How about some misheard lyrics?

That quote, whatever it was, was actually from "Material Girl."

 

That's what it was; however, how I heard it before I found out, was "R-E-S-P-E-C-T / Take care, see, see, see!"

 

10cc's Somewhere in Hollywood:
It's crazy, a dog up in Beverly Hills
Heard as:
It's crazy. I don't understand but it is.

On those times when I wasn't singing with it, I was sometimes aware that I must be wrong, but the wrong reading is so ingrained I still occasionally sing it today.

 

There were a lot of misconceptions when I first heard Michael Jackson's "Wannabe Startin Somethin", that's for sure! He did that nonsense sounds/words with lot with his song's lyrics.

 

At the time I was only beginning to be able to make out the words to songs in English without referring to a lyric sheet, I thought Glass Onion had John Lennon singing, "trying to make a cocktail joint". I enjoyed immensely what I thought was a really clever wordplay. I was bitterly disappointed to learn that the word he uttered was actually the considerably more mundane "dovetail". I really wish I hadn't found that out, I liked my misheard version infinitely better.

 

Billions, but some of mine seem better than what the real ones were!

Radiohead's unreleased songs that finally came out in the last year have good examples.

Lift, what I heard from boots... "a scent of recognition, a face you barely loved... Lighten up, square"
Actual lyrics: "the smell of air conditioning, the fish are belly up.. Lighten up, squirt"


True Love Waits: I had years thinking it was "and true love waits, it haunted all our days"

Real: "and true love waits in haunted attics"

 

I watched with glee while your Kings and Queens fought for tender cakes for the gods they made.

 

Led Zep, "Black Dog"

Actual lyric: "I don't know but I've been told, A big legged woman ain't got no soul."

What I heard: "...a middle-aged woman ain't got no soul."

Makes about as much sense in context, perhaps more.

 

Another Aretha 'Respect' one... I always thought it was "R-E-S-P-E-C-T, take out (the) TCP" as in this stuff:

 

Exactly what I heard

 

The other day You're So Vain came out of a corner of the room, and I wondered if I'd heard "Crowds in my coffee"?

 

No, it's "Clowns in my coffee" - everyone knows that!

 

Hearing a commercial using KC & The Sunshine Band's Keep It Coming Love reminded me that I used to think they were saying "Keep it Common-Law"....

 

This is just silly but a friend told me once that when he was little, he thought that instead of "I Would/Die For/You", Prince was singing "Apple/Dapple/Doo"

 

Whitney Houston 'How Will I Know'...

"Too shy, cat speak".

For years I didn't know what she was talking about with her 'cat speak'...!

 

In the 80s when it was a big hit song, I could've sworn the lyrics to "Here I Go Again" by Whitesnake were "Here I go again on my own, like a drifter I was born to wear cologne" but, alas I was sadly mistaken.

 

Not misheard....but to this day I cannot sing along to "Tales of brave Ulysses" without intoning "Her name is Aphrodite, and she wears a purple nightie". Childish I guess

 

In Elvis Costello's "Human Hands", I always heard "All you toy soldiers and scaremongers" as "All you toy soldiers and scam monkeys".

I welcome any interpretation of what "scam monkeys" might be, because I haven't a clue.

 

Here's a classic..

.................Kliph

 

Kd lang has "Constant Craving" always sounds like "Can't stand gravy" to me..

 

"Love Rollercoaster," Ohio Players:

"Gonna get Kojak"

 

I used to think the line. Hate or adore. On Jennifer Eccles by the hollies was. Hate on a door.

 

It's always sounded like that to me and still does to this day - but I knew that it couldn't be...

 

I wonder if anyone ever thought it was "Hey, toreador?" Maybe not.

 

When I was a little boy I didn't really know what Bossa Nova was, and I never bothered looking at the tracklist of my father's Elvis compilation. So 'til I was in my early teens, I thought the song "Bossa Nova Baby" went "Casanova! Casanova!", followed by that great organ line.