My mother was raised in a strict Catholic household. When she was little she thought the words to "Hark the herald angels sing ..." went "Hark to hell the angels sing ..." Something her brothers and sisters still tease her about.

Anon

i am pleased to see I wasn't the only one who thought it was 'I am the Lord of the dance settee'!

Anon

I used to believe that "Orientar" was a place, as in "We three kings of Orientar".

Lise K

I used to teach the song "I'm camping in Canaan's Land, it's really grand!" One of my little pupils thought the last words were "It's Billy Graham!"

Linda, Los Angeles

We used to sing a song in sabbath school called "I'm glad I brought my offering". I instead always sang "I'm glad I brought my orphan ring"

Katie

I didn't have this idea, but some of my friends did. I'm Polish and for Holy Communion we learnt a hymn that ends with words "Jemu chwala i czesc" which means "Glory to Him and honor (to Him)". But in slang, especially kids slang but not only, "i czesc" means also end of discussion, kind of like saying "period." at the end of sentence. My friends thought the hymn meant "Glory to Him, period."

Jo

I was convinced that the hymn 'Lord of the Dance' contained the lyrics 'Don Sept, whoever he may be, I am the Lord of the Dance said he' and pictured a Pied Piper type character leading children dancing all over the hills as he played a recorder. This persisted until I reached the Juniors and we were given our own hymn books... I still picture him thus!

Sarah K

For months my younger brother went around asking everyone what a "looya" was. He kept insisting he had learned a song at school about a girl named "Glori" that "had a looya". It wasn't until he sang the song that we realized he was singing "Glory, glory Hallelujah". That was about 10 years ago, but we still tease him for it.

NG

One Easter Sunday, when my little brother was young, we went to Mass. At the point where we sing Amen, my brother wanted to participate. He started singing at the top of his lungs "Goblin, Goblin, Goblin!"

more religious than him

when i was in junior school (in the uk - 7 to 11) we used to sing hymns every morning, and this one hymn drove me mad, everyone else *loved* it, but i'm partailly deaf so i couldn't always work out what was being sung, infact i was given some of the hymns on paper so i could sing along. but this one i wasn't given, so i had no idea what was being sung, and the fact that everyone loved it so much annoyed me even more... it was the hymn that goes "hand me down my silver trumpet lord" - i used to think it was "garbrielle my silver trophic lord" and i was like "what the HELL is a silver trophic lord?!"

padfoot

I could read at an early age and during Christmas we were singing "It came upon the Midnight Clear". For the longest time I thought the line went "the world in SOLOMON stillness lays" and for some reason Kins Solomon had something to do with the Nativity. My mom realized what I was singing and stifling a giggle informed me the "n" was silent!

Nikki

Growing up in church, every Sunday we sang the doxology, so I would dutifully stand and sing "Praise God from whom all blessings flow, Praise Him all creatures Hear Me Lord". Of course, it's supposed to end with "here below".

Why couldn't someone have please clued me in during 18 years of unknown embarassment??

one confused girl

In the hymn 'Lord, Have Mercy on Us All', I used to sing Lord have mercy on Azal and I thought "Azal" was a little man in a spaceship like the one in Button Moon!

Monkey

I was around 6 or 7 and When we went to Church, I thought my folks were genuises because they never needed to use the hymnals to sing,,,yet, they mysteriously seemed to know all the words to every hymn.

ari, Queen of Fatigue

When I was at first school one of the songs we used to sing in assembly used to go "I am the Lord Of The Dance said he" but I thought it was "I am the Lord Of The Dance settee"!! Even when I found out I was wrong I still stuck with my version because it was more fun!!

Denise

I used to believe that the line in the hymn We Three Kings was:

"We Three Kings of Orientar"

revs.org

I have a cousin named Reece and I used to have a step sister before my dad and her mom got divorced. My step sister went to Bible School and learned a new song that she started to sing around the house. It was called Resist the Devil (and he will flee from you). Her song caught my attention as she was singing "Reece is the devil and he will flee from you'!

Lee

We used to sing 'there is a green hill far away without a city wall' at school. I thought it meant that every hill should have a wall built around it! By the time I'd become a Christian as an adult the words had been changed to 'outside a city wall' I understood then that Jesus was crucified on the grotty bit of rubbish dump that no-one wanted to live on - quite a revelation.

Sue

Once I was in church when I was 6 and there was this song we sung and I thought we were singing "Alchohol in the Lord". What the heck was that supposed to mean???

M

when i was small, i had the belief that in the song "Ding Dong merrily on high" when they came to the chorus and the part that was "Ding Dong merrily on high" it was actually "Ding Dong chookie chookie pie"
i had no idea why a christmas choir was singing about chicken pie.

chook