Beam Me Up Scotty / Music

• In the melody of Richard Wagner's "Ride of the Valkyries" (i.e. the Valkyrie Leitmotif from The Ring of the Nibelung), the sixteenth note in each bar is often played inaudibly. Suffice to say, "Kill the wabbit! Kill the wabbit!" is a rhythmically incorrect rendition - the missing note would be in between "kill" and "the". The 16th note is one of the main reasons this passage shows up on trombone auditions, since it's one of the first things audition judges listen for.
• The lyrics to "As Time Goes By" have the line "a kiss is still a kiss," which does not exactly parallel the following line, "a sigh is just a sigh." The people who quote the lyric as "a kiss is just a kiss" have the defense that it's what Dooley Wilson sang in Casablanca. (Of course, they probably also believe that the song originated with Casablanca.)
• The Beatles:
  • "Yellow Submarine" is invariably misquoted: it's "In the town where I was born lived a man who sailed to sea / And he told us of his life in the land of submarines." Pretty much everyone will sing "In the town where I was born lived a man who sailed the sea / And he told us of his life in a yellow submarine."
  • It's often believed that, at the end of "Helter Skelter", Ringo Starr yells "I've got blisters on me fingers!" He actually says "I got blisters on my fingers!"
  • John Lennon never said that The Beatles were "Bigger Than Jesus," it was:
    "Christianity will go. It will vanish and shrink. I needn't argue about that; I'm right and I will be proved right. We're more popular than Jesus now - I don't know which will go first, rock and roll or Christianity. Jesus was all right, but His disciples were thick and ordinary. It's them twisting it that ruins it for me."
    • It also must be pointed out that contrary to massively popular belief the above quote was not a boast but lament. If there was any mockery intended then it was not toward Jesus or Christianity but toward the people he was complaining about, who were letting their fandom get ludicrously out of hand.
    • This was printed in a London Evening Standard interview, "How does a Beatle live?" in March 1966, talking about John's extensive reading of philosophers and historians. The decline of organized religion had been a subject for serious philosophical discussion in England and Europe for decades, and UK readers understood Lennon's remarks to refer to this. The quote was ripped out of context on purpose by the American press for a smear piece and has almost invariably been viewed that way ever since, whereas the full context makes the meaning quite clear.
  • John never said, "[Ringo] isn't even the best drummer in The Beatles!" The line originated in a sketch on BBC Radio 4 comedy series Radio Active which aired in 1981, a year after Lennon was murdered. That it even got pinned on Lennon to begin with is a little odd, since it implies the very unrealistic idea that John thought Paul (or Pete Best) was a better drummer than Ringo. To the contrary, Lennon regularly praised Starr's drumming, and asked him to play on his John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band album in 1970.
  • None of the Beatles say "koo-koo-ka-choo" in "I Am the Walrus"; the line is the (equally nonsensical) "goo-goo-g'joob". The misconception likely stems from people confusing "I Am the Walrus" with Simon & Garfunkel's "Mrs. Robinson", where they actually do say that.
  • The opening lyrics to "With A Little Help from my Friends" are "What would you think if I sang out of tune...", but most covers change it to "What would you do if I sang out of tune...".
• In an overlap with Refrain from Assuming, the German national anthem is still known in the Anglosphere as "Deutschland Über Alles", despite the verse featuring those lyrics no longer being officially part of the song (whose melody is also Older Than They Think). For the record, the current first line is Einigkeit und Recht und Freiheit: "Unity and Justice and Freedom".
• Bob Geldof didn't say "Give us your fucking money!" at Live Aid — The Other Wiki explains:
  Nearly seven hours into the concert in London, Bob Geldof enquired how much money had been raised; he was told £1.2 million. He is said to have been sorely disappointed by the amount and marched to the BBC commentary position. Pumped up further by a performance by Queen that he later called "absolutely amazing", Geldof gave an infamous interview. David Hepworth, conducting the interview, had attempted to provide a list of addresses to which donations should be sent; Geldof interrupted him in mid-flow and shouted: "Fuck the address, let's get the numbers!" After the outburst, giving increased to £18,000 per minute.
• Whenever anyone parodizes Kanye West's 2009 MTV Video Music Awards interruption, it's always "X had one of the best Y of all time. OF ALL TIME." No one remembers the exact wording:
  Yo Taylor [Swift], I'm really happy for you and I'ma let you finish, but Beyoncé had one of the best videos of all time. One of the best videos of all time!
• The anthem for the US Navy, Anchors Aweigh, is sometimes quoted as having the line "we sail at the break of day", but the actual line goes "we sail at break of day" (no "the" before "break"). And, of course, thanks to the lovely world of homonyms, the title tends to be misspelled as "away", not the correct "aweigh".
• Björk never said "I am a grateful grapefruit!" at the 1998 Brit Awards. It was actually "I...am...grate...ful...grape...fruit!" Which is perfectly sensible.
• People are still quoting Elvis Presley as saying, "The only thing negroes can do for me is shine my shoes and buy my records", although there is absolutely no evidence of his ever uttering this, and in fact everyone who ever worked closely with Presley commented on his total lack of prejudice. Much of the blame for perpetuation of this misquote lies with its use in Albert Goldman's negative biography, Elvis. Sadly, he did make an insulting remark about his black backup singers' breath smelling like catfish at a concert in Norfolk, Virginia, in July 1975. This has been attributed to his out-of-control drug use at the time.
• "I'm Rick James, bitch!" was made up by Dave Chappelle for his Chappelle's Show sketch spoofing Rick James' life, which was Very Loosely Based on a True Story cast member Charlie Murphy tells. So naturally, Seltzer and Friedberg didn't realize that while making Epic Movie. The only time Rick James actually did say it was at the 2004 BET Awards, though this was after the Dave Chappelle sketch, and was more of a reference to it.
• "Dave's not here man", a line often associated with stoners, came from a sketch off a Cheech & Chong album, but 'man' is never said in that line. That doesn't stop people from misquoting it though, this is mostly due to the duo's liberal use of the word. Also, the sketch is just called "Dave", not "Dave's Not Here".
• "Weird Al" Yankovic references a common use of this trope in his song "Stop Forwarding That Crap to Me": "And by the way, your quotes from 'George Carlin' aren't really George Carlin..."
• The song that in which "Figaro" repeatedly sings his name comes from The Barber of Seville by Rossini. Some people, however, don't realize that more than one opera features the character of Figaro, and will perceive it as being from The Marriage of Figaro - by Mozart.
• One popular Christmas carol is invariably called God Rest Ye, Merry Gentlemen — but the correct title is actually God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen. God is commanding gentlemen to be merry; he isn't commanding those who are already being merry to knock it off. One episode of Cabin Pressure involves a debate on this very subject, with one character mishearing the lyric as "Get dressed, ye merry gentlemen." Charles Dickens also misquotes it in A Christmas Carol as "God bless you, merry gentlemen."
• In 1976, KSAN free-form radio DJ Terry McGovern recorded a cheery ballad called "Beam Me Up, Scotty" (Baseball Records BR-1011). It received plenty of airplay on the Dr. Demento show and appears on the compilation album Dr. Demento's Hits from Outer Space. This recording probably did a great deal to popularize the phrase. McGovern also published Listen to the Loud, a parody of Rod McKuen's work.
• The second line of the song "Maybe It's Because I'm A Londoner" is usually misquoted as "That I love London Town", but that's actually the last line. The correct second line is actually "That I love London so", in order to rhyme with the fourth line, which ends with "go".
• The music video for The Village People's "YMCA" doesn't include any of the famous "letters" dance associated with it. The dance originated with live audiences, not the group themselves, though they noticed how well it was catching on and subsequently decided to Throw It In! to their performances.
• A Mother Goose and Grimm comic strip parodying Simon and Garfunkel has Paul Simon singing: "Well hello, Mrs. Robinson." That line is never heard in the song.
• The last song of The Mikado has the refrain "There are lots of good fish in the sea." This is frequently misquoted as "plenty of fish in the sea".
  • It's also wrong if you're quoting RENT: Roger's mother's lines from "Voice Mail #1" are "So let her be a lesbian... / There are other fishes in the sea. Love, Mom!"
• "The End" by The Doors is famous for many lyrics, one in particular being "Father, yes son/I want to kill you/Mother, I want to fuck you". That isn't the original line, and is only known and accepted by most as the official line because of the popular live version where Jim sings that line. In the studio version, Jim sings, "Mother, I wanna..." then suddenly screams a bunch of unintelligible nonsense.
• People who have never listened to The Who but who have watched CSI: Miami probably think the infamous "YEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!" comes at the start of "Won't Get Fooled Again". In fact, the song is 8:32, and the "YEEEEEEEEEAAAAHHH" comes in around 7:45. And there is buildup to it; it doesn't happen suddenly.
• Due to the "MLG Montage Parody" internet phenomenon, the line "Smoke weed everyday" is heavily associated with Snoop Dogg. While Snoop is a well-known stoner, it was actually sung by his similarly-named cousin, fellow rapper and singer Nate Dogg, and the line was The Stinger of the song "The Next Episode", a Dr. Dre song featuring both cousins.
• In the 1935 jazz standard "The Music Goes Round and Round", written by Ed Farley and Mike Riley, the lyrics actually say "the music goes down and around." They're describing how a saxophone works. An instant hit and notoriously catchy, one reviewer described this as "the conversion of a song hit into a plague, like Japanese beetles or chain letters."
• The title of the R.E.M. song "What's the Frequency, Kenneth?" is an example of this. The song was named after a phrase that two unknown attackers repeatedly screamed at former CBS Evening News news anchor Dan Rather as they assaulted him. However, according to Rather himself, what the attackers (one of whom was later revealed to be William Tager, who thought the media were beaming signals into his mind and that if he found the right frequency he could block the signals) actually said was "Kenneth, what is the frequency?" (Being that Tager was Jewish, it's possible he was actually saying "goniff", Yiddish for "thief", rather than "Kenneth".)
• The end of verse two of The Rays' "Silhouettes" goes "Wondered why I'm not the guy whose silhouette's on the shade." Everyone who has done a cover of it performs it as "Wondered why I'm not the guy, two silhouettes on the shade" simply because it matches the end of the other verses (or they thought that's how the verse actually was affected).
• Sergio Mendez and Brasil '66's cover of The Beatles' "The Fool on the Hill" has often been mistaken as the theme of the late '60s ABC dramedy Room 222, as it has a semi-similar arrangement.
• The lyric "You’ve got to sing like you don't need the money / Love like you'll never get hurt / You've got to dance like nobody’s watchin' / It's gotta come from the heart if you want it to work" is frequently both misquoted and misattributed, with popular targets including Satchel Paige and Mark Twain. It originates in the country song "Come from the Heart", written by Richard Leigh and Susanna Clark in 1989, and recorded by Don Williams and then by Guy Clark (Susanna's husband) before the most famous version by Kathy Mattea was released in 1989.
• One particular line in the chorus of the Outkast song "Ms. Jackson" is often remembered as "I apologize a thousand times". In actuality, it's "I apologize a trillion times".
• The song "California Dreamin'" by The Mamas & the Papas has a line that's often thought to say "I got down on my knees, and I began to pray". It's actually the (somewhat ungrammatical) "I got down on my knees, and I pretend to pray", which may sound odd, but it fits the next line: "preacher likes the cold, knows I'm gonna stay" (i.e people keep coming into the church to get out of the cold.)
• A lot of people have forgotten that Was (Not Was) had a song called "Walk the Dinosaur", and instead think it was a Dance Sensation song called "Do the Dinosaur". The song is also sometimes misattributed to Sly and the Family Stone.
• Paul McCartney's theme for Live and Let Die has at times been mocked for the perceived redundant lyric "But if this ever-changing world in which we live in...", which first appeared in the commercialized sheet music. Paul himself admits it's "in which we're livin'", even if the other version is "wronger but cuter".
• In the The Lonely Island and Justin Timberlake collab "Dick in a Box", the steps to make a dick in a box are "One: Cut a hole in a box. Two: Put your junk in that box. Three: Make her open the box." People quoting the song invariably sing it as "Step One" and so on.
• Eminem never actually wears the white tshirt and baggy blue carpenter jeans outfit at any time during the video for "My Name Is". He spends the majority of the video in various character costumes or in blue prison overalls - in the scene at his Mom's house, he's wearing the white tshirt, but with grey cargo shorts. In fact, Eminem never wears that outfit in any of the music videos for The Slim Shady LP apart from during the concert footage in the video for the minor hit "Role Model". Even in the promo for The Real Slim Shady from The Marshall Mathers LP, which cemented the outfit as his signature look by portraying him as leader of an army of militant, bleached Slim Shady clones all wearing the outfit, he gets a Custom Uniform to make him stand out - in the music video, he's wearing a tshirt and grey cargo pants, and in the 2000 VMAs performance, he's wearing a tank top and grey jeans. He did wear a white tshirt and blue jeans in his live performances and photoshoots around that time, but considering it's become his signature look, he really didn't wear it all that often.
• Black Sabbath's song "Iron Man", contrary to popular belief, does not have the words "I am Iron Man" sung to the tune of its Epic Riff. Ozzy says the line once during the slow introduction before the Epic Riff kicks in. The misconception might stem from an episode of The Simpsons where Nelson Muntz sings it that way.
• People who quote the Title Drop line in Michael Jackson's "Smooth Criminal" tend to stretch out the word "smooth" ("a smoooooooooth criminal"). In the actual song the word is not significantly drawn out. Though it is drawn out in Alien Ant Farm's cover of the song, which was a pretty big hit in itself and probably where the confusion comes in.
• "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" has a lyric "He sees you when you're sleeping", not "He knows when you are sleeping" or "He knows when you've been sleeping".
• 2 Unlimited's song "Get Ready for This" makes extensive use of a voice sample from The D.O.C.'s "It's Funky Enough" which, courtesy to popular belief, is actually "Y'all ready for this?", not "Are you ready for this?". This misconception may have originated from the Rio & Le Jean '92 remix of the song, which replaces the D.O.C. sample with a female voice saying "Are you ready for this?".

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