Commonly Misheard Lyrics, or Mondegreens

If you enjoy music as much as I do, you probably catch yourself singing along. Without even knowing it, you may singing the wrong lyrics. Song lyrics are commonly confused, whether the songwriter uses words that are not in our common vocabularies or the singer forgets to enunciate. The misunderstanding of a phrase or lyric, or mondegreen1¹, often brings about amusing interpretations. Listed below are some of the common lyrics I have mistakenly heard/sung wrong, along with well-known songs that have misheard lyrics.

Additionally, you can visit this website, The Archive of Misheard Lyrics (http://kissthisguy.com), if you want to see a list of commonly mistaken lyrics or to look up a particular song. It's a hilarious site.

Bop-erannn

When I was little and heard the song, "Barbara Ann," (cover version by The Beach Boys), I always thought they were singing something along the lines of "Bop-erannn." I sang it wrong for years until someone finally told me they were singing a person's name, Barbara Ann. If you ask me, it still doesn't sound like they're singing real words, especially not a name, but the song is fun all the same.

Cross-eyed Bear

When Alanis Morissette came out with her album titled, "Jagged Little Pill" in the '90s, I was in middle school and hung out at my best friend's house a lot. When we listened to "You Oughta Know," we always thought she sang something about a "cross-eyed bear" when really, she was singing, "cross I bear." As a kid, I didn't know much about bearing crosses, at least not in any non-religious sense, so I thought I had a legitimate misunderstanding of the lyrics. Once my friend and I found out what the lyrics actually were, we still continued to sing "cross-eyed bear" because it was funnier.

The Bushes

There is a song by Static X called, "Push It." It is a heavy, loud, fast song that is great for working out in a weight room. When I was in high school, some of my guy friends who were on the football team were listening to this song in the weight room when one of the coaches, a middle-aged guy, started singing along. But instead of singing, "push it," he was singing, "the bushes." If you hear the song, you'll understand. I thought it was hilarious. I told my husband this story and now every time we hear "Push It" we sing about "The Bushes" instead.

Kiss this Guy

Probably one of the most commonly and famously misheard lyrics of all time is from the Jimi Hendrix song, "Purple Haze." In the song, Jimi sings, "Scuse me, while I kiss the sky." The most commonly misheard line is, "Scuse me, while I kiss this guy."

There's a Bathroom on the Right

Another one of my favorite misheard lyrics is from the Creedence Clearwater Revival song, "Bad Moon Rising." In the song, they sing about "a bad moon on the rise." The most common misheard version of the lyric is, "There's a bathroom on the right." Not only do I think that's hilarious, but I checked out a Wikipedia article¹ about the song and found out that John Fogerty actually substitutes the bathroom line sometimes as a joke.

There is quite an abundant list of misheard lyrics that are amusing to learn about. As a final note, I want to pose a question to you: What song lyrics have you either sung incorrectly yourself or heard others singing incorrectly?

Sources Consulted

¹ Mondegreenn."Wikipediaa

Retrieved on: 24 July 24, 2009

Last Updated: 24 July 2009

² "Bad Moon Rising"Wikipediaa

Retrieved on: 24 July 2009

Last Updated: 18 July 2009