Misheard Song Lyrics

Pinball Wizard by The Who

Actual Lyrics: I thought I was the Bally table king but I just handed my pinball crown to him.

Misheard Lyrics: I thought I was the party table king but I just handed my pinball crown to him.

I should've know it was Bally because they make Pinball tables. I just didn't make the connection because I heard it as party long before I knew of the company Bally.

edited 8th Mar '17 4:35:22 PM by Halberdier17

Back when I was a kid, there was a song I used to listen by a band called Sponge. It was called Molly(Sixteen Candles). The opening lines of the song were:

Seen you naked in the bath, Cigarette stains on your hands.

But, I thought the lines were:

Seen you naked in the bath, Cigarette stains on your ass.

Scha Dara Parr's music is ridden with Gratuitous English, so for a while until just now I thought the lyric "Kikku!! Sunea!!" in Konya wa Boogie Back was "kick snare!" or "kickstand!" or something.

Edit: Turns out it actually is "kick snare".

edited 12th Apr '17 6:11:38 AM by arimothereindeer

Reminded of “La isla bonita” by Madonna.

edited 7th Apr '17 2:58:26 PM by Bananaquit

I think I went from hearing "mighty table king" to hearing "Bally table king" but thinking "bally" was some sort of British intensifier, like "bloody" but milder or something.

Both of these sort of have to do with hearing semi-nerdy references that aren't there in pop songs I keep hearing at work:

In "Mercy" by Shawn Mendes, I keep hearing "Heart open, testify, tell me that I'm not crazy" as "Harto can testify, tell me that I'm not crazy". As though there's some sort of trial over Shawn Mendes' sanity, and Hannah Hart is one of the witnesses.

In "It Ain't Me" by Kygo and Selena Gomez, I keep hearing "I had a dream we were back to seventeen" as "I had a dream we were Katniss Everdeen".

When i was listening to Machine Head's (the band,not the album) "Ghosts Will Haunt My Bones" i misheared the line "ghosts will haunt my bones" as "ghosts will haunt my balls".

Listening to Smash by The Offspring for the first time in many years, I remembered one I had for "Gotta Get Away":

Sitting on the bed

And the lion went away

Steam is in my head,

and it's more than I can take

The italicized lines are really "or lying wide awake" and "There's demons in my head". I remember trying to make sense of my mondegreens at the time - with "steam is in my head" I was imagining that cartoon trope of steam coming out of your ears when you're angry/stressed out, and "the lion" would have to be some sort of metaphor for courage or pride or something.

Another Offspring one from the same album, from "Come Out And Play": "Getting wedgies with the greatest of ease" instead of "getting weapons".

edited 3rd May '17 9:41:42 PM by MikeK

From Creedence Clearwater Revival's "Run Through the Jungle"

Actual Lyric: Over on the mountain, thunder magic spoke
Let the people know my wisdom
Fill the land with smoke
I Heard:
Fill the land with soap

From Pennywise's "Waiting"

Actual Lyric:
Waiting
Hoping for a getaway
I Heard:
Wayne
Hoverboard getaway

edited 21st May '17 2:27:40 AM by BrokenEye

"Goodbye Lament" by Tony Iommi, Brian May, and Dave Grohl: Dave pronounces "lament" strangely ("LAY-ment" instead of "luh-MENT") to fit the rhythm of the song, and the end result is that it sounds more like "Goodbye, lame ass!".

edited 1st Jun '17 11:22:11 AM by MikeK

I don't know if I posted these two songs.

In "Loser" by Beck: I didn't know that part of the song was in Spanish when I was younger so I thought when he sang "Soy un Perdedor" I thought he was singing, sore from head to toe.

In "Games without Frontiers" by Peter Gabriel: I didn't know part of the song was in French when I was younger so when they were singing "Jeux sans Frontières" I thought they were singing, she's so popular.

I didn't know that part was in Spanish either, so I thought it was "So I walk in the door."

In each of the covers of the Rays' "Silhouettes," the third line of verse two is persistently done incorrectly as "Wondered why I'm not the guy, two silhouettes on the shade." The correct line is "Wondered why I'm not the guy whose silhouette's on the shade."

Smooth by Santana

They sang: "My muñequita"

I heard: "I'm on a keytar"

Thank you, I've never been clear what he's saying there.

My misheard lyric in that same song is "it's the stainless steel emotion that I get from you" (instead of "it's the same as the emotion..."). Even though it's completely nonsensical, I think "stainless steel emotion" should be a lyric in a song because it sounds cool.

I always heard "stainless sea motion", myself.

In Feel Good Inc, I always heard the lyric "Care Bear in the heart of this yeah" as "Care Bears rubbing this Hollywood shit."

Pompeii

They sang: "How am I gonna be an optimist about this"

I heard: "I'm only gonna be an optimist about this"

Which is like the opposite of the actual meaning of the lyric...

"Who are you? Why am I here?" —> "Who are you to wipe my hair?"

Void - Who Are You?

(from the comments on the above video, many others seem to have the very similar mondegreen "who are you to wash my hair?")

edited 14th Aug '17 9:20:49 PM by MikeK

Teen Titans theme song I heard "Never met a Villain that they liked" as Never met a villain that's delight.

I noticed it when I watched it with captions.

I thought it makes sense villains don't greatly please heroes.

This is a really dumb one, but for whatever reason I used to think the lyric "you PMS like a bitch I would know" in Hot n Cold by Katy Perry was "pee a mess", and it was some weird metaphor about a dog peeing on the floor. Made more sense when I found out what it really said...

edited 19th Sep '17 8:46:35 AM by arimothereindeer

"Feel It Still" by Portugal. The Man:

"I'm a rebel just for kicks, yeah" —> "I'm a rebel with a kickstand".

I thought it was about being a rebellious motorcyclist or bicyclist I guess?

"I Might Be Wrong" by Radiohead:

"Open up, let me in" —> "Open up a can of beans"

I have a distinct memory of the album leaking before the official lyrics were known and asking a friend who was a fan if Thom Yorke was really singing about canned beans.

From "Don't Look Back In Anger" by Oasis:

What I heard: "Slip-N-Slide, the eye of your mind"

Actual Lyric: "Slip inside the eye of your mind"

I thought it sounded like the Gallagher bros though Slip-N-Slides were really deep and existential.

edited 21st Dec '17 8:34:44 AM by Some_Person