What’s your favorite mondegreen?
Merriam-Webster’s holding a contest for the best “mondegreen.” What’s a mondegreen? Here:
The 2008 update of Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate® Dictionary, Eleventh Edition features a fresh crop of new words and phrases that have successfully become part of the mainstream English language through prolonged and widespread usage in a variety of publications. One of these new entries, mondegreen (”a word or phrase that results from a mishearing of something said or sung”) has delighted wordplay aficionados for years. Mondegreen was first coined by author Sylvia Wright in 1954 in Atlantic magazine, when she confessed to a childhood misinterpretation of the Scottish ballad “The Bonny Earl of Moray.” When she first heard the lyric “they had slain the Earl of Moray and had laid him on the green,” she felt terribly sorry for the “poor Lady Mondegreen.”
A few more examples:
The ants are my friends = the answer my friend/is blowin’ in the wind
Bob Dylan, “Blowin’ in the Wind”There’s a bathroom on the right = there’s a bad moon on the rise
Credence Clearwater Revival, “Bad Moon Rising”Hold me closer, Tony Danza = hold me closer, tiny dancer
Elton John, “Tiny Dancer”
I like “Lucy in the sky with Linus.”
See what others have said
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Considering my favorite band is a German Hard Rock band, I had plenty – just can’t think of them now that you ask.
You know, I can’t really think of any that I used to say. But I do agree with Lucy in the Sky with Linus! Somehow, the thought of Charlie Brown and LSD makes laugh. So diametrically opposite.
midsummers day = It’s a Mistake (Men@Work)
When I was but a wee lad, I thought the theme song to Austin City Limits–”London Homesick Blues“–included this line:
Actually it’s “Amarillo and Abilene”.
I had a chance to tell Gary P. Nunn about that. He just laughed and looked at me like, okay, you’re not too smart, are you?
I always liked the website kissthisguy.com which was named for a mishearing of Jimi Hendrix ‘Kiss The Sky’ = ‘Scuse me, while I kiss this guy’.
Oh, my favorite is definitely “Voices Carry” by Til Tuesday.
What I/you hear: “Hush hush, keep it down now. This is Kerry.” (or Carey, Kary, Kerri, et al)
The actual lyrics: “Hush hush, keep it down now. Voices carry.”
kool-aid for lunch = Too Late for Love (Def Leppard)
…. Stop the catbox?
And, of course, who can forget Jimi Hendrix’s “Purple Haze”:
“Excuse me, while I kiss this guy.”
v.
“Excuse me, while I kiss the sky.”
I always liked “Imagine whirled peas…”
My loony bun is fine, Benny Lava.
Your toilet gives right out!= You’re cornered, you cry out! (SOD)
Oh no. Now you’ve done it with the crazy indian video.
My daugther’s famous mondegreen as a child singing to the BeeGees:
standing in line = stayin’ alive
And sometimes, Hendrix almost really did kiss the guy:
http://www.kissthisguy.com/jimi.php
I remember singing in Sunday School:
Of course, it was “Jesus loves me, this I know”
I was never quite sure whether I really was a Sino or not.
“Hallelujah Christ! A Rose!”
I was wondering what that sound clip was at the beginning, and then I searched for the source, and sure enough, it was. THen I clicked on a related video, and watched this.
It was going to drive me nuts until I found out what that audio loop was. Now I’ve got this video in my mind. Gak, am I going to have some wierd dreams tonight. ( maybe Benny Hill being chased by the girls in the indian movie to the music of Yackety sax )
OK, I get it now. total recall
“The answer my friend
Is Ronald Reagan
The answer is Ronald Reagan” – Dylan
I once had a guy from Columbia that worked for me. His grandmother came to live with him, she spoke almost no english. She would walk around singing Dos Busters instead of Ghost busters. Cracked him up every time he told the story.
“There is a bomb in Gilead, to make the wounded whole.”
…but seriously. Joe Cocker singing A Little Help From My Friends at Woodstock is the Eldorado of mondegreens. Here it is, with subtitles.
Misheard song lyrics are innumerable. How about some that are applicable to a political blog.
niggardly misheard as, I don’t know what, but it upsets some people
opposing affirmative action misheard as racism
black person opposing affirmative action misheard as Uncle Tom
I’m sorry you can tell I don’t have a single politically-related one. Does anyone?
A TV show whose first scene always involves some misheard mondegreen could be the format of some incredibly nerdy new sitcom.
Not to say Michelle is nerdy or anything
I used to hear Jeux Sans Frontiers as “She’s so funky, oh” and, worse, once corrected someone on the point… d’oh.
I found this and it’s pretty funny:
Misheard Numa Numa Lyrics.
Woody Allen’s character in Annie Hall, thinking everyone hates Jews:
“You know, I was having lunch with some guys from NBC, so I said, ‘Did you eat yet or what?’ And Tom Christie said, ‘No, JEW?’ Not ‘Did you?’…JEW eat? JEW? You get it? JEW eat?”
from Led Zeppelin’s Stairway to Heaven. I know the correct lyric and it still sounds like the mondegreen is the correct one. I defy anyone to say otherwise:
A) “And if you listen very hard, the tune will come to you at last.”
B) “And if you listen very hard, a Jew will bother you a lot.”
I keep mishearing “surrender the country” as “hope and change”.
I keep mishearing “Republican” as “John McCain.”
:/
Dust In The Wind…by Kansas.
As a child, I used to think that:
sounded like:
You know that song Cult of Personality?
Toward the end he keeps repeating:
“I need to get some, I need to get some”
sounds like he’s saying:
I need a gumdrop, I need a gumdrop
The first one I can recall, on a 45 I ‘borrowed’ from my older sister:
Why don’t you Silvia, Silvia, Veronica baby = Why don’t you build me a, build me a, buttercup baby.
and who can forget the cult classic “Louie Louie” by the Kingsman?
I have another by the Lovin Spoonful “Summer in the City”.
Just can’t post them, cause this IS a family site.
Right Michelle?
John McCain’s favorite mondegreen?
“Jose, can you see….”
Donald Duck Racist?
I never told anyone this before, but in the late 80s, I thought that every song by Milli Vanilli sounded like barking dogs – telling me to pick up a double barreled shotgun and to put a hole through the speaker.
I can’t think of any other mondegreens than those above.
I do recall the late Congressman Lantos’ comment to General Petreaus
“let me tell you general, I dont buy it.” with his accent it sounded like
Bela Logosi saying, “I don’t bite.”
Cracked me up, anyway.
I thought this one was hilarious: fart in my duck
One of biggest mondegreens was from “Blinded by the Light”.
How could anybody who grew up in the 70’s forget those immortal lyrics….
“Blinded by the light, wrapped up like a douche, another ruler in the night”.
I forgot to mention: because of strong language, the video is NSFW and not for young kids who can read.
But the lyrics are actually about a “hole in my roof”.
My daughter at age five, listened to a sermon on the “bottomless pit” of hell and asked her dad why anybody would want a ‘bottle of spit’.
He almost had to leave church that day. Had a real case of the giggles.
My brothers infamous mondegreen was Exile: Kiss You All Over and at 8yo He thought the line was I Wanna Kiss You On The Lova and when singing it in the car would always glance at Mom expecting to be scolded for mentioning a female body part.
On July 7th, 2008 at 11:27 pm, see-dubya
Can’t believe you remember that,
been decades since I heard…
Coulda swore that was a JerryJeffWalker.
Viva Terlingua?
“Friendliest people and the prettiest women you ever scene.”
err… seen.
The Sunday School teacher asks little Johnny: “Johnny,I recognize almost everyone in the picture of the Nativity you’re drawing…the shepherds,the wise men,….but who is that little fat guy standing off to the side?…to which Johnny of course replied: “Why,teacher,that’s Round John Virgin.”
‘Only the Lonely’…by the Everly Brothers…for weeks I thought they were saying ‘Holy Baloney’
Harry Star (#38):
That’s the one I was trying to remember. It’s the “wrapped up like a douche” that gets me every time I hear it. Someone told me what the real words were a few years ago and I forgot. The guy seemed astonished as to how I got that out of the song. I don’t like the song enough to care what the real words are, but it’s on the radio all the time.
There are other songs like that that I’m not remembering. I know in a week or two I’ll hear one. Mondegreen — I’ll have to remember that. I’ll probably recall it as “Soylent Green.”
Childhood ditty:
“Asshole, asshole, a soldier boy was he.
He had, to piss, two pistols on his knee.”
A bit dated, the following stuck in my mind, from the Reader’s Digest:
Secretary: “The contractor estimated the cost with a sly drool.” (slide rule).
If DP’s are fair game, HappySlip has made a YouTube career out of happy slip=half slip.
Figures, I hit “Submit Comment” just as I remembered this one.
The other one I just remembered (whoa, that’s a dude?):
You spin me wry drown baby wry drown
like a wrecker baby wry drownrownrown…
Maybe it was “rye drum.” Or “why drown.” Or “white chrown.” Or “right rum.” Yeah, I don’t get it, either. I don’t often pay attention to lyrics.
The Sunday School teacher asked her class which song they wanted to sing next…and Johnny pipes up: “Let’s sing that song about the bear,teacher.”….puzzled,the teacher asked, “What bear is that Johnny?”…to which the boy replied,”You know,teacher…Gladly the crosseyed bear.”
There was another one from Elton John’s version of “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds”…..
The girl with kaleidoscope eyes = The girl with colitis goes by
I always found the Japanese translation to english funny site but don’t laugh to hard some of the kanji people wear in the U.S. does the same thing. I know it’s not mondegreen but it is still very funny.
is, of course
despite the reference to camel antics.
I’ve personally come to love…
“up yours crapweasel”
Who is God? God is the string bean who made all things. = Who is God? God is the supreme being who made all things.
The Baltimore Catechism
Olive, the other reindeer, used to laugh and call him names…
Most of the above are very good!
A friend thought “sunday, bloody sunday” was “someday, buddy, someday”.
I agree but peeved all the good ones I could think of , (well…ones out of the gutter that can be posted here
, were already taken. Doesn’t matter, you’re all jealous that the voices only talk to me.
Innagaddadavida – Iron Butterfly
In the Garden of Eden
When my son was a toddler, I was on a George Strait kick for a while. One day I heard him singing:
“Nobody in the right lane makes a left turn”
(Nobody in his right mind would have left her)
We still sing it his way.
Steve Miller Band’s “Jet Airliner”:
“Bingo Jed Had a Light On”
I spit beverage out my nose one day when my husband was singing You’re So Vain at the top of his lungs and came out with this…
…your scarfit was Africa…
(your scarf it was apricot)
He said he never could figure out what a scarfit was…we both sing it like this now!
On July 8th, 2008 at 12:29 am, Goldwater Knight said:
I found this and it’s pretty funny:
Misheard Numa Numa Lyrics.
Now, that was funny!
3-year old daughter’s rendition of “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star” = “Crinkle, crinkle, widdle car”.
We have a Serbian guy who lives near us and he is recently in the US and he apparently heard the expression “what’s up?” but didn’t quite get it and when he sees me he says “sup?”. I don’t have the heart to correct him.
I think whole song “Long Cool Woman in a Black Dress” is a mondergreen, because I can’t make out a single word that’s sung. I hear the word FBI once, and that’s all.
But if I have to pick one of my favorite mondergreens, it is “Saddle the line, it’s disco and wine” from “Hungry Like the Wolf.”
The line actually goes “Straddle the line, in discord and ryhme.”
Thing is, I was in grad school when that song came out. My wife’s a big Duran Duran fan and she told me the correct lyric. . .some 17 years later.
My wife still hassles me about this one of mine a decade later.
“Piggy Piggy Piggy can’t you see”
Actually, it should have been:
“Biggie Biggie Biggie can’t you see”
For those (like myself) not into Ntorious BIG, it comes from the “song” Hypnotize.
This one picks an old scab: “Whitey let Katrina happen” from “Why’d he let Katrina happen”. Ouch!
I’ve always thought that ad was epic fail because the line those morons couldn’t understand was THE NAME OF THE SONG! What, they couldn’t look at the display for a clue?
More entertaining is this video which subtitled a Japanese pop song with what the lyrics SOUND like they’re saying in English. (Note: A few coarse words are used.) “I’ll stagger thru the malted alley,” indeed.
Love me tender, love me true
All my dreams for Phil
“REPTILE DYSFUNCTION” = ERECTILE DYSFUNCTION
per my granchild and I keeping it that way!
God is great, God is good.
Lettuce Mayo for our food.
Amen
In 40 years of listening to Zeppelin and hanging out with people that listen to Zeppelin I’ve never known that lyric to be misunderstood that way.
And of course we could probaby do an entire thread just dedicated to Manfred Mann’s “Blinded by the Light”
That awful Whitesnake song from the late 80s – “Here I Go Again”
“…to walk along and know it’s three degrees.”
Is actually, “…to walk along a lonely street of dreams.”
Nobody has mentioned my favorites…
“Makin’ Carrot Biscuits…” (Taking care of Business)
and of course…
“The Girl with Colitus goes by…” …the girl with kalidoscope eyes…
And every Christmas I love to sing at the top of my lungs…
“Walk around in womens underware…”
Oops…didn’t see that one…
I prefer the lyrics I heard from most BeeGees songs, but my favorite is this one:
“…did you do it in your pants, your pants/ahh did you do it in your pants…you should be dancin’,yeah…”
(it is actually ‘whatcha doin on your back’) I think
Surprised that no one has come up with the song done by the group Suburban Lawns —
“Oh my genitals!” is actually “I’m a janitor!”
Nobody’s yet mentioned the infamous “the chair is not my son” mondegreen from Michael Jackson’s “Billie Jean”? (The line is actually “the kid is not my son.”)
Music video here (see 1:41).
From Pogo:
Deck us all with Boston Charlie,
Walla Walla, Wash., an’ Kalamazoo!
Nora’s freezin’ on the trolley,
Swaller dollar cauliflower alley-garoo!
Don’t we know archaic barrel,
Lullaby Lilla boy, Louisville Lou?
Trolley Molly don’t love Harold,
Boola boola Pensacoola hullabaloo!
Bark us all bow-wows of folly,
Polly wolly cracker n’ too-da-loo!
Hunky Dory’s pop is lolly gaggin’ on the wagon,
Willy, folly go through!
Donkey Bonny brays a carol,
Antelope Cantaloup, ‘lope with you!
Chollie’s collie barks at Barrow,
Harum scarum five alarum bung-a-loo!
A friend of a friend apparently always misheard “Kyrie Eleison” (the Mister Mister version) as “Carry a laser.”
My daughter was recently wondering when she was going to get “cleveland”…It took me about 5 minutes to stop laughing long enough to teach her the word clevage and tell her that she shouldn’t want to grow up so fast!
“Eyes without a face” (Billy Idol) became: “How’s about it, babe.”
And the Felix the Cat theme:
‘You’ll laugh so hard,
Your sides will ache,
your heart will go pit-a-pat,
watchin’ Felix, the wonderful cat.’
….became…
‘You’ll laugh so hard,
Your pies will bake,
your heart will go Peter Pan,
watchin’ Felix, the wonderful cat.’
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_kYXWUVf1c
Tom Petty ‘Don’t do me like that’
became:
‘Don’t turn my lights out”
‘Give up the funk’ (Parliament)
became:
‘Al Green he’s a punk’
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UypeE3zTwBs
“Our Father, who art in heaven, Howard be thy name.”
From a song by Kenny Rogers several years ago about Lucile [I don't know the actual title, sorry]
My daughters heard “You picked a fine time to leave me Lucile – four hundred children have dropped in the field …”
Actual “You picked a fine time to leave me Lucile – four hungry children and a crop in the field …”
From the last lines of “Baby You’re a Rich Man”:
“Baby, you’re a rich, fag Jew.” instead of “Baby, you’re a rich man too.”
The rumor was that John Lennon sang the former line, on the Magical Mystery Tour album, as he felt that Brian Epstein had cheated them.
I…
I…
tell them that it was a stranger.
=
why…
why…
tell them that it’s Human Nature
Michael Jackson/Human Nature (off Thriller I think)
Seems like almost every MJ song, that used to seem rather innoccous(sp?), now has new double entondra(sp?) translations.
“Eminence Front” = Emily’s Foot
“Let it Be” = Letter B
“Every time you go away, you take a piece of me with you” = Every time you go away, you take a piece of meat with you…
My mother used to hear these songs this way…
In my youth of the late 60’s I remember a song that said “Hold your head up” (can’t remember the name of the group, but I must have heard that song a thousand times before I realized they weren’t singing “Pull Your Head Out”.
My wifes aunt told me a about a neighbor child drawing a picture of the nativity with a big round guy standing on the side of the manger. When asked about it he replied “that’s Round John Virgin, from Silent Night”. Then he sings “Round John Viiirgin, Mother and Child”.
Cracks me up.
For the longest time I thought “dude looks like a lady” was “do the lucky lady”. I thought it was a groupie reference.
There’s one from Madonna’s “Vogue” I saw on AmIRight.com that cracked me up. Instead of “Ginger Rogers, dance on air” somebody thought it was “gingivitis, dance on air.”
Then there’s Wings’ “Jets” where someone actually thought instead of the refrain of “jets!” it was “s—!”
But my all-time favorite is the line from Kim Carnes’s “Bette Davis Eyes” that goes “all of the boys think she’s a spy.” When I was a kid, I thought she was singing, “All of the boys think she’s a spaz.”
Can you mondegreen yourself? I heard In-a-Gadda-da-Vida was really In the Garden of Eden but they were to wasted to pronounce it. Maybe true, maybe not.
“Jose can you see
By the dawn’s surly light . . .”
or
“With liver tea and justice for all.”
or
“Home, home on the range,
Where the dear little cantelope play,
Where seldom is heard
A discouraging bird,
And the flies are not crowded all day.”
And who could possibly forget Cheech Marin’s version of “My Sharona”?
P.S.
Hat tip to Walt Kelley and “Pogo” for the lyrics to “Home on the Range”. I believe it was Albert Alligator who so memorably mangled that song.
I just remembered one from when my other son was in about first grade. We had recently aquired a Beach Boys CD, and he was singing “my little loose tooth” to “My Little Deuce Coupe”. I guess you sing what you know.
Eddie Murphy SNL bit “Buckwheat Sings”
“TEE Tines ah Mady”
“Daby Dub”
She’s got a tick in her eye, and she don’t care!
Ticket to Ride – Beatles
My Baby Don’t Care
I used to get nervous in church when everyone else used to sing:
Tis a gift to be sinful, tis a gift to be free.
I was pretty sure God wouldn’t like that, so I kept my mouth shut. I also kept quiet when the congregation recited en masse:
I’m here oh Lord, now answer me!!!
Jingle Bells
What I heard….
Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle all the way, oh what fun it is to ride in a one horse SOAP and sleigh.
Should be OPEN sleigh.