History Main / LyricSwap

* TheRockyHorrorPictureShow opens with ''Science Fiction - Double Feature'' with lyrics about classic SF movies, and ends (in some prints) with the reprise version (with very similar lyrics) that summarizes the events in the film/play.

* In "Wait For It" in ''Theatre/{{Hamilton}}'', the first, second, and fourth choruses are all almost the same with minor alterations (the third chorus, with Burr singing about Hamilton, is completely different):

* Stromkern do this a lot. The choruses of "Feed the Machine" and "Stand Up" are altered each time they are sung. They also performed a cover of NickCave's "The Mercy Seat", elsewhere noted for invoking this trope.

** Similarly, the third chorus of "I Still Like Bologna" changes "the sound of a whippoorwhill down a country road" to "…a Chevelle headin' down a gravel road".

* Music/MaximumTheHormone's ''[[DeathNote What's up, People?!]]'' has several sections of "HEY HEY! Ningen sanka ai nige ningen fuan ka?", which is what the lyric sheet in the single says. Except the last time they say it, where it's written like what English speakers would certainly hear.

* In "Grandpa’s Advice" by Adie Grey and Dave MacKenzie, the first two iterations of the chorus express Grandpa's opinion that, when driving, it's best to assume all the other drivers on the road are "half asleep or stoned". The last iteration, in which the narrator is passing on Grandpa's advice to her own children, switches this to "drunk or on the phone": a timely update.

* There was one line in the theme song to the the PBS show "[[WesternAnimation/MayaAndMiguel]]" that went "He leads with his head and she follows her heart." After a few airings of the show, it was changed to "They make a great team as they each do their part" because [[ExecutiveMeddling executives apparently considered the other line to be sexist.]]

* There was one line in the theme song to the the PBS show {{WesternAnimation/MayaAndMiguel}} that went "He leads with his head and she follows her heart." After a few airings of the show, it was changed to "They make a great team as they each do their part" because [[ExecutiveMeddling executives apparently considered the other line to be sexist.]]

* There was one line in the theme song to the the PBS show "WesternAnimation/MayaAndMiguel" that went "He leads with his head and she follows her heart." After a few airings of the show, it was changed to "They make a great team as they each do their part" because [ExecutiveMeddling executives apparently considered the other line to be sexist.]

* "Ancient Eyes" by Music/SteeleyeSpan is based on the opening scenes of early ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' novels in which the star turtle would be introduced, and especially the first such scene in ''Discworld/TheColourOfMagic''. One of the lines in the song is "Through a billion stars he flies", except in the final chorus it's "Through a billion stars she flies", referencing A'Tuin's AmbiguousGender, which was a pot point in TCOM.

* In ''Theatre/ShowBoat'', the snippet reprise of "Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man" that ends the first act replaces "Fish gotta swim and birds gotta fly" with "Can't stop me now, there's no use to try." This was not the case in the original production, however.

* For the 2014 SettingUpdate film adaptation of ''Annie'', the line from "It's A Hard-Knock Life" about being in an orphanage is revised to one about being a foster kid, orphanages being virtually unknown in present-day America.

* "Ancient Eyes" by Music/SteeleyeSpan is based on the opening scenes of early ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' novels in which the star turtle would be introduced, and especially the first such scene in ''Discworld/TheColourOfMagic''. One of the lines in the song is "Through a billion stars he flies", except in the final chorus it's "Through a billion stars she flies", referencing A'Tuin's AmbiguousGender, which was a pot point in TCOM.

* Music/MaximumTheHormone's ''[[DeathNote What's up, People?!]]'' has several sections of "HEY HEY! Ningen sanka ai nige ningen fuan ka?", which is what the lyric sheet in the single says. Except the last time they say it, where it's written like what English speakers would certainly hear.

* TheRockyHorrorPictureShow opens with ''Science Fiction - Double Feature'' with lyrics about classic SF movies, and ends (in some prints) with the reprise version (with very similar lyrics) that summarizes the events in the film/play.

* TheRockyHorrorPictureShow opens with ''Science Fiction - Double Feature'' with lyrics about classic SF movies, and ends (in some prints) with the reprise version that summarizes the events in the film/play.

* Music/BobDylan's BreakupSong "Idiot Wind" ends each ([[TheReasonYouSuckSpeech rather long]]) verse with the line "You're an idiot, babe, it's a wonder that you still know how to breathe" before switching to "[[SelfDeprecation We're idiots]], babe, it's a wonder we can even feed ourselves" in the last verse.

* The chorus of "Gamma Unchained" by TheMegas ends with the line "I'll give you power, you take control," except at the end of the song, which replaces it with "What good is power if you're out of control?"

* Music/FiveIronFrenzy's "Superpowers" has the lyrics in the second verse, "Everyone in the band can't stand me / just because I fell off the stage / and kinda by accident / I broke the promoter's legs." On the album ''Live: Proof That the Youth Are Revolting'', Reese Roper instead sings "Just because I ate pork and beans / and kinda by accident / I ... farted?" The HilariousOuttakes in the album's HiddenTrack feature two more variations: "Just because I have nasty shorts..." and "Just because I'm a ''hip hopper!''"

* In "Poker Face", LadyGaga slips in "fuck her face" during the chorus instead of the TitleDrop.
* In "July, July!" by TheDecemberists, the line "the water rolls down the drain" changes to "the blood rolls down the drain" for one refrain.
* The final verse of Nickelback's ''Figured You Out'': Chad Kroeger repeats the first verse, but replace "love" with "hate".
* In ''The Sharpest Lives'', from MyChemicalRomance's TheBlackParade, the standard line in the chorus is "Burn all the empires" (rhyming with "vampires" in the next line), but the final one uses "Burn all the embers" (rhyming with the previous lines of "shot to remember" and "I will surrender"). The song is about drug use, the line change perhaps implying that the singer is "burned out"?
* The final verse of {{Queen}}'s "One Vision" ends with "Just gimme, gimme, gimme, gimme, fried chicken". Bit of a different meaning.
* In "Twentieth Century Boy," MarcBolan transposes the words "boy" and "toy" in the last two refrains.
* The last repetition of the chorus in TheOffspring's "You're Gonna Go Far Kid" replaces "With a thousand lies and a good disguise" with "Clever alibis, lord of the flies."
* The narrator of NickCave's "The Mercy Seat" (about a man on death row) insists that he is innocent ("And anyway I told the truth"). The chorus always ends with the lines "And I am not afraid to die," until the last time it is sung, when the line is changed to [[spoiler:"But I'm afraid I told a lie."]]

* In {{Devo}}'s classic song "Jocko [[HaveAGayOldTime Homo]]" the line "Are we not men?" changes to "Are we not pins?" as a reference to the earlier lyric, "We're pinheads all."

* For most of it's running time, {{NOFX}}'s "Please Play This Song On The Radio" is a SelfDemonstratingSong about how radio-friendly the song itself is. Then after a FakeOutFadeOut, there's one last verse, which throws in some obscenities and mentions that if someone ''is'' playing the song on the radio at this moment, they'd better have switched to the next song by now... So of course the final chorus changes from [[TitleOnlyChorus "please play this song on the radio"]] to "You can't play this song on the radio".
* In the last chorus of TheyMightBeGiants' "Man It's So Loud In Here", "When they stop the drum machine and I can think again" becomes "When they start the love machine and I can love again".
* The first two choruses of "Last to Know" by ThreeDaysGrace are, like the verses, about mourning the loss of a woman who abruptly left the singer for another man. In the last chorus, the singer decides he's better off without her, the relationship wasn't all that great, and warns his ex's current lover that she'll end up treating him the same way.
* {{REM}}'s "The One I Love" alters the third verse so that "another prop has occupied my time", rather than "a simple prop to occupy my time".

* On the 'Garage Flower' album version of TheStoneRoses' song 'Here It Comes', Ian Brown changes the lyrics from 'I'm just useless for her' to 'I'm a useless fucker'.

* The final chorus of "[[AmericanIdiot Give Me Novocaine]]" by GreenDay does this. Instead of "Tell me that I won't feel a thing," it's "Tell me, Jimmy, I won't feel a thing."
* AlanJackson's done this a few times:

* On the album version of Music/KeithUrban's "Once in a Lifetime", the final iteration of the chorus has different words. The original is "And don't fear it now, we're going all the way / That sun is shining on a brand new day / It's a long way down and it's a leap of faith / But I'm never givin' up / 'Cause I know we got a once in a lifetime love." The last time around, it becomes "Don't fear it now, I'll never let you go / When you're by my side, I know I've made it home…".

* In [[LadyGaga "Poker Face"]] , Lady Gaga slips in "fuck her face" during the chorus instead of the TitleDrop.
* In [[TheDecemberists "July, July!"]], the line "the water rolls down the drain" changes to "the blood rolls down the drain" for one refrain.

* In "Twentieth Century Boy," Marc transposes the words "boy" and "toy" in the last two refrains.
* The last repetition of the chorus in The Offspring's "You're Gonna Go Far Kid" replaces "With a thousand lies and a good disguise" with "Clever alibis, lord of the flies."

** Famously, about half the time in the studio version of She Loves You, they're actually singing 'she'd love to', as in 'have sex'.
* For most of it's running time, NOFX's "Please Play This Song On The Radio" is a SelfDemonstratingSong about how radio-friendly the song itself is. Then after a FakeOutFadeOut, there's one last verse, which throws in some obscenities and mentions that if someone ''is'' playing the song on the radio at this moment, they'd better have switched to the next song by now... So of course the final chorus changes from [[TitleOnlyChorus "please play this song on the radio"]] to "You can't play this song on the radio".

* On the 'Garage Flower' album version of the Stone Roses' song 'Here It Comes', Ian Brown changes the lyrics from 'I'm just useless for her' to 'I'm a useless fucker'.

* ''Stromkern'' do this a lot. The choruses of ''Feed the Machine'' and ''Stand Up'' are altered each time they are sung. They also performed a cover of Nick Cave's ''The Mercy Seat'', elsewhere noted for invoking this trope.
* The final chorus of ''[[AmericanIdiot Give Me Novocain]]'' does this. Instead of "Tell me that I won't feel a thing," it's "Tell me, Jimmy, I won't feel a thing."