What's your misheard song lyric?

[BiscuitHammer]

Just about every line from 'Come On Eileen' by Dexy's Midnight Runners...

 

[Cali_Love]

In 2008, Lady Gaga's Poker Face was frequently played on the radio when driving my girls to school. At the top of their lungs, they'd sing along and intentionally changed 'poker face' to 'booger face'. I can't hear it any other way to this date.

 

[Rustyoznail]

"Gimme a laser gun for the road that I might travel"...

Mr Mister

 

[jehoram]

My favorite one is still "There's a bad moon on the rise" being transmuted into "There's a bathroom on the right." Even Credence sang it that way from time to time, just to see if anybody noticed.

 

[Bramblethorn]

Not mine, but a guy I know has been singing "I'm blue, if I was green I would die".

 

[jsmiam]

There’s a whole scientific theory (I forget what it’s called) behind this one. It’s not exactly just getting a lyric wrong, it’s where if you listen for it you can hear each version.

Idea. Excellent. An. Like. Sounds. That.

 

[AngelWithAShotgun]

Taylor Swift's Blank Space

Actual lyrics:
Got a long list of ex lovers

What I heard:
All the lonely Starbucks Lovers

 

[EnonEMoose]

I have a hydraulic pump roaring in my ear from an incident years ago so what I hear is quite often different than what the songwriter penned. I use lyrics in my stories on occasion and I'm always surprised at what I find but I guess I'm in good company when I listen to ELO, even KNOWING the lyrics I still hear

"Don't bring me down, Bruce."

I had to go Google that...it isn't Bruce at all, damn I thought you were joking.

 

[MillieDynamite]

Exile, Kiss You All Over, I misheard "Till the light closes in" it's actually "Till the night closes in." Once I read the lyrics, the song made a lot more sense to me.

 

[Anastasia1999]

All of these

 

[soflabbwlvr]

I listen to a lot of David Bowie, and I still get surprised over lyrics I misheard.

Young Americans: The line "Showing nothing, he swoops like a song" I always heard as "Knowing nothing soothes like a song."

I"m Afraid of Americans: The line "Johnny wants a brain, Johnny wants to suck on a coke" I heard as "Johnny wants a brain, Johnny wants to suck on a cock."

 

[lilshymynx]

You might find this surprising, but I listen to a lot of Pearl Jam at times. My kids have grown up always hearing PJ so I have a bunch of misheard lyrics of what they thought was being sung.
Here's a few.
From Rear View Mirror
Real lyric "Fist on my plate, swallowed it down"
What my kids thought "Pissed on my plate, swallowed it down"

Pilate
RL "Like Pilate I have a dog"
Kids "Like Pilate I have a dong"

Comatose
RL "Consider me an object, Put me in a vacuum"
Kids "Consider me an object, Put me in a bathroom"

I love me some PJ and Eddie just has a way to make everything a potential misheard lyric.

 

[Btq97]

Alishas attic
I will shower you.

 

[My I]

Rolling Stones - I never seen your pizza burning (I'll never be your beast of burden)

 

[Emilymcplugger]

The Tony Danza one is common and FUNNY.

Mine was always, “Woke up like a douche”. You know the song I mean.

Blinded by the light by Manfred Mann's Earth Band - Bruce Springsteen's only Number one, I believe. God, I'm boring.

 

[Emilymcplugger]

Lady GaGa's ode to a Spider-man villain.

Carnage a Bad Romance.

 

[CarlyAnn]

Blinded by the light by Manfred Mann's Earth Band - Bruce Springsteen's only Number one, I believe. God, I'm boring.

You’re not boring, I live for music and I’m exciting AF….lol

 

[jehoram]

"Don't wanna live like a refugee" somehow transmuted to "Don't wanna limp like a referee."

 

[MillieDynamite]

 

[Koba]

When we were teenagers, we would listen to Abbey Road over and over, rockin' and rolling to the great album. When Polythene Pam came on we would all sing: "You could say she was a suck to be built.", probably because the leader of the group said that was what it said. Therefore, as dumb-ass teenagers do, we all went along. Nobody ever dared ask what the hell a suck to be built is. Many years later I saw the lyrics in a magazine and I discovered that John Lennon thought Pam was attractively built. I laughed for an hour.

 

[Tio_Narratore]

Sylvia Wright coined the term "Mondegreen" in 1954 to refer to a misheard lyric. It derives from her hearing an old Scottish Ballad, where she misheard "They hae slain the Earl o' Murray / And laid him on the green" as "/And Lady Mondegreen." She always wondered why they slew Lady Mondegreen as well as the Earl.

Here's a whole, very familiar, Latin song misheard in English:

 

[purplishy]

"I'm too hot (Hot damn)
Uh, call the police and the fireman
I'm too hot (Hot damn)
Make a dragon wanna retire, man" -- Bruno Mars

I was certain for months that I was mishearing the last line here (a Mondegreen!) but, to my surprise and great amusement, Mr. Mars really is making the dragon references that resonate with today's youth

 

[AlexBailey]

Rolling Stones, Mother’s Little Helper:

“When a dragon is getting old.”
- that’s what I heard my kids singing.

 

[patient1]

I agree, Elton John is often problematic.

I never understood why Michael Jackson's song Billie Jean was such a big hit, or why he was so insistent that "the chair is not my son."

 

[purvis2]

My father told me about Bad Moon Rising and his friend, who heard "Bathroom on the Right" at one point in the song. It's apparently such a common mishearing that John Fogerty sang it that way in a concert for a joke long after the band broke up.

For me, B52's song Love Shack at the end, "You're what?" is answered, "You're Busted," not "Tin Roof Rusted."

What's your misunderstood line in a song?

I remember the song from 1985 by 'Til Tuesday - Voices Carry. I swear to god I remember the song as "Mrs. Carry.".

He said shut up - he said shut up
Oh God can't you keep it down
Voices carry (Mrs. Carry)
Hush hush, voices carry (Mrs. Carry)

I swear I remember it that way. Mandela Effect?