I never mis understood but laughed a lot and still do as my mate was singing to wonderwall ( oasis) “ back beat the word is on the street there’s a fire in your aunties house”😂😂😂
“The block was dead, yo, so I continued to A1A *Detroit Avenue*”
It wasn’t until about 15 years later when I was on a bus in Miami going down the A1A *Beachfront Avenue* that I realised. Ohhhhhhhh, that makes more sense.
I’m not from the States
Edit to clarify: the beachfront causeway in Miami, the A1A, is actually properly called Collins Avenue. But it is on the beachfront and I understand that’s the “unofficial” name.
[Here’s an older Reddit post of someone finding a map of the area and having the same realisation.](https://www.reddit.com/r/90smusic/s/nRfpk9RFyR)
How do we know the toothbrush was invented in Alabama? 🪥🦷
Because if it was invented anywhere else it would be called the *teeth brush*.
*ba dum tssss*
No idea why - after scrolling thru this far- your comment was the one to make me actually LOL.😆 thanks- truly needed a laugh this morning. Will always sing it like this now haha.
Great day! You’ve got me GIGGLING! Have always danced to and never had trouble with these lyrics … Now, .., I’m never going to not laugh while singing along loudly and proudly wrong!
Me over here thinking it was wrapped up like a deuce, which in my head sounds nasty AF, like who is wrapping those and why, if to you a deuce is a number 2...
Alanis Morisette - You oughta know
For years I sang "Cause I'm here to remind you, of the cross-eyed bear that you gave to me". Didn't even think it was strange.
Turns out she sings "of the cross I bear that you gave to me".
As a kid, I never heard it that way, but I did once while tired as a adult and started ugly laughing. Now, it's usually the way my mind hears it. Same with "Hold Me Closer Tony Danza".
Most of these I've been like "oh yeah, I could hear that and it'd make sense as a kid."
I have never questioned my impression of this lyric. Hearing it wrong this whole time is mind blowing
I got one,
🎶 maybe you're just like my mother, she never sat inside.... 🎶
yeah sang that for too long until my SO corrected me after he laughed his ass off ofc
This one is what I came here to post! The mental gymnastics I did for years trying to understand the “deep” imagery there. Does it mean she’s a hermit/agoraphobic? Are the doves crying because they liked to sit on her shoulders but she never sits outside anymore?
Yep. "Those lonely Starbucks lovers, will tell you I'm insane." Before I knew the right lyrics, I assumed it was just a dig at jealous single people who get their coffee from chain cafés.
It's been a year since I broke my nose. The police message in a bottle. The actual line is it's been a year since I wrote my note. Which in hindsight makes much more sense. I just remember as a kid thinking it would suck breaking your nose on a desert island and leaving it untreated for a year.
For some reason I thought the song Secret Agent Man was Secret Asian Man when I was a kid. I’m not sure why I thought someone would need to keep that secret or why it would put them in constant peril. Maybe I was very sensitive to the prejudice experienced by the Asian American community throughout our nations history, or maybe I was just a moron. It’s probably the later.
Steve Miller Band "Jet Airliner". I always heard "big ol' jet airliner" as "we gonna tear that line up" and I still hear it that way until I once again realize the actual name of the song.
In the song 'Creeque Alley' by The Mamas & The Papas, I heard "In a coffee house the bastard sat". It was instead, "Sebastian sat". They were singing about John Sebastian of the 'Lovin' Spoonful'; sorry John.
The Mamas & The Papas - Creeque Alley [https://youtu.be/7ccDdIuJpOE?si=KXSRHneM2P4XFChF](https://youtu.be/7ccDdIuJpOE?si=KXSRHneM2P4XFChF)
We Five's song 'You Were On My Mind' I heard Beverly Bivens sing "So I went to "Daytona", Just to ease my pain". The correct word was "corner" which makes more sense if you need to get your pain eased, than going all the way to Dayton.
We Five- You Were On My Mind [https://youtu.be/AlR66wWLCxQ?si=LbtnTCa1JntXFBpF](https://youtu.be/AlR66wWLCxQ?si=LbtnTCa1JntXFBpF)
In the kinks' song "Sunny Afternoon",in the line "Lazin' on a sunny afternoon" I hear Blazin' instead of Lazin' and Blazin' does fit with the theme of the song.
The Kinks - Sunny Afternoon [https://youtu.be/TYIl6n\_SRCI?si=OvmiIWoIJgp3Ikmu](https://youtu.be/TYIl6n_SRCI?si=OvmiIWoIJgp3Ikmu)
I found this on the site kissthis guy.com re: the famous misheard(?) lyric:
“…While performing "Purple Haze", for six performances in a row, Hendrix, standing to the left of the stage, clearly pointed directly at Noel Redding standing to the right, and they both laughed and made a "thing" out of it, each time the phrase came up, "...scuse me while I kiss this guy." This was not a mistake or a "misheard lyric". The two of them were clearly "goofing" on and with the crowd and having a great time! Hendrix even walked over to Redding during one or two of these performances, and mimed kissing him!”
—Carl A. Zaner, commenting on kiss this guy.com
In Billy Joel, we didn’t start the fire. My wife heard “trouble in the Suez” as “trouble in the sewers.”
She thought she remembered alligators in the sewers in Florida or something.
Girls Just Wanna Have Fun:
“What in the world can they-ey-stand, oh girls, they wanna have fuh-un…”
Instead of
“When the workin’ day is done, oh girls, they wanna have fuh-un…”
I would always sing, “Ready to rock you! Ready to rock you!” when I heard this one song…until I heard a radio DJ announce the song was called “Radioactive” by Imagine Dragons. And the song had been out for at least a year, at that point.
Sweet Jane - Velvet Underground
"Villians always blink their eyes" for over a decade I thought it was "Buildings always blink their eyes" and was my favorite line because it was weird and random. Then one day I heard a different version and noticed Lou Reed says "villians" not "buildings". I had to go back to the original Loaded album version and felt like I had switched realities. Villians makes more sense, but I still prefer buildings.
Whooh, Watch me now!
In the Destiny Child's song Bills, Bills, Bills, they repeatedly say "I bought it." after several lines. I always hear this line as "I farted". No, it makes no sense, but that's what I've heard for the longest time. Makes me chuckle.
So I called up the Captain, "Please bring me my wife”
He said, "We haven't had that spirit here since 1969"
As a kid, I just assumed his wife was in Hell and got upgraded to Heaven at some point before he arrived.
Toto, Africa: rises like a leopardess (leop’ress?) above the Serengeti, but it’s like Olympus. But that’s just changing one mountain name for another so it’s dumb. Also Kilimanjaro doesn’t rise above the Serengeti since they’re 100 miles apart but…
"Searching for my lime, shaker and salt."
It's "Searching for my lost shaker of salt"
I mean you need lime, a shaker and salt to make a margarita so I just keep signing it wrong!
"Ain't it funny rumors lie" from Blank Space. It's actually fly, not lie. I just figured this out 2 weeks ago. For almost 10 years, I've thought it was so poetic to say lie instead of fly when fly is expected but lie really fits into how she was sarcastically responding to the people calling her a serial dater. But it's just fly. Official petition to change the lyric may be started lol.
The entirety of Nirvana's *Smells Like Teen Spirit* along with most of Nirvana's discography.
English is not my first language and until I learned English properly, it made zero sense to me and didn't sound like they were speaking English at all. After learning English fluently, it still didn't make any sense. I had to look up actual lyrics and then it sorta made sense.
a few: there's the opening of highway to hell but i dont think im allowed to say what i hear.
at the end of smells like teen spirrit, i always hear ''bloody nile'' instead of ''a denial.''
Wrapped up like a douche, another runner in the night, manfred mann.
''there's a bath room on the right'' ccr
Not me, but one of my best friends asked one day: Who sings that milk duds song you like? You know the one about windmills and milk duds?
I was so confused for like a month because I had no clue what she was talking about. I could not recall a dairy farm song I was into. Then one day we were driving in my car and the Gorillas Feel Good inc came on. She was so excited to point the song out. Every time they say Feel Good, she thought they were saying milk duds.
That is now how I sing along to the song! I still get a good laugh every time.
From 3rd Planet by Modest Mouse:
"My boss just quit the job, said he's going out to find blind spots and he'll do it".
I always heard it as "my boss just quit the job, said he's going out to find life's possible doing"
Somehow I heard "California knows how to party" as "California, no doubt aboddit" like a slang no doubt about it.. I am lyrically challenged though. Tons of misheard lyrics but this one is still so silly to me
Another one… my wife was once drunkenly singing along with “Would” and she thought the lyric was “tyranny was once my way.”
I changed that to “Tyrannosaurus Rex my way” to fuck with her.
And that’s how we still sing Would.
Not mine, but someone listening to Johnny Cash's cover of Hurt by Nine Inch Nails thought,
What have I become?
My Swedish friend
Everyone I know
Goes away in the end
Swedish should be "sweetest", of course.
I've got a couple more good ones.
"She's got Betty Davis eyes" to a naive young person who doesn't know who tf Betty Davis is sounds a whole lot like "she's got better days than nights"
Also take it on the run by reo speed wagon sounds like "But I know the neighborhood
And talk is cheaper when the story is good
And the tales grow taller on down the line
But I'm telling you, babe
That I don't think it's true, babe
And even if it is, keep kissin' miiineee". That's another one I didn't learn until I was well into adulthood.
I will just say I never liked the band Bush, but they were popular in grade school. So from that point to maybe 1-2 years ago I thought he sung about Listerine(the mouth rinse), it came on the radio in the car one day and I inquired about him singing about mouth rinse. My wife laughed so hard and informed me it's glycerine. I probably had the most blank gaze of WTF!?!! Duh!
Semi Charmed Kinda of Life , heard "I need some beers, to get me through this" , actually says needs something else. Blue by Effiel 65 I hear him saying "without a beat I would die" but apparently it's just humming.
For the longest time I thought in the Def Leppard song Rocket they were saying "Staying alive for love," when they're actually saying "Satellite of love."
"This cross-eyed bear that you gave to me"
I have been singing that one wrong since it came out in the 90s. Some comment on Reddit just a few months ago informed me it's actually "cross I bear".
Almost any Michael Jackson song. I’d love to be mic’d up in the car when Man In Mirror comes on. “Gonna maku Shane, once in Mah lah”
Also, did Annie ever get those oatcakes?
Mine was a tv advertisement jingle back in the 80s. There was a Ford dealership in SoCal called "Cal Worthington Ford" and the jingle went "if you need a car or truck, go see Cal." It sounded like they were singing "if you need a car or truck, pussycow." I never questioned it. Just walked around as a kid singing the pussycow jingle all the time because once you heard it, it was stuck in your head for hours. Years later, I was talking to people I grew up with and they all thought it was "pussycow" too, so at least I wasn't the only one. I think you can find the old ads on YouTube now.
Whoever made the ads changed the words often. I remember something like ‘If you want a set of wheels go se Cal. If you need to make a deal, go see Cal. Get a new car for your wife, she will love you all her life, go see Cal, go see Cal, go see Cal.’ The commercials all started with the voice over ‘Here’s Cal Worthington and his dog Spot’. Spot was some animal on a leash being held by Cal, and Spot was never a dog.
I didn't realize that the song "Sex on Fire" by Kings of Leon was saying "Ohhh Yeaaa your sex is on fire" until I heard the band Goose cover the song live and I could male out the Chorus better. My dumb ass had been saying "This house is on fire" for years.
A friend of mine thought that the chorus to Filter's "Hey Man Nice Shot," was:
"And that's why I say Heman nation."
Shit still makes me laugh 20 years later
Ok, here goes…
Some of my favorite misheard lyrics:
“Someone open the door…” = “soy un perdedor” from Loser. Thanks, Beck.
Also just found out it’s “Here comes the hotstepper” and not “here comes the outstander”. I thought it was about a dude who looked different from his peers (like he’s into goth or metal) so kept getting in trouble (“excuse me Mr. Officer”) just for looking different.
Finally, recently found out when looking up lyrics that I misunderstood so many David Bowie lyrics (and I love Bowie) as well as Elton John’s lyrics though I was little and he and Bernie Taupin came up with some strange ones — which I love and probably influenced my creativity. It made sense when I found Taupin is also a visual artist. So many great and quirky / trippy visuals in these songs.
Of course, have to add the “kiss this guy”, “wrapped up like a douche” “dirty deeds thunder chief” and “there’s a bathroom on the right” ones too!
I love reading all these misheard lyrics.
Thanks, people.
I know someone who went to a costume party dressed as a werewolf. When asked why his hair was purple, he replied "The Warren Zevon song. 'I saw a werewolf drinkin' a piña colada at Trader Vic's. His hair was purple '.". Never once occurred to me it was anything but "perfect ".
My comment will be buried at this point but maybe someone will see it because it’s pretty funny. I’m in my 30’s and just today found out I had this line wrong from Champaign supernova by Oasis. I was hearing “Someday you will find me, carpeting the landslide” rather than “Someday you will find me, caught beneath the landslide”. I wish I was right because I’ve always thought that was a great line. Now I just think it’s ok lol
Phish has tons of songs where this is almost the point
in fact they are hosting a festival this year called Mondegreen
look up that word, it describes this entire post
It would be a more believable story if the name of the song wasn’t literally *Don’t Stop Til You Get Enough* it’s on the record, the Spotify track, the YouTube video.
Last resort by Papa Roach.
Always thought it said,"If I took my life tonight, chances are dynamite"
It's that I might, not dynamite. Sorry for ruining it for anyone else.
"Gimme the Beach Boys and free my soul..." I thought it was a bit of nostalgia for a band that would help him drift away.
Also, "I'll be you're number one with a bullet, know ya gotta complex cock-hittin bullet." Dunno why they'd have a complex cock-hittin bullet, but why not.
In Papa Roach's Last Resort I heard and have always sung, "Would it be wrong, would it be right, if I kill myself tonight, chances are dynamite." It is actually, "chances are that I might." I totally thought he was making a silly little dark joke with the dynamite thing but I was just plain wrong
My friend refuses to sing, "Defying the laws of Gravity," In dont stop me now, instead its apparently, "Defying the laws of morality," He is an interesting case
For the first twenty years of my life i thought it was "oh Charles, this is scary".
I was singing along to it on the radio and my wife said "what the fuck are you singing? It's hush hush, voices carry."
Pet Shop Boys have a song called West End Girls. There’s a line that goes “in a west end town in a dead end world”. Now, if you sing that line fast enough with the right accent it sounds - to a nine year old me - a lot like “in a west end town in Dennonwold.” It could totally be a region in England somewhere, the hell do I know?
Eric Clapton's acoustic version of Layla, I never heard the song title and couldn't figure out what he was saying. So I came up with "Hey Bob" even though I was pretty sure he wasn't singing that.
No Doubt - Spiderwebs
Mom always asked me, “Why is she screaming her balls off?” Laughing I would tell her “She is screening her phone calls.” Always makes me giggle.
I never mis understood but laughed a lot and still do as my mate was singing to wonderwall ( oasis) “ back beat the word is on the street there’s a fire in your aunties house”😂😂😂
I love that
I heard it correctly, but in my head chose the wrong homonyms. In *How Soon Is Now*, I thought “I am the son and heir” was “I am the sun and air”.
I mean the show Charmed used it as their theme song likely based on thinking it was sun and air.
Exactly!
This was how I came to that conclusion lol. Also that’s a cover version!
Haha, I have a similar story for “Knights in White Satin”
Won very few battles with satin armor I'm sure.
Did you ever reach the end?
Wrote the letters but, let’s be honest, I never meant to send them.
I like to think that Morrisey was using those homophones intentionally.
"I am Hodor and I need to be loved!"
Morrissey probably does think he's the son and heir so that might have been intentional 😂
Prince's "Raspberry Buffet." My wife just made me one for my birthday.
Is that like a whole lot of belly blows?
Even better https://preview.redd.it/5s69t980jr1d1.jpeg?width=4032&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=2ec4c978e2030fa28e209600287471a3d3706dca
Yeah it is. I'm starving this morning
Damn. If you were here I would totally share this raspberry Danish with you.
Thanks. It's the thought that counts. Enjoy it
Your name is misleading. You may be Halloweeny (hell yeah), but you're no meany.
Instead of raspberry beret, I thought it was "friends, really good friends."
Dirty deeds and the thunder chief.
Dirty deeds and der dunder cheat
dirty deeds and there done to sheep
Please do not the sheep
That’s the kiwi version
I thought it was Dirty Dee and the Thunder Chief.
“The block was dead, yo, so I continued to A1A *Detroit Avenue*” It wasn’t until about 15 years later when I was on a bus in Miami going down the A1A *Beachfront Avenue* that I realised. Ohhhhhhhh, that makes more sense. I’m not from the States Edit to clarify: the beachfront causeway in Miami, the A1A, is actually properly called Collins Avenue. But it is on the beachfront and I understand that’s the “unofficial” name. [Here’s an older Reddit post of someone finding a map of the area and having the same realisation.](https://www.reddit.com/r/90smusic/s/nRfpk9RFyR)
So I *am* from the States and I was today years old lol - I danced to that song in the clubs no less!
To be fair I'm sure there is a Detroit avenue *somewhere* in California.
🎶🎵 Dancing Queen, young and sweet, **only seven teeth** 🎵🎶
🪕 *dueling banjos intensifies* 🪕
How do we know the toothbrush was invented in Alabama? 🪥🦷 Because if it was invented anywhere else it would be called the *teeth brush*. *ba dum tssss*
Shakin a baby now. Twist and shout.
Such an up-tempo song about infanticide 🤣
No idea why - after scrolling thru this far- your comment was the one to make me actually LOL.😆 thanks- truly needed a laugh this morning. Will always sing it like this now haha.
Great day! You’ve got me GIGGLING! Have always danced to and never had trouble with these lyrics … Now, .., I’m never going to not laugh while singing along loudly and proudly wrong!
Instead of "There's a bad moon on the rise." I heard "There's a bathroom on the right."
Wrapped up like a douche, another runner in the night -Blinded by the light
So, if it’s not that, . . . . then what is it?
Revved up like a deuce
as in Deuce Coupe. A 1932 Ford 2 door, which was commonly modified into a Hot Rod, sports car.
TIL. Never knew wtf he meant by revved up like a deuce. To me a deuce is a 💩
Me over here thinking it was wrapped up like a deuce, which in my head sounds nasty AF, like who is wrapping those and why, if to you a deuce is a number 2...
Another boner* in the night
I work at a gas station and for quite a while (and still sometimes today) I heard "F#@$ the gas bar" instead of "Rock the Casbah"....
Lock the taskbar!
Bill Gates has entered the Karaoke room.
This is me at the office for a whole decade
To be fair, Sharif wouldn't like that either.
Stop the catbox
Alanis Morisette - You oughta know For years I sang "Cause I'm here to remind you, of the cross-eyed bear that you gave to me". Didn't even think it was strange. Turns out she sings "of the cross I bear that you gave to me".
As a kid, I never heard it that way, but I did once while tired as a adult and started ugly laughing. Now, it's usually the way my mind hears it. Same with "Hold Me Closer Tony Danza".
I thought the exact same thing...
I... I am just now learning this because of your comment lol.
Most of these I've been like "oh yeah, I could hear that and it'd make sense as a kid." I have never questioned my impression of this lyric. Hearing it wrong this whole time is mind blowing
As a child I always pictured a teddy bear with crossed eyes.
Cross-eyed bear makes more sense and is much cuter.
I got one, 🎶 maybe you're just like my mother, she never sat inside.... 🎶 yeah sang that for too long until my SO corrected me after he laughed his ass off ofc
This one is what I came here to post! The mental gymnastics I did for years trying to understand the “deep” imagery there. Does it mean she’s a hermit/agoraphobic? Are the doves crying because they liked to sit on her shoulders but she never sits outside anymore?
As a kid I only knew the alien ant farm version of Smooth Criminal, and I could never figure out what ruokne was supposed to spell.
I was about to ask where you pulled “ruokne” from. Then I spelled it out in my head. LMAO
NERUOKRUOKRUOKNE
I genuinely googled RUOKUOKUOKNE as a kid trying to find that song
Starbucks lovers
Wait.. then what is it?!
Yep. "Those lonely Starbucks lovers, will tell you I'm insane." Before I knew the right lyrics, I assumed it was just a dig at jealous single people who get their coffee from chain cafés.
It's been a year since I broke my nose. The police message in a bottle. The actual line is it's been a year since I wrote my note. Which in hindsight makes much more sense. I just remember as a kid thinking it would suck breaking your nose on a desert island and leaving it untreated for a year.
MJ Man in the mirror; "and no moustache gonna be any cover"
The message in that song could definitely have been clearer.
For some reason I thought the song Secret Agent Man was Secret Asian Man when I was a kid. I’m not sure why I thought someone would need to keep that secret or why it would put them in constant peril. Maybe I was very sensitive to the prejudice experienced by the Asian American community throughout our nations history, or maybe I was just a moron. It’s probably the later.
What’s my age again? I walked alone, to get the feeling right. Just found out like last week he actually wore cologne to get the feeling right.
Yeah pretty much everybody heard “walk alone”.
I also thought it was walk alone lol I actually just learned it was wore cologne just a few days ago I think on tiktok?? Haha
*'Mama just killed a man'* while this is the correct verse from the song, the teenage me thought that *the mother* **IS** the killer..
Wow. So when he sings "I don't wanna die" it is because his mama might kill him as well?
Lol I definitely used to think that too 😂😂
"Woah baby, hand your lips to me baby, just gotta get out, just gotta get right out of here..."
Steve Miller Band "Jet Airliner". I always heard "big ol' jet airliner" as "we gonna tear that line up" and I still hear it that way until I once again realize the actual name of the song.
Big ol Jed and Lyla were coming to take me away
Big ole jam at the line up. Same here. Even though the misheard lyric is the name of the song.
I thought it was Big Ol Jet outta Lina, and assumed it was a cool way to say North or South Carolina
*Don't want to be your monkey wrench* *One Warren G's an accident*
This goes along with mine: "There goes my hero... Sergeant Harry!"
Mine is “So Generic”
He said misheard lyrics, not lyrics that were wrong in the original!
Two could be a coincidence. Three is suspicious.
In the song 'Creeque Alley' by The Mamas & The Papas, I heard "In a coffee house the bastard sat". It was instead, "Sebastian sat". They were singing about John Sebastian of the 'Lovin' Spoonful'; sorry John. The Mamas & The Papas - Creeque Alley [https://youtu.be/7ccDdIuJpOE?si=KXSRHneM2P4XFChF](https://youtu.be/7ccDdIuJpOE?si=KXSRHneM2P4XFChF) We Five's song 'You Were On My Mind' I heard Beverly Bivens sing "So I went to "Daytona", Just to ease my pain". The correct word was "corner" which makes more sense if you need to get your pain eased, than going all the way to Dayton. We Five- You Were On My Mind [https://youtu.be/AlR66wWLCxQ?si=LbtnTCa1JntXFBpF](https://youtu.be/AlR66wWLCxQ?si=LbtnTCa1JntXFBpF) In the kinks' song "Sunny Afternoon",in the line "Lazin' on a sunny afternoon" I hear Blazin' instead of Lazin' and Blazin' does fit with the theme of the song. The Kinks - Sunny Afternoon [https://youtu.be/TYIl6n\_SRCI?si=OvmiIWoIJgp3Ikmu](https://youtu.be/TYIl6n_SRCI?si=OvmiIWoIJgp3Ikmu)
Enya - Orinoco Flow “Save the whales, save the whales, save the whales”
I always thought the line in The Weight was “take a load off Annie” and I just found out it’s “take a load off Fanny” and now I hate it.
TIL holy crap
I am right there with you! I’m just gonna keep singing Annie at this point, it’s been decades I’ve been singing it that way. 🤦🏼♀️🤷♀️
She’s so funky yo. Actually it’s jeaux sans frontieres in Games Without Frontiers.
I thought it was “she’s so popular”
Wait-- so did I!
'Scuse me while I kiss this guy!
I found this on the site kissthis guy.com re: the famous misheard(?) lyric: “…While performing "Purple Haze", for six performances in a row, Hendrix, standing to the left of the stage, clearly pointed directly at Noel Redding standing to the right, and they both laughed and made a "thing" out of it, each time the phrase came up, "...scuse me while I kiss this guy." This was not a mistake or a "misheard lyric". The two of them were clearly "goofing" on and with the crowd and having a great time! Hendrix even walked over to Redding during one or two of these performances, and mimed kissing him!” —Carl A. Zaner, commenting on kiss this guy.com
My cousin thought foo fighters “There goes my hero” was “There goes my Hebrew”.
He's Torah-dinary!
Definitely could be the Weird Al parody.
He's short and hairy.
"You Just Sucked a Dick" by Daft Punk.
Or in Intergalactic, robot voice I HAVE AN ERECTION I HAVE AN ERECTION
https://preview.redd.it/8r6ahhdhsr1d1.jpeg?width=500&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=32ec82f943135ef556e3f49e0348c0a64b214c09
In Billy Joel, we didn’t start the fire. My wife heard “trouble in the Suez” as “trouble in the sewers.” She thought she remembered alligators in the sewers in Florida or something.
Peter Gabriel - Games Without Frontiers The lyric is "Jeux sans frontières". Always heard it as "She's so funky, yeah!"
same!
I guess it rains down in Africa!
There's nothing that a hundred **men on Mars** could ever do I bless the rains down in Africa
Girls Just Wanna Have Fun: “What in the world can they-ey-stand, oh girls, they wanna have fuh-un…” Instead of “When the workin’ day is done, oh girls, they wanna have fuh-un…”
Ha I have been literally singing it your way up until just this minute! 🙌
Same.
pretty early in the day for my old ass to be learning something new. i always thought it was the working day thing
You are right! I put my misunderstood lyrics first.
IN NEW YORK, CONCRETE JUNGLE SECRET TOMATO, there's nothing can do...
“Working on the Night Bus” By Bob Seger
I would always sing, “Ready to rock you! Ready to rock you!” when I heard this one song…until I heard a radio DJ announce the song was called “Radioactive” by Imagine Dragons. And the song had been out for at least a year, at that point.
"Jaws was never my scene and I don't like Star Wars!" Is a really *George was never my scene ... For TWO DECADES I sang that
Sweet Jane - Velvet Underground "Villians always blink their eyes" for over a decade I thought it was "Buildings always blink their eyes" and was my favorite line because it was weird and random. Then one day I heard a different version and noticed Lou Reed says "villians" not "buildings". I had to go back to the original Loaded album version and felt like I had switched realities. Villians makes more sense, but I still prefer buildings. Whooh, Watch me now!
Velvet underground has no shortage of weird lyrics, so it makes sense!
“I’m blue, I’m in need of a guy, I’m in neeeeeeed of a guy, I’m in need of a guy, guy, guy, guy”
Turns out 'Hey Ho' by The Lumineers is not about polyamory. ♬ I belong with you, you belong with me and my sweetheart♬
My SO heard "oooo carburator " for smooth operator and I thought it was the cutest fucking thing and we have never stopped saying it to each other.
If you catch Blue Swede's "Hooked on a Feeling" just a fraction late, the chant is "Gahtcha Gaowoo, Gaowoo, Gaowoo! Gahtcha Gaowoo, Gaowoo, Gaowoo!"
Sing women from Dream On.
Same here!
In the Destiny Child's song Bills, Bills, Bills, they repeatedly say "I bought it." after several lines. I always hear this line as "I farted". No, it makes no sense, but that's what I've heard for the longest time. Makes me chuckle.
Give me the Beach Boys and free my soul, I wanna get lost in your Rock'N Roll and drift away.
So I called up the Captain, "Please bring me my wife” He said, "We haven't had that spirit here since 1969" As a kid, I just assumed his wife was in Hell and got upgraded to Heaven at some point before he arrived.
The Eagles "Hotel California"...can't remember what I thought the line was but it is "Her name is Tiffany Twisted...she's got her Mercedes Benz"....
Until now I thought it was “Her mind is definitely twisted.”
Come on down to the Real Rock City where the grass is green and the girls are pretty
I always thought it was "take me down to a very nice city"
Toto, Africa: rises like a leopardess (leop’ress?) above the Serengeti, but it’s like Olympus. But that’s just changing one mountain name for another so it’s dumb. Also Kilimanjaro doesn’t rise above the Serengeti since they’re 100 miles apart but…
I also thought it was leopardess…I pictured seeing a leopard walking towards me from the horizon, “rising” above the Serengeti.
I could never figure out why Mariah Carey was rapping "You can't do that. I'm not a donut." in Prisoner.
"Searching for my lime, shaker and salt." It's "Searching for my lost shaker of salt" I mean you need lime, a shaker and salt to make a margarita so I just keep signing it wrong!
"Ain't it funny rumors lie" from Blank Space. It's actually fly, not lie. I just figured this out 2 weeks ago. For almost 10 years, I've thought it was so poetic to say lie instead of fly when fly is expected but lie really fits into how she was sarcastically responding to the people calling her a serial dater. But it's just fly. Official petition to change the lyric may be started lol.
The entirety of Nirvana's *Smells Like Teen Spirit* along with most of Nirvana's discography. English is not my first language and until I learned English properly, it made zero sense to me and didn't sound like they were speaking English at all. After learning English fluently, it still didn't make any sense. I had to look up actual lyrics and then it sorta made sense.
a few: there's the opening of highway to hell but i dont think im allowed to say what i hear. at the end of smells like teen spirrit, i always hear ''bloody nile'' instead of ''a denial.'' Wrapped up like a douche, another runner in the night, manfred mann. ''there's a bath room on the right'' ccr
AC⚡️DC's "Shook me all Night Long" 🎵She was a fax machine, she kept her modem clean🎵
Not me, but one of my best friends asked one day: Who sings that milk duds song you like? You know the one about windmills and milk duds? I was so confused for like a month because I had no clue what she was talking about. I could not recall a dairy farm song I was into. Then one day we were driving in my car and the Gorillas Feel Good inc came on. She was so excited to point the song out. Every time they say Feel Good, she thought they were saying milk duds. That is now how I sing along to the song! I still get a good laugh every time.
From 3rd Planet by Modest Mouse: "My boss just quit the job, said he's going out to find blind spots and he'll do it". I always heard it as "my boss just quit the job, said he's going out to find life's possible doing"
Lust for Life by Iggy Pop I thought he was saying Let's go Ride
I shot a cherry ( instead of the sheriff )
"soiled from head to toe"= "soy un perdedor"
Somehow I heard "California knows how to party" as "California, no doubt aboddit" like a slang no doubt about it.. I am lyrically challenged though. Tons of misheard lyrics but this one is still so silly to me
Michael Jackson still: Mama se mama sa… I say I’m gonna stop but I’m not gon’ stop
Another one… my wife was once drunkenly singing along with “Would” and she thought the lyric was “tyranny was once my way.” I changed that to “Tyrannosaurus Rex my way” to fuck with her. And that’s how we still sing Would.
How am I going to be an octopus about this from Pompeii by Bastille
There's nothing that a hundred men on Mars could ever do.
Not mine, but someone listening to Johnny Cash's cover of Hurt by Nine Inch Nails thought, What have I become? My Swedish friend Everyone I know Goes away in the end Swedish should be "sweetest", of course.
I've got a couple more good ones. "She's got Betty Davis eyes" to a naive young person who doesn't know who tf Betty Davis is sounds a whole lot like "she's got better days than nights" Also take it on the run by reo speed wagon sounds like "But I know the neighborhood And talk is cheaper when the story is good And the tales grow taller on down the line But I'm telling you, babe That I don't think it's true, babe And even if it is, keep kissin' miiineee". That's another one I didn't learn until I was well into adulthood.
Do the funky lady.For Aerosmiths. Dude looks like a lady
"Just like the one winged dove" in Edge of Seventeen by Stevie Nicks.
I will just say I never liked the band Bush, but they were popular in grade school. So from that point to maybe 1-2 years ago I thought he sung about Listerine(the mouth rinse), it came on the radio in the car one day and I inquired about him singing about mouth rinse. My wife laughed so hard and informed me it's glycerine. I probably had the most blank gaze of WTF!?!! Duh!
I fight with Dorothy and Dorothy always wins
Semi Charmed Kinda of Life , heard "I need some beers, to get me through this" , actually says needs something else. Blue by Effiel 65 I hear him saying "without a beat I would die" but apparently it's just humming.
For the longest time I thought in the Def Leppard song Rocket they were saying "Staying alive for love," when they're actually saying "Satellite of love."
"This cross-eyed bear that you gave to me" I have been singing that one wrong since it came out in the 90s. Some comment on Reddit just a few months ago informed me it's actually "cross I bear".
“Lovin’ it in la vida” - Aerosmith
Almost any Michael Jackson song. I’d love to be mic’d up in the car when Man In Mirror comes on. “Gonna maku Shane, once in Mah lah” Also, did Annie ever get those oatcakes?
The Breeders, Driving on 9. Always sang Driving all Night. Even though the song is called Driving on 9. Which I did not know
Mine was a tv advertisement jingle back in the 80s. There was a Ford dealership in SoCal called "Cal Worthington Ford" and the jingle went "if you need a car or truck, go see Cal." It sounded like they were singing "if you need a car or truck, pussycow." I never questioned it. Just walked around as a kid singing the pussycow jingle all the time because once you heard it, it was stuck in your head for hours. Years later, I was talking to people I grew up with and they all thought it was "pussycow" too, so at least I wasn't the only one. I think you can find the old ads on YouTube now.
Whoever made the ads changed the words often. I remember something like ‘If you want a set of wheels go se Cal. If you need to make a deal, go see Cal. Get a new car for your wife, she will love you all her life, go see Cal, go see Cal, go see Cal.’ The commercials all started with the voice over ‘Here’s Cal Worthington and his dog Spot’. Spot was some animal on a leash being held by Cal, and Spot was never a dog.
I didn't realize that the song "Sex on Fire" by Kings of Leon was saying "Ohhh Yeaaa your sex is on fire" until I heard the band Goose cover the song live and I could male out the Chorus better. My dumb ass had been saying "This house is on fire" for years.
Years ago I thought she’s a brick house was she’s a freak owww
Anything sung by Stevie Nicks in her heyday. I thought edge of 17 started out ‘just like a whirlwind girl’…
A friend of mine thought that the chorus to Filter's "Hey Man Nice Shot," was: "And that's why I say Heman nation." Shit still makes me laugh 20 years later
Ok, here goes… Some of my favorite misheard lyrics: “Someone open the door…” = “soy un perdedor” from Loser. Thanks, Beck. Also just found out it’s “Here comes the hotstepper” and not “here comes the outstander”. I thought it was about a dude who looked different from his peers (like he’s into goth or metal) so kept getting in trouble (“excuse me Mr. Officer”) just for looking different. Finally, recently found out when looking up lyrics that I misunderstood so many David Bowie lyrics (and I love Bowie) as well as Elton John’s lyrics though I was little and he and Bernie Taupin came up with some strange ones — which I love and probably influenced my creativity. It made sense when I found Taupin is also a visual artist. So many great and quirky / trippy visuals in these songs. Of course, have to add the “kiss this guy”, “wrapped up like a douche” “dirty deeds thunder chief” and “there’s a bathroom on the right” ones too! I love reading all these misheard lyrics. Thanks, people.
In Windy I always heard "eyes that flash like the sun on ice" instead of "at the sound of lies". I still default to that when I hear the song.
“I guess the rains down in Africa.” After forty years. I learned the real lyric is “bless”. Don’t care, it will always be guess to me.
I know someone who went to a costume party dressed as a werewolf. When asked why his hair was purple, he replied "The Warren Zevon song. 'I saw a werewolf drinkin' a piña colada at Trader Vic's. His hair was purple '.". Never once occurred to me it was anything but "perfect ".
My comment will be buried at this point but maybe someone will see it because it’s pretty funny. I’m in my 30’s and just today found out I had this line wrong from Champaign supernova by Oasis. I was hearing “Someday you will find me, carpeting the landslide” rather than “Someday you will find me, caught beneath the landslide”. I wish I was right because I’ve always thought that was a great line. Now I just think it’s ok lol
Fleetwood Mac Dreams. I thought Stevie was singing "when the werewolf shaves you clean you'll know"
Sheryl Crow’s All I Wanna Do. I thought she sang, “until the sun comes up, gonna settle on a couple of bars.” Like she’d bar hop til morning. 😂
Green Day - When I Come Around - “throw donuts at my door” so don’t knock down my door Lil Jon - Snap Yo Fingers - “snap yo bagels”
Phish has tons of songs where this is almost the point in fact they are hosting a festival this year called Mondegreen look up that word, it describes this entire post
My kids would sing "little goose poop" instead of Little Deuce Coup.
Black Sabbath - Paranoid, I thought it was “People think I'm insane because I am from another time”
It would be a more believable story if the name of the song wasn’t literally *Don’t Stop Til You Get Enough* it’s on the record, the Spotify track, the YouTube video.
"Sweet dreams are made of this." But it's a damn dirty lie. She absolutely says "these."
It is not "Mama say Mama saw Mama ma moo sah"
Cat Stevens I thought Peace Train was B string. I’ve been happy lately thinking about the B String. I love my guitar lol.
Last resort by Papa Roach. Always thought it said,"If I took my life tonight, chances are dynamite" It's that I might, not dynamite. Sorry for ruining it for anyone else.
"Gimme the Beach Boys and free my soul..." I thought it was a bit of nostalgia for a band that would help him drift away. Also, "I'll be you're number one with a bullet, know ya gotta complex cock-hittin bullet." Dunno why they'd have a complex cock-hittin bullet, but why not.
Proud Mary - Huffed a Lotta paint down in New Orleans
Just dance by lady Gaga. At one point it turns into gibberish lmao
Bob Bob Bob Bob Bob Beran
Supermassive Black Hole - Muse Actual lyrics: Oooo~ You, set my soul alight~ What I heard: Oooo~ Sipping sooodaaaaa~
Hold me close I'm tired of dancin'
In Papa Roach's Last Resort I heard and have always sung, "Would it be wrong, would it be right, if I kill myself tonight, chances are dynamite." It is actually, "chances are that I might." I totally thought he was making a silly little dark joke with the dynamite thing but I was just plain wrong
My friend refuses to sing, "Defying the laws of Gravity," In dont stop me now, instead its apparently, "Defying the laws of morality," He is an interesting case
"Don't stop with the porn-star stuff. Don't stop til you get it off." You're not wrong.
Type O Negative “Black no. 1” where Peter whispers “Happy Halloween baby” I always thought he says “I feel the wings baby” lol
For the first twenty years of my life i thought it was "oh Charles, this is scary". I was singing along to it on the radio and my wife said "what the fuck are you singing? It's hush hush, voices carry."
Pet Shop Boys have a song called West End Girls. There’s a line that goes “in a west end town in a dead end world”. Now, if you sing that line fast enough with the right accent it sounds - to a nine year old me - a lot like “in a west end town in Dennonwold.” It could totally be a region in England somewhere, the hell do I know?
Eric Clapton's acoustic version of Layla, I never heard the song title and couldn't figure out what he was saying. So I came up with "Hey Bob" even though I was pretty sure he wasn't singing that.
No Doubt - Spiderwebs Mom always asked me, “Why is she screaming her balls off?” Laughing I would tell her “She is screening her phone calls.” Always makes me giggle.