Misheard Song Lyrics

"Africa" by Toto:

• Real lines: "There's nothing that a hundred men or more could ever do/I bless the rains down in Africa"
• What I heard: "There's nothing but another man on North Avenue/I catch some rays down in Africa"

I work retail and I've been around a lot of Christmas music lately, so bear with me:

"Up On The House Top" used to bug me as a kid because I heard the first lines as "Up on the house top, reindeer paws", and reindeer obviously have hooves, not paws. As it turns out it's supposed to be "reindeer pause" - as in the reindeer have stopped on the house top to let Santa climb down the chimney. '

The next two are kinda profane, and admittedly misheard on purpose to entertain myself because I have been hearing a lot of versions of the songs:

"Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas": "Here we are as in olden days / happy golden days / up yours" ("Happy golden days of yore"). Some versions it's easier to hear "up yours" than others, and I think it has to do with how much of a pause in the melody there is between "happy golden days" and "of yore".

"Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree": "Later we'll have some fuckin' pie, and we'll do some caroling" ("pumpkin pie"). The Brenda Lee version can sound a lot like it has the f-bomb in there if you're looking for it, most covers tend to enunciate "pumpkin" a bit clearer.

I heard just the very ending of a country song and couldn't tell it was "Bad Day To Be A Beer" or "Bad Day To Be A Deer" - turns out it was the former, but hey, it could have been a song about going hunting.

From "Kids in America" by Kim Wilde: The actual lyric is "Hold me tight", but I heard "Hope you die".

"She was a rat with spherical breasts."

The actual lyric is "She wore a raspberry beret."

Just discovered I had one for "Nice Guys Finish Last" by Green Day:

What I heard: "you feel washed up like disco down the drain".

What they actually sang: "Do you feel washed up like piss going down the drain?"

I guess I figured it was Take That! at disco, or at least saying that the genre was obsolete?

Tori Amos' "Wednesday", it's a pretty simple one, but I've heard "Though you say you're not a templar man" as "Though you say you're not a tender man".

I had a fairly dark one for "Silent All These Years" - "what if I were murdered in these jeans of his with her name still on it". Turns out it's "what if I'm a mermaid..."

Up until just now I thought "Just Dance" opened with Lady Gaga shouting "Trip on red wine! Gone gaga". Turns out it's "Truth - RedOne, Konvict, Gaga" - she's giving a Shout-Out to the Record Producer, another artist who appears on the song (Akon), and finally herself. But it is basically a song about being drunk at a club, so my mondegreen fits in - I had even decided that "gone gaga" was a pun, because it could either be "gone gaga" as in "gone crazy", or "gone Gaga", as in Lady Gaga herself being "gone" as in excessively drunk.

Edited by MikeK on Jun 2nd 2023 at 9:11:33 AM

Elton John, "Tiny Dancer."

• Actual chorus lyrics: "Hold me closer, tiny dancer. Count the headlights on the highway. Lay me down in sheets of linen. You had a busy day today."
• What I heard for decades: "Hold me closer, tiny dancer. Count the headlights on the highway. Lady darling, ships have landed. You had to feel today's the day."

Edited by dorkatlarge on Jun 3rd 2023 at 9:29:13 AM

Sponge - Pennywheels

• The lyric: "I'm naked and I'm, naked and I'm wasted"

• What I hear: "If they get in now, they get in, I'm wasted"

Sponge - Plowed

• The lyric: "Sit right open with a head that's broken"

• What I hear: "Sit right open to the cab that's broken"

I still hear these when I listen to them.

Cigarette stains on your ass.. Haha.

Edited by ZuggaluggalocoroG on Jun 4th 2023 at 2:33:12 PM

in "Molly" I somehow heard "Cigarette stains on your hands" as "Cigarette stains on your ass". On one hand they do try to slant-rhyme "bath", "hands", and "vase" (and "ass" would be a slightly less strained rhyme), on the other hand it otherwise would make no sense - why would he be able to see that part of her body if she were in the normal position one takes while in a bath, and why would cigarette stains be there anyway?

Edited by MikeK on Dec 7th 2023 at 4:25:26 AM

I just realised one after decades.

Californication, just before the chorus I heard:

"How coarse our form"

Something a bit poetic, fits the song's mix of hope and trash as the nature of existence.

Looked it up and it's:

"Hardcore Soft Porn"

... I'm sticking with my version.

From "Sports Song" by "Weird Al" Yankovic: When I was younger, I heard "That theory's backed up by empirical evidence" as "That theory's backed up by empirical M&M's".

Actual lyric of Pitbull's "Timber": It's goin' down, I'm yellin' timber

What I kept hearing over the speaker: It's goin' down, I've got a tumor

Edited by PopcornPie on Jun 21st 2023 at 2:45:35 PM

There's a lot to mishear in "Down Under" but the most pervasive one for me is "Stature short" instead of "Slack jaw, with [not which to say]"

Edited by FirstSnow on Jul 28th 2023 at 4:18:06 PM

100 gecs - mememe

"I put my palms on my face and pretend to cry"

misheard as

"I put my problems on my face and pretend to cry"

I started enjoying "Sailing" by The Happy Fits more once I realized that you can hear "my body's aching" as "my butt is aching".

I also intentionally try to mishear "I was in the forest, looking to see the trees" as "looking to see the cheese" when I listen to "Murders" by Miracle Musical.

For a while, I wasn't sure what the lyrics to "Shelter" were. I always heard them as "it's a long way for it, so just tell me", but it's actually "so trust in me".

I misheard that lyric too, but I thought "palms" was "paws".

Vampire Weekend's "A-Punk" is 90% Indecipherable Lyrics to me, but one of the few lines I thought I could make out the first time was "Avril Lavigne lies here with me" - Turns out it's "half of the ring lies here with me". The latter makes sense in context because the lyrics do mention a ring a few other times; as for the former, I guess I thought the singer had a crush on Avril or something?

Edited by MikeK on Aug 11th 2023 at 10:34:00 AM

Jhariah's "DEBT COLLECTOR" actually goes "Gravedigger, cordial killer!" instead of "gradual killer". I like my mishearing more because it fits as foreshadowing for the end of the album, where the singer decides to Face Death with Dignity, brought on by the sense of guilt he feels here.

Another one I've found is "The Song With Five Names" by Will Wood. I always hear "and we'll have nothing left for Nosferatu!" when it's actually "nothing left for us to lie to".

For the song "Levitating", when they say "My sugar boo", I thought they were saying "My sugar bowl ".

i keep on hearing "(i'm) a potato!" in the chorus of Nirvana's Smells Like Teen Spirit

Large bits of "Tomorrow" by Silverchair were Indecipherable Lyrics to me the first time I listened, but none more so than the very first line of the song, which I thought was something about "a deviled egg" - that turned out to be "it's 12 o'clock, and it's a wonderful day"

Edited by MikeK on Aug 25th 2023 at 9:05:24 AM

I did a double take listening to a new Peter Gabriel song, "Road To Joy": I heard a line as "Show your ass, show your teeth" - turns out it's "show your eyes".

i thought they said "I wanna really, really, really wanna just say ah" in the Spice Girls' Wannabe… learning it's actually "zigazig" flips my whole world upside down