Misheard song lyrics

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Jul 7, 2014
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Winnipeg MB CA
I have always had a terrible time understanding song lyrics. If there's a way to misunderstand a word in a song, I will find it. I think my hearing's OK, but I've always had this disability. I think it's a speech-processing thing in my brain, perhaps combined with my severe lack of rhythm, and my non-exposure to pop music as a child.

But I'm not alone; humour columnist Dave Barry had some very good ones back in the day, and now there are websites full of them. Several of my friends have some good ones too.

What are some of your best (or worst)?

I'll start:

For many years, they would play this song around Christmas. It was really upbeat, and the way I interpreted it, although the singer was facing a crippling disability, he was delighted to celebrate the Incarnation, which overshadowed this problem with his leg.

What I thought I heard:

🎶 My knee's coming off, my knee's coming off ... 🎶

The actual lyrics:

🎶 Feliz Navidad, Feliz Navidad ... 🎶


Who else? Tell me I'm not alone! 😲 ;)
 
I'm the same way. I hear the melody more than the lyrics so most songs are lost on me.

To this day, I swear that Electric Light Orchestra's "Evil Woman" song is actually saying "Medieval woman".
 
About 30 years ago, Dave Barry wrote that the opening line of "Help Me, Rhonda" sounded like: "Well, since she put me down, there's been owls pukin' in my bed ...".

I don't know what the actual words are, and can only hear them as Mr Barry's lyrics now.
 
When I was much younger, this one country song was played incessantly on both local AM stations. I thought the chorus line was about this old man who was so foul and evil that his soul was as filthy as a rabbit pen that had never been cleaned out.

I heard: "Old rabbit-sty heart".

I saw it in print sometime later; it was "Old habits die hard".
 
I had a roommate in college who thought "Big 'ol jet airliner" was "Bingo Jet left the light on"

I've been hearing Bob Dylan for almost 50 years and I still think he sounds like Charlie Brown's teacher...
 
There was a band called "Hot Chocolate" who had a big hit in the mid-'70s. My sister and I, hearing the song independently, both believed it was an ad for a dairy product, with the catch phrase "I believe in Milk-O, uh huh ...".

The actual lyric was "miracles".
 
I had a roommate in college who thought "Big 'ol jet airliner" was "Bingo Jet left the light on"

I've been hearing Bob Dylan for almost 50 years and I still think he sounds like Charlie Brown's teacher...
It's easy to imagine Dylan as a whiny and petulant pre-schooler, asking for a cookie.
 
Nirvana "All Apologies"

I always thought he was singing "Choking on the asses of orangutan."

Like, who would choke on ape butt? Does this single ape have multiple butts? :unsure:

What's even funnier is that I used to hang out with one of the Nirvana band members. I never bothered to ask about this for some reason. LOL
 
There was a band called "Hot Chocolate" who had a big hit in the mid-'70s. My sister and I, hearing the song independently, both believed it was an ad for a dairy product, with the catch phrase "I believe in Milk-O, uh huh ...".

The actual lyric was "miracles".
I always thought he was saying “I believe in Malcolm“ ! And I just couldn’t figure out who Malcolm was!
 
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