I've been listening to Metallica since mid-eighties, and they have a song called The Four Horsemen on the album Kill'em all. The beginning of the chorus goes - I though for many years:
"Once in a dully mirror
never seem they're right"

The real deal is
"The horsemen are drawing nearer
On the leather steeds they ride"

Dont know why I didnt think more over that dully mirror...

jesper b.

For the longest time I thought the opening lyrics to "Song 2" by Blur were "I got my head shaved, by a cham-oh-che."

I asked my British friends what a chamoche was, they just looked at me like I was nuts.

I looked up the lyrics: "I got my head checked, by a jumbo jet."

Jeremy

in the Prince song 'when doves cry', i heard 'and the most tricherious roses'. i thought he was giving his girlfriend poisoned flowers, when he was really saying 'animals strike curious poses'. the truth hit me in class during a final exam. my classmates were none to happy to hear me singing aloud...

Future Mrs Manning

In the song "Margaritaville", me and my cousins used to think that Jimmy Buffett was singing "took off my flip flop, stepped on a Pop Tart!" (instead of pop top. We used to crack up when that song was playing.

penni

"Tubthumping," by Chumbawamba, presented many lyrical challenges for me.

The primary lyrics to the song go, "I get knocked down, but I get up again. You're never gonna keep me down. . . . Pissing the night away"

However, for many months after the song became popular, I thought the lyrics were: "I get no tongue, but I get over it. You're never gonna keep me down. . . . Kissing the night away."

It made a lot of sense to me, particularly because I was romantically unattached at the time. Turns out one of my close friends thought the same thing about the lyrics. Perhaps he was lonely too?

Stendy

my friend thought the rick astley song "never gonna" was "then im gonna" as in "then im gonna let you down, tehn im gonna make you frown then im gonna run around and hurt you"

also i thought patio lanterns was a song about a girl called Patty O'Lanterns. "who will be the first to kiss? Patty O'Lanterns. "

Anon

I used to think the line "Too Hip to be Square" was actually "Just hit the B Square". I could never figure out what the heck a B Square was, and why you're supposed to hit it!

Renee

I used to think that the song "More than a woman" was "bald headed woman" and it made sense because that chick in the star trek movie was bald and for a little while Vogue magazine was trying to make baldness chic!

meewa

it's gonna be a bright, bright, bright: bright sunshinin' dayyyyyyyyyyyy!

up until a few months ago i thought that it was:
it's gonna be a bright, bright, bright: bright sunshine in bed.

jerylyn

I thought until TODAY, reading this excellent site, that Toto's "Africa" went "I guess it rains down in Africa" Not "I bless the rains down in Africa"
Thank you!

Arcane Jill

white room, eric clapton.
i swear he said 'that's one dickhead.'
never occured to me about a platform ticket til i just read someone else misheard it...

sk8rchick

"Dirty D's and the dung-dirt chief" is what my child brain heard when I should of been hearing "Dirty deeds and their done dirt cheep!" Wow...no one ever corrected me until I was much older and should of known better...what the heck is a "dug dirt chief"?

Hannah

When my sister was 3 or 4 she loved the song "Wanted" by Alan Jackson..but instead of singing the lyrics "wanted, one good hearted woman"..she would sing "wanted, one good hard-headed woman"..I could never get her to say it the right way!

Brooks

When I was younger, I loved the song "Funky Cold Medina" by Tone Loc. The problem is that when I went searching for the cassette tape at the music store, I was searching for "Turtle Oak" as the artist. I guess teenagers really do have selective hearing.

Kerry

in the queen song "bohemian rhapsody" when they sing "Scheramouch Scheramouch (yes, i spelled that wrong. it is really hard to type, yet easy to say)will you do the vanago?" i thought they were singing "Scare a moose, scare a moose then do the vampire pogo." yea, i was a messed up little kid, but on the other hand my brother was obsessed with, and stil is, vampires.

who wants to know?

I used to think that the song "Only the Lonely" by Roy Orbison was (and dont ask me why) about a ghost named 'Only' and he was lonely so people called him "Only the Lonely" i never thought when he said only he meant only i thought it was a weird name like "ownly or Owenley"

Johnny

ive always thought the lyrics to brand new went:
''and i like that fiberotic lamp'' instead of:
''and i liked it the further i got out''
''im having sex'' instead of ''im heaven sent''
i still dont hear them the same.

bella

When my daughter was a pre-teen the song "Lucille" by Kenny Rogers was popular. She always thought the line, "You picked a fine time to leave me Lucille - four hungry children and a crop in my fields." was "four hundred children ....."! She used to say, "That's really dumb - NOBODY has 400 children!"

Carole Preble

One of the "granny's" living on my street heard my transistor radio playing "My Baby Does the Hanky Panky". She wanted to know why anyone would write a song about "My Baby Has a Dirty Hanky!"

Annelee

In 1963, an album came out called SUNNY SIDE, by The Kingston Trio. It included the group's last top-40 hit, "Desert Pete". Like many of their albums, it also included one rousing spiritual-type song, in that case a song called "Sing Out". One verse of "Sing Out" sounded, I thought, Like this:

Wake up to the trumpet sound.
I'm from the Great Shellai,
To see the chap with the glory crown
Uphill from flaming sky.

Years later, thanks to internet lyrics sites, I've been able to determine that the real lyrics are:

Wake up to the trumpet sound.
I from the grave shall rise
To see the judge with the glory crown,
A view from flaming sky.

I grew up in a not-so-religious family, so I generally expected to hear unfamiliar concepts in hymns and spirituals. I thought that "the Great Shellai" must be some religious concept that I didn't know due to my lack of much formal religious upbringing. It seemed intriguingly romantic and I hoped to learn what it was someday. I grew to be one of those kids who, in difficult situations would pray sometimes, even though I had formally learned little about prayer. I actually sometimes prayed to "God in the Great Shellai". I hope that never gave offense to anyone! As I grew up and learned more about religious matters I guess I was a bit disappointed to have to accept that "the Great Shellai", for all its intriguing sound, is probably utterly meningless!

Kirsten