music: misheard lyrics

when i was a little kid in primary school we would have to sing the Australian national anthem at assembly every Monday morning.
I guess they didn't do such a great job with teaching us the words, because until the age of 10 i was absolutely convinced that the line "Australians, all let us rejoice" was actually "Australians all love ostriches". As a child I didn't even think it odd enough to question why we were all professing our love for a native African bird every week.

I used to think that "Here Comes the Hotstepper - Murderer" - went "Here comes the Hotstepper - Girl A Rock"!!!

And that it was "Boogie with the night" not "Boogie Wonderland"

And many more!

When I was young I thought the chorus of Paul Young's 'Everytime You Go Away' went:

Everytime you go away,
You take a piece of meat with you
(actual lyric 'You take a piece of me with you')

I used to think that while it was very odd that his girlfriend would take meat with her whenever she went away I still couldn't understand why it upset him so much. I figured when I was older I would understand

I always loved the song "Puff the Magic Dragon" but I also thought it was the saddest song ever, and sometimes it would make me cry, but I liked it anyway.

I always thought the little boy Jackie Paper died and misheard the lyrics "Painted wings and giant rings make way for other TOYS" as "Painted wings and giant rings make way for other BOYS", since Jackie Paper had died.

I continued to believe this for a very long time and was very relieved to learn out the truth.

The Ratt song "Scene of the Crime" has a part that says "You broke the law in the first degree, cold blooded bitch goin' out on me". I always thought it said "You broke the law in the Krispy Kreme".
It made sense, I figured he saw his chick with some other dude out in the doughnut shop eating doughnuts!

I was always a very good speller as a kid, except for one day as an 11-year-old when I attempted to sing along to Aretha Franklin:

"R-E-S-V-E-C-T."

I thought she was just naming off random letters.

Years ago there used to be a TV show called 'Minder' and they released a song about one of the characters - Arthur Daily. I thought the lyrics were 'Arthur Daily, little dodgy baby', it was actually 'Arthur Daily, little dodgy maybe'.

I used to believe…

actual lyrics: "Bring me a higher love"
I heard: "Bring me a pile of love"
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actual lyrics: "Can't hurry love..."
I heard: "Kangaroo love..."
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actual lyrics: "Hush, hush, keep it down now,
voices carry"
I heard: "Hush, hush, keep it down now, you're
so scary"

Here are some lyrics and words that I have heard wrong:

Forever in Blue Jeans was The Reverend Blue Jeans

Night Fever by the Bee Gees: Sweet City Woman was Two Headed Woman; I sort of knew that one was wrong

Sara Lee Commercial: I thought it was Nobody Does It Like Sara Lee, not so, it is Nobody doesn't like Sara Lee. Horrible grammer.

In the early '40s, as a youngster of four, I often heard the song, "On Brave Old Army Team. (Ours was a football household.) However, I thought the words were "Unbraveled Army Team," meaning our soldiers weren't brave. I thought it terribly unpatriotic, and I was ashamed and sad that so many people didn't do something about eliminating the son.

Celine Dion has a Christmas song in Fench titled "Les Cloches Du Hameau." If my French is correct (probably NOT, lol) that means "Bells of the Hamlet" or something like that.
In one line, I could swear that she's singing "Les cloches du hameau...ayyamak sa'ieeda...." Well, "Ayyamak sa'ieeda is ARABIC for "May your day be happy", and last time I checked Celine Dion didn't speak any Arabic, so I doubt that's what she's saying.

Until just recently whenever I heard the song 'Hanging By a Moment' by Lifehouse, I wondered what they meant by, 'Running in a clash of where to go'. I figured maybe there were two divergant paths, and the guy couldn't figure out which to take. Turns out he's actually saying,
'Running and not quite sure where to go,' which makes more sense.

I was driving along one day with my son and a few other people and the Bee Gees song "Tragedy" came on. I started singing along and when the chorus came on sang very loudly "Hercules" which I always thought it was. Imagine my embarassment when my son told me to shut up - it was Tragedy. A tragedy in itself as I have never lived it down.

Know that song that goes, "Stop in the name of love, before you break my heart" by Diana Ross & the Supremes? Well, I used to think she was singing, "Safe in the laundry room..." and everytime I heard it I would run to the laundry room and lock the door. Too bad my mom would always blast it on the stereo and she wouldn't know where I would go. Haha! :)

I used to believe the song 'Felice Navidad' was 'Release Navidad' and was a protest song about some Latin American political prisoner. Never could work out why it then went on to say 'We want to wish you a Merry Christmas'. And this was well into my twenties.

Leningrad by Billy Joel

Real Lyrics-I was born in '49, a cold war kid in McCarthy time

I Heard-I was born in '49, a cold war kid in the coffee time.


I thought he was saying coffee had been invented in the late 40's...

My parents had a record of traditional (I think) Greek music - no idea what the song really was but there was one I always believed the words were "a fairy a fairy..." sung over and over