspiration for some other songs, referencing things around drugs, most notably "White Rabbit" by Jefferson Airplane.
Okay, perhaps one more—the end of "Strawberry Fields Forever, where a faint line played in slow speed by John can be heard; the line has been misinterpreted by many as being, "I buried Paul". John maintains that it is "Cranberry Sauce"…coincidence that Paul seems to have had done something that either embarrassed John pubicly, or something that apparently (if this is what actually happened) caused John to seek vindication…so, something there happened to Paul, and John supposedly applied icing to the cake by the boastful, "I buried Paul". Something to that extent…
Tim… "Embarrassed John _pubicly_"…..
…Really?!?! Gotta love it…..
Thanks for the laugh!
Our father's God to thee,
Author of liberty of thee I sing.
Lord let this land be bright
With freedoms Holy Light,
Protect us by thy might
Great God Our King.
My version:
Protect our spy by night
Great God Our King
Great God Our King
I think my most famous one as a child, was caught singing along in the car to Pink Floyd when I loudly declared "Hey! Creature!, Leave them kids a bone" instead of obviously "Hey! Teacher! Leave them kids alone!"
When he was about 4 years old, my little brother would walk around the house doing a Pigmeat Markham imitation. He would sing: "Order in the court, Order in the court, Keep my Daddy in the order of the court." Still cracks me up, after 50 years.
I was in drama one time and one of the characters in out scene was named Marissa and our teacher kept telling us to pronounce it better because her name wasn't MRSA. lol
Just realized while reading these comments that I've been hearing Stayin' Alive by the BeeGees wrong. I always thought it was "You can tell by the way I use my walk, I'm a wanted man, no time to talk" instead of "woman's man". Oops.
Oh! I almost forgot. In the song they teach kids to help them learn the continents, whenever my cousin used to get to the part about "don't forget Australia", she always said "don't forget I'll strangle ya…" I now say it her way every time I sing it. Makes me laugh every time.
I always thought the line in Blinded by the Light was "wrapped up like a douch, another rumor in the night". I still don't think it sounds like "deuce".
And in the Taylor Swift song Ours, I thought the line was "People throw rocks, it'll be just fine" instead of "… at things that shine". Although, I think "it'll be just fine" sounds better.
Also, in Heartach Tonight I always thought it said "There's goona be a party tonight…" Needless to say I didn't know the name of the song. lol
Here's a bilingual one — when my brother was learning the first few lines of the Torah for his Bar Mitzvah, he would chant "V'ha'aretz hay'tah tohu v'vohu" — but I heard "tofu v'vohu." To this day, I insist that before God created light, it was made up of darkness and tofu.
I love the way you move
I am a whale
Well, most cetainly my preferable mondegreen was issued from my nana
Lady Ga Ga's 'poker face' was heard to her to be: "cherry pie, cherry pie, my poker face"
most remarkable and highly amusing, it puts you in mind of slapstick comdey.
I have a wonderful nana, truly I do.
In the song "Piano Man" by Billy Joel, I was convinced, as a child, that Billy sung "and the piano sounds like a carnivore." As my father informed me, he was actually singing "and the piano sounds like a carnival."
I also had no idea that Sara Lee's slogan was "Nobody doesn't like Sara Lee." (Part of me still denies that it isn't "Nobody does it like Sara Lee.")
As has just about every other person who has heard the song "Blinded By the Light," I misunderstood "revved up like a deuce, another runner in the night." I always heard him saying "repped up like a douche, another rudder in the night."
For years, I thought "big ol' jet air liner" was "big ol' Jed at a lineup."
One day, while my mother and I were singing along with the car radio, Dobie Gray's "Drift Away" started playing. When we got to the chorus of the song, I realized that my mother was singing "gimme the Beach Boys" instead of "gimme the beat, boys." I gently corrected her error.
I remember hearding the song "Pumped Up Kicks" for the first time. I thought they said "Pupped 'tup kisses". Personally, I dislike that song.
in Johnny Cash and June Carter's "Jackson" I thought the lyrics were "We got married in a beater" for the longest time. the correct lyrics are "we got married in a fever"
A friend was singing Bush's "Machine Head" as "I've got a Mushy Head"
Dragostea Din Tei -by : O-Zone
That song has a lot of mondegreens unless you speak the language fluently or have the lyrics in hand.
Moulin Rouge fans..
I was listening to Hindi Sad Diamonds on youtube and there was a comment that said I ONLY SPEAK TO TOAST and know I can't imagine Toulouse singing anything else!
Whenever The Romantics' "Talking in Your Sleep" comes on the radio, my mom recounts the story of how when my uncle was young, he'd mistakenly replace the line "I hear the secrets that you keep" with "I hear the secret Apache chief."
[...] a malapropism is misuse of a single word, a mondegreen is misinterpretation of a phrase or series of words that sounds like another phrase or series of [...]
lest we forget the infamous elemenopee (L M N O P)
"do the funky (or f#$!&*^) lady" instead of "dude looks like a lady"
"climb every woman" instead of "i'm every woman"
"pikachu's a virgin" instead of "packaging subversion"("psychosocial" by slipknot)
I always thought that Tina Turner's "What's Love Got to Do With It" said..what's love gotta do, gotta do with it, what's love than a SECOND HAND IN MOTION…instead of second hand emotion.!
stupid classmate of mine from highschool was singing "let go" instead of "get low" by lil jon
Song titled "Washington Bullets" by The (International) Noise Conspiracy on the album Causes 1
They say "Washington Bullets" over and over again during the song, and it sounds to me like "washed-down pole dance"
I thought Jimi Hendrix' line (in Voodoo Child) "he took me past the outskirts of infinity" was "he took me past the downstairs of infinity." Same difference.
This is not exactly a mondegreen so much as it is a parody. It isn't something I thought of; I read it in a comic strip: Bill Watterson's "Calvin and Hobbes."
—"I pledge allegiance to Queen Fragg and her mighty state of hysteria…"—
The comic strip goes on to show Calvin, the main character, being escorted/dragged towards the principal's office by his teacher.
My brother used to think that Huey Lewis and the News were singing that "the heart of rock and roll is Topeka". Made sense to him, since the song mentions many other cities where "the heart of rock and roll is still beating".
I used to teach 6th grade in a Catholic school. They were learning about the Protestant Reformation in history–but when they read it out loud, they invariably said "the Prostitute Reformation"–as the word prostitute was in the Bible, and they had never heard the word Protestant.
Also once, when my daughter was 3 or 4, she said, I love Cheez-Its." My dad turned to me and said, "I am so glad you are teaching her about Jesus." (Didn't have the heart to correct him.)
When I lived in the Washington DC area it sounded to me that one of the regular announcements on the DC Metro was 'George Clooney'. It was really 'Doors closing'
I still chuckle about my friend thinking "White Punks on Dope" by the Tubes, was "White Pumps Don't Go"!
Not a song lyrics, but a friend was visiting my Lutheran Church for the first time and mistook the chanted response:
"May the peace of the Lord be with you!"
"May the Pizza DeLorian bewitch you!"
I used to wonder what a "donzer" was, in the Star-Spangled Banner. ("Oh, say can you see, by the donzer-ly light. . .")
In a Beverly Cleary novel, young Ramona Quimby believes the sStar Spangled Banner proclaims, "Jose can you see, by the Dawnzerly lights." I find that quite amusing!
My brother would always play Eiffel 65′s "Blue" on road trips.
What the song says: "I'm blue da ba dee da ba di"
What I heard: "I'm blue, if I were green I would die."
i would hear "I'm blue da ba dee da ba di" as "I'm blue, i believe i will die"
I hope this isn't a repeat; I read as many of the above as I could to try to be sure it isn't, but couldn't read them all. I think this is the most interesting mondegreen I've ever heard about (it was explained on NPR some years ago at Christmas time):
Originally the first day of Christmas was sung
". . . my true love gave to me a partridge une perdrix."
The last two words, French for "a partridge," are (more or less) pronounced "oona pair-dree."
Another hymn: My brother and I always thought "bringing in the sheaves" was "bringing in the sheep." But Betty's "Mairzy Doats" lyrics above, that's a classic; I bet that's one of the most common modegreens there is. It's certainly what I thought I heard
I thought "God shed his grace on me" was "God shed his brains on me" for a very long time… I kid you not. :/
Ha, this one was my favorite when I was in middle school: "This Guy is falling! This Guy is falling!"
In one episode of Casey Jones, some bad guys captured the train and decared that they'd got "ready-made hostages on board". I was young, and got quite jeaous that they'd got ready-made sausages…
When I was fifteen, song by the Hollies the lyrics were -All I need is the air that I breathe, yes to love you. I dated a guy named Pierre.
My mother heard me singing the song one day and thought I was saying, "All I need is Pierre that breathe yes I love you.
Needless to say, she was not happy with what she thought I was saying.
My friend thought Phil Collins sang "Stranger's lightening" instead of "strangers like me" from Tarzan.
I thought the star spangled banner went like:
oh say can you sea
by the donserly light
what so proudly we mailed
by the twilight's last gleaning
whose broad stripes and bright stars
through the pair on us flight
over the ram parts we watched
were so gull and lee screaming
and the rockets red blair
the bombs bursting in air
gave poof to the knight
that our flag was still there
oh say does that star spangle
banner yet weave
over the land of the free
and the home of the brave
yes, that is "donserly". I thought it was a description.
There's a song I used to hear on a rock radio station a lot that I thought went "oh hey the low can I…(da da da da)-ify…take my heart oh oh oh"
Still don't know what that song was or what the words really are. Sounds kind of creepy, actually.
These are all so funny. I have had tears running down my face laughing so hard at some of these. Especially the Beatles song "Michelle". I almost fell off my chair laughing so hard!!!
My brother's name is Jeff and since we were children, at Christmas, I always sang "Jeff's nuts roasting on an open fire" instead of "Chestnuts roasting on an open fire". There were issues between us as children as you can well imagine. Nowadays "Jeff's Nuts" is a Christmas standard for all of us.
Another Christmas song mondegreen is Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer "he'll go down in his story" instead of "he'll go down in history".
One of my friends in high school (almost 40 years ago) used to sing the dance song "Do the Hustle" as "Eat a Hotdog". We didnt see it, but she was sure she was right until we proved it to her.
And back to the Christmas theme, this past holiday season there was a cell phone commercial that used "Walking in a 4G Wonderland" as its song, which is a play on "Walking in a Winter Wonderland". The first time we saw/heard the commercial we thought they were saying "walking in an orgy wonderland"!!!
My dad always teased me about being musically challenged. So, when we would sing Jesus loves me, 'this I know,' I just figured that 'thisino' was one of those complicated music terms I didn't understand.
When I was in elementary school reciting the Pledge of Allegence, I always thought it was: '…and to the republic, for witches stand…'
when i listen to sonngs i dont always understand the words and just sing what i hear, this is a great word to know!!
Our parents are country music fans, so my sister and I had some interesting versions of old country songs: First it was Glen Campbell's "Round Stout Cowboy," also known as "Rhinestone Cowboy." Then there was "Johnny make my Brown Eyes Blue" (Don't it Make my Brown Eyes Blue," and my personal favorite, from Kenny Rogers "Lucille": "You picked a fine time to leave me Lucille; four hundred children and a cop in the field!" (four hungry children and a crop in the field.) Our step-mom always says that she would have left 396 kids ago.
Gods name is Howard.
Our father wh art in heaven
Howard be thy name…
In the well known Australian song Waltzing Matilda
the swagman's name is Andy.
"Andy (and he) sang, Andy he watched, Andy
waited 'til his Billy boiled"
There is a railway station in Sydney in rhe
suburb of Tempe.
It is mentioned in the Lord's Prayer.
"Deliver us not into Tempe station
The song "Mr. Mom" by some person (whose name has escaped me for some reason) always sounded like "Mr. Mong" when I was little. I had no idea what the song was about (about a stay at home dad…not some random asian man…"
Remember "Bad, Bad Leroy Brown?" My dear wife wondered until recently why he stored dried fruit in his loafers, having always heard the line "…he got a .32 gun in his pocket for fun / he got a razor in his shoe…" as saying, "…he got a raisin in his shoe…"
In "Still Alive," the song at the end of Portal, "anyway this cake is great" sounds like "many wages came too late" or "many wages came to great."
This might sound weird, but in the song "Operation Ground and Pound" by Dragonforce, it really sounds like: "Victory" and not the real "Live Tonight". It seems impossible to get these two phrases messed up, but if you listen to the song you'll understand.
How about Mariah Carey's "I Can't Live"???…Instead of "I can't live, if living is without you…", a Hungarian Idol auditioner sung "Ken Lee, tulivodivo doucho…"…Search the keyword "ken lee" on youtube…Great page anyways…Big UP!!!…
I thought the Bee Gees were singing "Bald headed woman to me, bald headed woman.." instead of "more than a woman to me, more than a woman." Seriously the next time you hear this song you are going to hear bald headed woman! LOL..
In Melissa Etheridge's 'I Want to Come Over,' when she says 'I want to come over- to hell with the consequence' I always thought it was to hell with the CONCERT PLANS-' like the were in a fight and she just wanted to come over and be together instead of going to the concert like they had planned…
@dame…i love that song i sing that in the shower and my mom tell me to shut the frunt door if you know what i mean r we alod to cuse on here ?:)
even when i read through this article, I sing…. shout to the heart..' how embarrassing
:0, can't stop laughing seeing comments top to down. Since English is not my mother language, any lyrics are misinterpreted 'till I heard it thousand times…
Even in church, I was confused… "Christ is risen" oops, I thought it was "Christ's in prison!" Yeah…goofy children, huh? And I thought that the lyrics, "a light(maybe lamp) unto my path(maybe bed)" was "and a bozz unto my bed
Wow, it is ridiculous
Oh, and I've got a twitter account, so, follow me!
is my profile page
I always thought the song, "Another one bites the dust", was, "another one rides the bus". I don't know if the song's actually called that LOL! My mom always thought "Fat Bottom Girls" was "black bottom girls,". Unfortunately, it's EXTREMELY racist…;P
There are so many (that I can't think of at the moment)!
Taylor Swift's "Love Story":
Mine: "skips time for a little while"
Actually: "escape this town for a little while"
(a lame one, not as funny as some people's)
Also, there's this song called "Chicarron, Macarron" (I think–don't know who it's by) it's really funny! look it up! the only 2 distinguishable words are chicarron, macarron–the rest is just a bunch of mumbling!
@ onecheer:
Thank you for telling me that! I never could figure what that line from "Across the Universe" was (thought it was something along the lines of "you may glimpse undying love")
Anybody know what all they lyrics to that song are? Especially the part that sounds like "jai guru deva om" or "shai curu deva om". I know that part isn't English, because I've read the lyrics somewhere before, but I can't remember what they are…
When I was little, if never understood that I was blessing someone. Whenever someonen sneezed, I would say "pless you"
ok this was probably already posted but the Killers song Human
I always believed it was
"Are we human? Or are we denser?"
It makes more sense as that as in are we denser than human? As in are we something more?
But it can also be
"Are we human? Or are we dancer?"
It makes sense as well but not grammatically. It could be asking if we are following the steps set out for us like a dancer. Mindlessly doing what we are told.
Another one is the Disturbed song Fear.
Sounds like
"Hero naked"
is really
"Fear awakened"
Also at the end of all the "I don't wanna be" it sounds like "I don't wanna be in this, you know"
is really
"I don't wanna be innocent"
Picture or pitcher it sounds the same.
I was unfortunate enough to hear Mark Lowry's spoof "My Face in this World." Before I heard the other (Um… famous Christian singer whose name escapes me) "My Place in this World." I'm physically (or mentally?) incapable of hearing the proper lyrics now.
I also went through kindergarden wondering why there were two 'M's in the alphabet.
Er, "your bacon". Sorry.
I have so many… I have two intentional ones: instead of singing Queen's song "Under Pressure", I sing "Under Prussia", and my brother and I like to sing "you spin me right 'round, baby right 'round, like an oyster". I'm not sure how we came up with that.
As for my mistakes, I still think "Can't Buy Me Love" by the Beatles sounds like "It's Puppy-Love". And I was extremely embarrassed when I discovered that the line from Avril Lavigne's "Complicated" is "promise me I'm never gonna find you begging" and not "promise me I'm never gonna find you're bacon."
I always thought it was I'm never gonna find you Naked!.
In the song "Take It Easy," written by Jackson Browne and Glenn Frey and made famous as performed by the Eagles:
"It's a girl, my Lord,
In a flat-bed, bored,
slowin' down to take a look at me…"
No… it's "a flat-bed FORD, slowin' down to take a look at me."
It made sense to me that she would slow down, suddenly interested to see one of the Eagles standing on a corner in Winslow, Arizona. (The Eagles seemed more like Chevy folks–like Don McLean, I guess. And, hey, how many mondegreens did we hear in "American Pie"?)
I just learned correct lyrics to "Take It Easy" THIS YEAR after nearly forty years; it was issued in 1972.
Btw with the the mondegreen in the first quote is From "Misunderstood" by Lil Wayne:
"For 8 1/2 months I gave Ms. Cita (my seat to) Pain."
So what would you consider an modegreen that was done intentional? I see the one above was called a "pseudo-mondegreen" but what about something like what Lil Wayne does, for example
"For 8 1/2 months I gave Ms. Cita Pain"
-This is meant to be interpreted two ways, one, he gave his mom (Ms. Cita) pain during her pregnancy with him and two, he gave his "seat" to Pain as in T-Pain, since T-Pain was the popular Hip Hop artist prior to Lil Wayne's album release for about 8 1/2 months.
-Also there's "Flow (floor) so nice you ain't gotta put a rug on her." and "All about my dough (door) but I don't even check the peephole." I wouldn't call those double entendre's because it's an intentional mispronunciation of a word so that it is the colloquial version of one word, and the slang version of another, dough meaning money, and flow meaning cadence and/or rhyming technique.
another one for "our lips are sealed"– "olives are peeled"! That's what my mom used to think.
also, back when my little brother was young and innocent (ha) he thought that "when you're going through hell" by rodney atkins was "when you're going through hail" and he couldn't understand why you couldn't just bring an umbrella or why the devil would care if you're there, anyway.
I love that song its so cool!! I saw somewhere that the song was inspired by a shooting on mall property a long time ago or something but when i tried to look it up i couldn't find the origin on the song but the shooter's name was Robert so thats why the song says "Robert's got a quick hand, he's looking 'round the room won't tell you his plan he's got a rolled cigarette…hanging out his mouth he's a cowboy kid" I thought that first verse was pretty good for Foster the People
I used to think Lady Gaga was singing "Pump, pump, pump, pump, pump, pump, pump, pump, pump up the bass," and only after I figured out the title "poker Face" did I understand the lyrics… But most songs have the bass pumped up, no treble anymore!
in the song eye of the tiger "i love the tiger"
Reminds me of those two songs I thought they said the F word in when I was in elementary. One I just heard today. XD "Play the funky music"
I used to think he said, "Play the f-ing music!"
There was another one, but I forgot how it went. Something about a parking lot.
in foster the people's pumped up kicks
I thought it was " all the other kids with the pumped up kicks,
you better run better run out run my girl,
all the other kids with the pumped up kicks,
you better run better run faster then my brother"
but really its:
All the other kids with the pumped up kicks
You better run, better run, outrun my gun
All the other kids with the pumped up kicks
You better run, better run, faster than my bullet
My 6 year old son sang "she's a fax machine" instead of "she's a fast machine" in the AC/DC song "Shook me all night long."
I notice when I'm listening to a song I've heard since childhood that all of a sudden I hear the right words I've been saying wrong the whole time.
For example I never knew why "Vince you're a highway" from the America song "Ventura Highway" when their talking about a guy named Joe.
Or the argument my family had over "Chuckies in love" or "Chuck E.'s in love"
OK, with my hearing defects, and not quite understanding lyrics, I have made some 'Al Yankovich' type re dos of some songs.
One my ex husband used to laugh silly over was when I told him what one line in a song sounded like to ME…
the line in the late Jeff Healey song 'King of Wishful Thinking' that goes…
…I'll get over you I know I will
I'll pretend my ship's not sinking
Hmmm….well that last came across to my hearing as
'I'll pretend my $#i!$ not stinking'
Sorry, just my wonky-since-childhood hearing, and add my wonky sense of humor~!
I thought that song "Dirty Deeds" by AC/DC went
"Dirty deeds and a dander cheep."
I had to ask I was so confused.
Apparently it is "Dirty deeds and they're damn dirt cheap."
Pff, close enough.
They are "done dirt cheap".
"wrapped up like a douche"…
Manfred Mann and the Earth Band, too! But I heard:
"Blinded by the light
wrapped up like a douce…"
and never understood what that was supposed to mean, until seeing the actual lyrics:
[Blinded by the light
revved up like a deuce
Another runner in the night}
"It's not my style…" from a Rooster song I forget now…but I remember a friend thinking it was "It's not nostalgia."
Eric Clapton, Cocaine. "She don't like, she don't like, she don't like – cooking"
Hello there, I discovered your website via Google at the same time as searching for a related topic, your website got here up, it seems good. I have bookmarked it in my google bookmarks.
I for the longest time though the first line in Grateful Dead's song Bertha was "I had a hard on" when in actuality it is "I had a hard run"
my son thought Boney M's "Run, run Rasputin.." was "Run, run rescue team"!
The Adolescents song "Amoeba" has the word "amoeba" repeated by a group of voices, and it sounds like they are repeating "Tony Hawk".
sjx, I hope you were joking, but it's the first one.
"the Boony Earl O'Moray"? You surely mean "the bonnie Earl o' Moray"!
eye of the tiger by survivor, is it thrill of the fight or cream of he fight
You know that song by System Of A Down? The one about sending only poor into the war… I think it's called… Oh yea! It's B.Y.O.B. I always through one part meant:
Pigs in the pickle trough oooooooo LALALALAAAAAAAAA (that deep voice for the lalalaaaaa)
Creepy, huh?
my niece whrn she was about 5 years old, whenever she wanted to go to "Burger King" she allways said "Apookining"
I used to think the line "one horse open sleigh" in "Jingle Bells" was "one or soap in sleigh".
Also, in "I am a child of God" (LDS Primary song), the line is "lead me, guide me, walk beside me". I thought it said "lead me, guide me, rock beside me".
In the same song, I thought "and so my needs are great" was actually "and so my knees are great".
More recently, in "As long as you're mine" from "Wicked", I thought Fiyero was saying "it somethin' I felt". Later I found out he was saying "it's up that I fell".
My sons name is Chad and I still think in the Michael Jackson song it says "Chad is not my son." Instead of what they tell me it says "the kid (or boy) is not my son"
Tell me they're wrong and I'm right.
I also thought in Muse's song Hysteria it said "Its bugging near, crawling in, and twisting inside out" instead of its "its bugging me, grating me, and twisting me around"
I thought that in Coldplay's song Every Teardrop Is A Waterfall they said "And kids these days, or kids all night" I didn't realize I was wrong until I looked up the lyrics online and realized it was "And all the kids they dance, all the kids all night"
Hotel California by the Eagles
There were horses wearing corduroy, thought I heard them neigh…
and it should be There were voices down the corridor, thought I heard them say
Rick on August 13, 2011 at 6:57 am
"Honors fleises = ON HORSE FLYS IS
Income beezez,. = IN COMB BEES IS
Inches nobsis = ON CHEST KNOB IS
Inob keezez." = IN KNOB KEYS IS
This is my phonetic transcription. I'm sure there's a more accurate one somewhere. Anyone else remember this movie? GLAD YOU ASKED. ~~~~ TETO~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
In 1984, one of my rustic classmates was certain that Billy Idol wasn't singing about "Eyes without a Face" but instead was pleading "How's about a date?".
I used to think the B.J. Thomas lyrics were" even the bathtub was better than no love", instead of "even the bad love was better than no love".
There're whole websites dedicated to english-spoken songs that cause mondegreens in spanish… Examples:
In Michael Jackson's Billy Jean, the verse "BUT THE KID IS NOT MY SON" sounds a lot like "Tu quieres una manzana" (you want an apple)
In Earth Wind and Fire's Devotion, the verse "FROM THE FRUIT OF EVIL" sounds almost like "Toma tu sopita" (take your little soup)
And on and on…
My niece used to sing The Vengboys – Going to Ibiza as, Hey, we're going to eat pizza.
Me and a friend of mine used to belt out an Ash song as, 'Eggnog with the cold wind blowing.' Quelle suprise to find out it was 'at night with the cold wind blowing'!!
I thought "can't read my, can't read my…" from Lady Gaga's Poker Face was "carry my, carry my"
I always thought in Linkin Park's song Valentines Day it said "A black winter queue away" instead of "A black wind took you away". I feel rather stupid right now.
The old joke about the child that thought the son of God's name was Andy. When asked why he though so, he said it was in one of their hymns: And he walks with me and he talks with me…
we as muslims around the world can write lyrics out of languages mondegreen especially English through asorted media . I believe these days English people started to figure out them & it's about to disappear slighty . You can hardly find it which reflects how amazing they are
LittleKuriboh, the man responsible for the creation of YuGiOh! Abridged, once wrote an extended mondegreen of the original YuGiOh opening and credits songs, with such immortal lines as "Come to Iowa" and "Jim Carrey's from Canada! (Oh?)" and substituted them for the songs' subtitles in "The Other Abridged Movie."
ABC's 1987 song – 'When Smoky sings, I here violins'
me 'when smoke is sent, i hear violence.
My niece once sang, instead of "i'm a little butterfly", "ang galing kong pumatay." This is a Filipino way of saying "I'm good at killing." To think that mondegreens could also jump from one language to another is just amazing.
Frank D Felker on August 12, 2011 at 2:37 pm
Not: "Mares-e-dotz and doz-e-dotz and little lams-e-divy, skiddle-e-divy doo, wouldn't you?"
Is: "Mares eat oats and Does eat oats and little Lambs eat ivy, Kids will eat ivy too, wouldn't you?"
Uhm, so, thank you for pointing that out- I didn't know. I'm feeling rather dumb at the moment, because I always thought it was:
"Mares eat oats, and does eat oats, and little lambs eat ivy. Ah skiddle-e-divee doo, wood-ah-neuw."
My brother was at work and one of his coworkers said, "We have enough money, I think we can make it" my brother heard, "We have enough money, let's get naked." another time I was talking to my sister and said, "but still though!" my mom heard, "but d*ldo" yeah, my family has lots of those… lol and I remember when I was little and was watching "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" I would always sing the theme song as "Sh***y Sh***y bang bang"
in the song LIGHTERS (cover by Jason Chen, Matty B, et al.)
…is a scuffle of lighters
which is supposed to : is a sky full of lighters
sorry, that was a typo: the hot dogs go on instead of the heart does go on.
How about Celine Dion in the theme song from Titanic?
Since I first head it this way, I always now substitue "and the hot dogs go on" for "and the heard does go on".
I think is a little better an makes more sense "Just is" Than "Just us"
I saw it above, but my daughters interpretation of "Shot through the heart" by Bon Jovi was 'Chocolate Heart'! She thought it was about Valentines Day!
Michael Jackson's Ease on Down the Road, it says "Don't you give up walking cause you gave up shoes," and until RIGHT NOW when I looked it up, I thought it was "walking like a gay masseuse." Oooops…
My oldest son, when he was about twelve, used to sing, "GMC trucks and fees for Cher's "Gypsies, tramps and theives." We still sing it that way–and so many others I recognize from the posts! His older sister sang "Red, red, white" for UB40′s "Red, red, wine." My husband, though, is the reigning king of mondogreens– You name it and he's misunderstood it!
There's a song in Cinderella called 'Sing, sweet nightingale', that my 5-year old sang as "Sing, sweet night in jail."
Australian politicians (MPs Members of Parliament) in Parliament:
"Speaking as a country member,…"
("Yeah, we remember…")
[...] The word "ampersand" came many years later when "&" was actually part of the English alphabet. In the early 1800s, school children reciting their ABCs concluded the alphabet with the &. It would have been confusing to say "X, Y, Z, and." Rather, the students said, "and per se and." "Per se" means "by itself," so the students were essentially saying, "X, Y, Z, and by itself and." Over time, "and per se and" was slurred together into the word we use today:ampersand. When a word comes about from a mistaken pronunciation, it's called a mondegreen. Find out why here. [...]
This is an old one from when I was a kid, my sister & I came up with this when we were around 8 & 12, respectively. The Madonna song 'La Isla Bonita' starts of with a line like 'Last night I dreamt of San Pedro' – we always thought it was 'last night I ate me a bagel'. Still makes me laugh.
there's a line in – The Bangles – eternal flame – that goes…'life so lonely and then you come and ease the pain ' …i used to sing ' rice-o-roni' instead of life so lonely
I still sing The Doors' Riders on the Storm:
…like a dog without a bone, like an actor on the phone…
Actually, it works just as well as the original lyric.
When I was younger, I remember singing along to Mustang Sally by Los Lobos. My dad walked into the room and starting laughing as I sang, "Mustang Salad, / Guess you better slow your Mustang down. / Mustang Salad, my baby, / Guess you better slow your Mustang down. / You been a runnin' all over the town now, / Guess I'll have to put your flat feet on the ground. / All you wanna do is a ride around, Salad (RIDE SALAD RIDE) "
Nevertheless, to this day, I still can't hear the word Sally in that song. It's always been Salad for me.
In Junior High, my teacher always talked about Donkey Ho Te, imagine my surprise when it was Don Quixote!
Black Sabbath "I tell you to end your life" is really "I tell you to enjoy life".
Kenny Rogers Lucille
For a very long time, I couldn't figure out why he couldn't put some of the 400 children to work and where he got them.
You picked a fine time to leave me, Lucille
With 4 hungry children and a crop in the field
When my daughter was small and we sang "when the roll is called up yonder", she alwasys sang "when the rollies crawl up yonder:" She was referring to the little bugs that roll up into a ball.
A friend of mine's wife thought Madonna was singing,"Just like a person". She also thought the song went,"last one off the bus" instead of another one bites the dust. Poor Otis Redding was,"sitting on the dog of the bay", guess it was really poor dog!
four candles (fork handles) – Two Ronnies
A friend of mine thought the expression was, "it's a doggy dog world." Weirdly, I recently saw this joke used in a movie, but my friend actually thought that for her entire childhood.
"Last night I dreamt of some bagels" misheard from Madonna's La Isla Bonita. "Last night I dreamt of San Pedro" is correct. This became a running joke with some friends in high school.
After listening to a sound recording of the musical 'Fiddler on a Roof' my son asked me if that guy Muttle was strong. When I told him he wasn't my son then asked, "so how come they keep saying he is Muscle Tough?" …Mazel Tov.
I used to think Madonna was singing "Cheerio" in "Material Girl."
One more…
"Chopper Roll"
Actually it's "China Grove" by the Doobie Bros.
I guess the Doobie had something to do with this one.
I don't think this has been offered yet…
"Stop driving my… Stop driving my… Stop driving my CAR around!"
(Stop Dragging My Heart Around)
Tom Petty & Stevie Nicks
I cracked up when a friend of mine started complaining when a certain Bananarama song came on the radio. "I hate this song," he said. "What the hell does that even mean, 'I'm your fetus'?"
I'm no better, though. My brother gave me a mix CD, and what I thought was a song about a robot ("One ton of metal. For he is one ton of metal. One ton of metal…" &c) turned out to not even be in English.
And finally, I really enjoy Dave Matthews Band, own all their studio albums and a number of their live recordings, and have even gone to a couple of their concerts. And yet, I don't think there's a single song of theirs that I know all the words to.
Someone asked about "spoonerism" & "mondegreen." No, they are not the same. A spoonerism is an error in production. No one who says "at the lop of your tongues" really believes this to be the "correct form" of "at the top of you lungs." Likewise, we quickly realize that we should have said "baby sitter" when someone catches us saying "saby bitter." Spoonerism are speech errors, often involving the swap of initial consonant sounds, but sometimes involving other kinds of sound swapping.
Mondegreens have nothing to do with production and everything to do with perception (though the misperceptions are sometimes reproduced later).
It seems people sometimes "fake" spoonerisms for fun. There was a comedy recording once based on the story of Cinderella (who was referred to as Rinder Cella) that was full of made up spoonerisms — like "a linding blash of flight" for "a blinding flash of light" and "sisty uglers" for "ugly sisters." The second one is particularly interesting for what does (and does not) get swapped around.
I think butterflies used to be called flutter-bys; which makes more sense.
"stand beside us, and guide us, through the night, with a light from a bulb."
what about the song 'cold cold hearts, hard done by you'. for 7 years i kept singing it as cocohaha… hudumba you….. how dumb was i?
When I was a child, I though my friend's older brother had, "sixty-five roses" instead of cystic fibrosis.
As for the Pledge of Allegiance, does anyone remember the Calvin and Hobbes strip where Calvin is reciting, "I pledge allegiance to Queen Fragg, and to her mighty states of hysteria" ?
@ betty
LOL! I heard the exact same thing! I always thought it was a nonsense song until I was a teenager and heard my aunt singing the song to my toddler cousin.
@ Liz Brown
I never understood those words when my aunt sang them to me, and I always thought it was a nonsense song. I always heard, "Marsy-dotes and dozey-dotes and little lambzy-divey, I kiddley-divey too, wouldn't you?"
When I was little and sang in my church choir, we had to sing a song called "I Heard the Lord Call My Name." The real lyrics were "I felt his love, from above, settle on me like a dove. Take HIs hand, we are glory bound". For some reason our choir teacher thought it would be good enough if us kids listened to the adult choir and learned the song by ear. For the longest time all I sang was "I felt his love, from above, send salami like a dove. Take His hand, we are Glory Mom."
When I was a kid, on our island, Bob Marley's songs played alot and I'd sing along to the top of my voice. My favorite was "I don't wanna wait in vain for your love". I'd sing "I don't wanna wedding ring for your love". Yikes!
"Hey Nineteen" by Steely Dan
That queer old goat?
That's fine Cole Umbrian
Make tonight a wonderful Keema
The Cuervo Gold
The fine Colombian
Make tonight a wonderful thing
My mother and I thought the some dude named Cole was preparing and serving an Indian dish of Mutton Keema. The idea it was about 2 people getting wasted together never occurred to us.
Even after reading the lyrics off the vinyl LP cover it didn't make complete sense. I caught the reference to alcohol. She caught the reference to cocaine. We each had to explain part of it to the other.
lol this is funny!
for the longest time I love the band "Mario Speedwagon" only to find out they are called "R.E.O. Speedwagon"…..go figure!
In the Pledge of Allegiance some children say " … to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for Richard Stands …" instead of "for which it stands."
When taking medical histories, I've heard patients who claim to have had "Smilin' Mighty Jesus" instead of Spinal Meningitis. Additionally, a number of women who claim to suffer from "Fireballs of the Eucharist," instead of the more commonplace fibroids of the uterus.
Scott Weiland of Stone Temple Pilots spoke of the Eagles' "Life in the Fast Lane" on a Chicago Radio Show. He said when the song said "life in the fast lane…" as a kid, he heard "Flys in the vasoline…" that later became lyrics in STP's "Vasoline". Cool…
The Elephant and Castle would have been the homophone of Infanta of Castile, Eleanor of Castile and Leon who married Edward I of England.
"…for witches stand…"
Our auditory senses do have a strange and strong effect on our comprehension. I was reminded of an excellent example by this article, though it may be a bit old. I used to own the album Led Zeppelin IV on 33rpm, and the rumor was always that there were satanic lyrics if you hooked up the motor backwards on the turntable. I found a website with several recordings, played forward and backwards, so you can judge for yourself. The most revealing for me is to listen to the backwards version first, and write down the words you hear. Then read the supposed 'lyrics'. I was convinced the backwards 'lyrics' given were accurate, though they differed quite a bit from what I wrote down! If you like understanding things about yourself, try this!
The site is: http://jeffmilner.com/backmasking/index.html
I crack up everytime i hear Beast of Burden by the stones….
"I'll never be your Beast of Burden"
"I'll never be your pizza burning"
I always wonderd who John Virgin was and why he was gatherd around the baby Jesus with the shepherds and wise men. Untill i fond out the lyrics were "Round yon virgin, Mother and child" not "Round John Virgin"
In my household growing up, my parents referred to a bureau as a "chest of drawers." Maybe it was their West Texas pronunciation that had me thinking (until second grade, or so) that it was a "Chester Drawers."
Also– my (much) older brother loved Chuck Berry's "Roll Over Beethoven" and played it incessantly. I always heard Chuck telling a Big Toe Man to roll over.
When my son was 4 yrs. old, he would sing (at the top of his lungs) "Take it to the lemon one more time", by The Eagles.
My daughter had to do a class assignment naming the Presidents in her first grade class. She gave Abraham Lincoln the name "April Ham Linken". Too funny!!!
Like that song 'All I need is a Miracle' which can easily be misheard as "All I need is a beer or two…" Seemed appropriate.
I thought the words to a song were "I see the stars today" instead of "our school will shine today"….
When I was a little girl, my dad was a big gum chewer. He would say he wanted some chewing gum; only I would hear it as "chwingum", and for years, I thought that's what it was called! LOL
LMAO – oh my god, haven't laughed this much in a long time. Thanks all you guys and the original writer… must bookmark!!!
My favorite is Stewie's solo line in the theme song to "Family Guy:"
(this is how I hear it; sing along if you know it!)
Lois: It seems today, That all you see,
Is violence in movies, and sex on T.V.
Peter: But where are those good old fashion values….
All: On which we used to rely?!
Lucky there's a family guy!
Lucky there's a man who,
positively can do, all the things that make us…
Stewie: effin' cry!
All: He's a Fam-ily Guy!
According to official written lyrics,
Stewie supposedly sings "laugh and cry!"
But I don't think I'm hearing it wrong…what do you think?
Classic Simpsons moment ^^^
My girlfriend in highschool thought Huey Lewis and the News (this tells you when I was in high school) were singing "The heart of rock and roll is in Cleveland" (instead of "still beatin' "). Which it may be, for all I know.
Black Sabbath's Paranoid. I always thought it said, "can you help me, I thought you were my friend," when it actually says, "can you help me, I thought you were my brain." I like mine better. Also, The Beatles, "she's got a ticket to ride," I always thought it said, "she's got a chicken to ride," very disappointed when I figured that out.
Kanye West – Gold digger
Jamie Foxx's bit
She gives me money
When I'm in need
I gotta Wii
(Personally I prefer the PS3)
Check it out – http://youtu.be/6vwNcNOTVzY
I know this a few weeks later, Rick, but the "Honors flieses" song is from a 1945 Fred MacMurray film called "Murder, He Says."
The "translation" is:
"on a horse are flies, in a comb are bees, on a chest is a knob, in the knob is a key."
When I was in high school, I had the stereo turned up real loud when my dad came home from work. He asked my brother, "What's all that noise?" My brother replied, "That's Aerosmith, dad" to which my dad asked, "Harold Smith? Who's Harold Smith?" My brother corrected, "No, its Aerosmith." By then, my dad was exasperated and said, "Well I don't care who it is, tell him to turn it down." This is the same man who couldn't understand why CCR would make a song about a "baboon on the right."
It took me 20 years before I admitted to mine – You Sexy Thing. I could never quite figure out who Malcolm was and why the Hot Chocolates believed in him so much.
In my head: "I believe in Malcolm. Where you from, you sexy thing."
The lyrics: "I believe in miracles. Where you from, you sexy thing,"
Really makes just sooooo much more sense.
in Asleep by the Smiths "there must be" definitely = masturbate. My sister and I certainly thought so.
"Puff the magic dragon lived by the sea / and frolicked in the autumn mist in a land called Honah-lee…"
As a kid I heard "auto-mist" and assumed it was a poetic way of saying car exhaust. Poor Jackie Paper!
My aunt informed me after regaining her breath from laughing at me that Carly Simon was not singing about "the wife of the postman" in "You're So Vain." I still think it makes as much sense as "wife of a close friend."
Also, I was always confused by Weezer singing "Beverly Hills, rolling like a silver grenade"
This always happens to me! The first time I heard the song "Pretty Girls" by Iyaz, I wasn't really listening to the lyrics and thought it said "Gotta do the white boy jump, do the white boy jump." The next time I heard it I was singing "gotta do the white boy jump," and it sounded stupid so I listened to the lyrics and it turned out he said "Trying to pick the right one, trying to pick the right one." LOL
When I was younger, I thought the lyric for 'Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds' was "the girl with colitis go by" instead of the correct "the girl with kaleidoscope eyes".
I used to think the line in jingle bells was "a one horsopenslay"
I thought "Life in the fast lane" was "Life in the Bat Plane."
I used to mistake the lyric "gave proof through the night" in the Star Spangled Banner for "Babe Ruth through the night"
This happens often with young children as was the case when my sons were toddlers. I overheard my oldest son explain to his brother, "Tomorrow is a holiday called Happy St. Pat Sajak's Day, and if you don't wear green, I can pinch you." This was after having watched Wheel of Fortune at his grandma's house.
me: Are you ready?
her: I'm Russian, I'm Russian!
me: You should be Finnish by now!
Customer: What is this?
Waiter: It's bean soup.
Customer: What is it now?
some fantastic examples here (as well as some unbelievable mis-hearings ;)). One perhaps reverse mondegreen that I'm surprised to find missing is "Isle of view", the name of an album by the Pretenders.
It was a long time after listening to the album before I tried saying it out loud
When I was a kid, I misinterpreted the following line from the holiday favorite, "Winter Wonderland":
Real lyric: Later on, we'll conspire, as we dream by the fire
My mondagreen: Later on, we'll PERSPIRE, as we dream by the fire
It made perfect sense to me…that fire must have felt quite hot.
My principal used to always tell us the story of how, when she was little, she'd go to church and sing hymns about "Gladly, the cross-eyed bear." That is, until she realized that the song actually said "Gladly the cross I'd bare."
@Norm on August 14, 2011 at 3:37 pm
My name is Hooben…Do you know what a "Hoobenism" is?
(I also coined a word.)
A hoobenism is when you can say something that is grammatically correct but impossible to write grammatically correct. There's lots of them but the one I most often use for an example is: (now don't forget this is grammatically incorrect)
"There are three two's in the English language."
Yes, that can be a complication, can't it?
As a teacher, I would probably turn the whole thing around a little in order to make it clearer: "There are three words in English that are spoken or pronounced like the word "to." It's certainly longer than your "three two's."
Which other examples have you come across? I guess it occurs most frequently with homonyms, but have you come across other types of examples?
I have a thing for mondagreens.( and now I actually know what it's called!) especially in song lyrics… and I have this habit of singing the wrong lyrics, even though I know they are wrong, just because I think it's funny. One good example, is The only song I like by Fallout boy " This ain't a scene, it's an arms race" There is a video of the "misheard lyrics" on you tube somewhere… but I only sing the wrong lyrics, becuase they are waaay better. " I'm a little man/ and I'm also evil/ also into cats/ also into caaaaaaats."
I distinctly remember in elementary saying, "For Richard stands," instead of, "For which it stands," during the Pledge of Allegiance.
I can see clearly now the rain is gone, I can see all obstacles in my way.
I have a cousin that said it a little different, "I can see clearly now the rain is gone, I can see all oxes and cows in my way!!!"
Lol. It's actually about a driver waiting at a level crossing in China: "I can see clearly now, the train has gone. I can see all the bicycles in my way."
I thought in Michael Jackson's "Wanna Be Starting Something" when they say "you're the best of both" that they were saying "you're a vegetable." lolz
I used to sing Roger Miller's King of The Road, "I'm a man of means, by gummy!" (I'm a man of means, by no means)
I thought John Fogerty's Centerfield lyric was "Put me in cold" meaning to me that he had never played before. (Put me in, coach)
When my kids were little, they sang Jackson Five's I Want You Back with "Oh, baby, I was born in Mexico!" (Oh, baby, I was blind to let you go!)
And don't forget the Rascals' classic from Groovin' "Life would be ecstasy, you and me and Lesley"!!! (you and me endlessly)
I could read these all day! I love mondegreens!
Some of my favorites:
My college roommate thought Tina Turner's "What's Love Got to Do With It?" was "Hot Slup Got to do with it." When I asked her what the hell she thought "hot slup" was, she said she imagined it to be similar to porridge or Cream of Wheat.
My 4 yr niece came home from Bible school singing, "Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Barbie tells me so." She didn't know what a Bible was. Mwahahaha!
Every time I listen to "Crash" by Gwen Stefani, I hear "Drive back, baby, to me, fast in your car. I'm here waiting. Crash! And do me real hard", while the actual lyrics go "Drive back, baby, to me, fast in your car. I'm here waiting, crash into me real hard."
I would hate for a wonderful mondegreen to get out there in the universe incorrectly, so I feel compelled to correct someone's comment above about Mairzy Doats, &c…The words to that cute little song are "Mares eat oats, and 'DOES' eat oats, and little lambs eat ivy. A kid will eat ivy, too; wouldn't you?" "Does" as in "Doe, a deer, a female deer.", not "lambs eat oats." Thanks to my dearly departed mother for teaching me that. Thanks to the person who thought of it, too. An excellent mondegreen. To the person who thougt of this, I'm sorry. You probably just forgot the proper lyrics, and when you read this you'll be saying… "Oh, yah!" The mondegreen now stands corrected as "Mairzydoats and dozydoats and lidelamsydivy, a kidlidivy too, wouldn't you?" It's so much fun to say when you know what it is supposed to be, don't you agree?
Gladly, the cross-eyed bear.
For thirty years I thought the Beatles song 'Penny Lane' was 'And Elaine' until I recited my version to a music store salesperson in front of a line of waiting customers. Several of those customers were injured from lack of oxygen as they struggled to breathe while laughing – for this I am truly sorry.
For a long time, I thought Kenny Rogers was singing –
It's a fine time to leave me, Lucille, "four hundred children" and a crop in the field.
Eventually I realized it was "four hungry children".
Love mondegreens. Some great ones here, like "and to the republic for Richard Stands" — Hilarious!
[...] we use today: ampersand. When a word comes about from a mistaken pronunciation, it's called a mondegreen. Find out why [...]
The band Radio Birdman is named after a misheard lyric by the Stooges. It's actually "radio burnin'"
When I was 5-6 when the original Mighty Morphing Power Rangers came out; my my brother and I thought that theme song went like this "Coco Power Rangers………..CoCo Power Rangers"
instead of " GO GO Power Rangers……………GO GO Power Rangers"
we didnt realize that until umm….when the Samurai Rangers come out again this year right? hahahahaha
I pleasure legions, to the flag of the ninety stays of America.
And to the public, for riches dance, one asian, under cod, with liver tea and just this for all.
Now put down your chairs and I want no talking.
My brother thought Michael Jackson's "Smooth Criminal" said "Eddie are you walk jay, are you walk jay Eddie?" Which led to years of "Are you guys walk jay back there?"
The song with the lyrics, "I believe in miracles, you sexy thing…" I thought they were singing, "I believe in milk-o, you sexy thing…" LOL
My mom once turned off the radio in horror when she thought she heard Rod Stewart sing "all you did was "wet" my bed"
hmmmm… what where was mom's mind?
I always thought a lyric in the Nirvana song "About A Girl" said 'I'm taking Benadryl' when in actually said 'I'll take advantage while'. And the Oasis song "Wonderwall" lyric 'Backbeat, the word is on the street that the fire in your heart is out' said 'Might be, the weather's on the street, there's a fire in your Auntie's house'. As well with the Bikini Kill song "Feels Blind" lyric 'We eat your hate like love, we eat your hate like love' said 'We eat your hate like blood, we eat your like blood'.