Misheard Song Lyrics

The Numa Numa song. All of it.

This one is from my dad:

I don't remember what the song is called but it's on Red.

• Taylor Swift sang: "You carry my groceries"
• Dad heard "Drew Carey my groceries"

I immediately responded: "That's who she's going to date next!"

edited 7th Mar '14 5:26:06 PM by Smasher

That Taylor Swift song is "Stay Stay Stay".

I'm sure if Taylor and Drew meet, they will be a married couple and stay happily ever after.

I thought the Buddy Holly song "True Love Ways" was called "True Love Waits". That kind of changed the meaning I got from the lyrics.

There's a Radiohead song called that, and there's at least been reasonable guesses that they were making a pun on the Buddy Holly song. If so, maybe Thom Yorke shared your mondegreen?

Out of nowhere, I remembered one of my favorite mistaken fan-transcribed lyrics, in this case for "Caribou" by Pixies:

"Repent! Repent!" —> "Red pants! Red pants!".

Admittedly there's a little bit of Punctuated! For! Emphasis! in the delivery there (something like "Repent! Re! Pent!"). You kind of have to hear the song to understand how funny the idea of Black Francis shrieking Careful with That Axe-style about red trousers is... And of course if you're British, he would actually be screaming about red underpants instead.

edited 11th Mar '14 4:48:41 PM by MikeK

I used to mishear "shawty" as "Charlie". Of course, it would be because I didn't know that was a "word" back then.

edited 21st Mar '14 9:44:59 AM by Gamebreaking

In John Legend's "All of Me", I heard "I'm on your magical mystery ride" as "I'm your magical mystery ride."

I'm a Soul Man - Blues Brothers: heard the title as "I'm a snowman." Africa - Toto: heard "I bless the rains down in Africa" as "I miss the plains down in Africa" FM - Steely Dan: heard "Give us some funked up music" as "Give us some fucked up music" I heard "I want a new drug" as "I want a new truck" in a song whose title and singer I don't know. I heard "All I need is a miracle" as "All I need is America", again in a song whose title and singer I don't know.

I used to hear "I'm a soul man" as "I'm this old man."

"I Want A New Truck" is probably Huey Lewis & The News' "I Want A New Drug", which is now probably best remembered as being the basis of the Ghostbusters theme and/or 'I Want A New Duck'.

I deliberately hear that Steely Dan line as the F-bomb version.

Until I looked up the lyrics, I always heard the line "Swimming through sick lullabies" in Mr. Brightside as "Twirling twisted lullabies". Not that much of a difference, though...

I used to hear "Can't You Hear Me Knockin'" as "Living in an Oven."

I didn't know the name of the song at the time but it does sort of sound like what I thought it said. It doesn't even make sense I just heard knockin' as oven so I just made up the rest.

Rush, "Freewill"
Actual lyrics: "A host of holy horrors to direct our aimless dance!"
I heard: "A host of holy holds us to direct our anus glands!"
My brain is weird.

edited 27th Mar '14 6:48:29 PM by megaBLOB

In Anthrax's "Lone Justice":
For the line "With his squint-eyed grin and stubbled chin, he rides through history", I heard "stubbled chin" as "double chin". That doesn't sound quite as badass.

edited 30th Mar '14 3:07:12 PM by djbj

Someone on my facebook mentioned hearing "Raspberry Beret" as a kid and thinking it was "Raspberry Parade"... Which somehow still sounds like it could be a Prince song title. And somehow one from the old troper tales section of Mondegreen that always stuck with me is "rat with spherical breath".

Or an Owl City song…

There's a sort of swishing sound in the song Radio, Radio that I used to think was a band member saying "Listen, listen, listen, listen". Even though I now know it's not the case, I think it works so well that I always sing it that way when listening to the song.

I don't know what the song was, but I remember hearing in some mashup on You Tube chanting in the background that sounded like a constant repetition of "SEGA! SEGA! SEGA! SEGA!" As if someone looped the SEGA chant in the background of the track...except I don't believe it was that, since I think the original track was from a Metroid game, so it might have been chants of "Samus! Samus! Samus! Samus!"

B.Y.O.B. - System of a Down: I heard "Why do they always send the poor?" as "Why do they always teleport?"

From a new song by the Goo Goo Dolls, I heard "Come to me, my sweetest friend" as "Come to me, my Swedish friend".

Here's what I hear in Louie, Louie by The Kingsmen. Some of these lyrics might even approximate correct.

Louie, Louie,
Oh, no! Says we gotta go!
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
Said Louie, Louie,
Oh, baby said we gotta go!
Fine little girls wait for me,
Catch all the chills, all got the plague.
There are my children, all alone,
They'll never know that I'll come home.
Louie, Louie,
No, no, no, no, no,
Said we gotta go.
Oh, no! Said Louie, Louie.
Oh, baby! Said we gotta go.
Three nights and days, I sail the sea,
Check out the girls, all got the plague,
Arms of cheer, my dreams she has,
My girls tie a rose up in my hair.
Oh Louie, Louie!
Whoa, no! Said we gotta go.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
Said Louie, Louie.
Whoa, baby! Said we gotta go.
Okay, let's give it to 'em right now!
Fade,
Gave my maker the bowl I found,
It wont take long, take him along.
Take her in my arms again,
I'll tell her I'll never leave again.
Oh Louie, Louie,
Whoa, baby! Said we gotta go.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
I said Louie, Louie:
Whoa, baby! Said we gotta go!
I said we gotta go now,
Step on out of here,
Let's go!!

In Townes Van Zandt's "Lungs", I've misheard the line "Salvation sat and crossed herself" as "Salvation sailed across the sun".

edited 8th May '14 11:19:55 AM by Gamebreaking

A coworker was telling me "L.A." was his favorite The Fall song in part because (it sounds like) it has his name in it - the falsetto chant that starts up about 30 seconds into the song is apparently "L.A., L.A.", but sort of sounds like "Allan, Allan".

You did a better job at identifying the lyrics than the FBI apparently did.

I also misheard a line from B.Y.O.B. I heard "Why do they always set the bar?" instead of "send the poor"