Have you ever heard somebody sing some lyrics that you’ve never sung before, and you realize you’ve never sung the right words in that song? You hear them and all of a sudden you say to yourself, ‘Life in the Fast Lane?’ That’s what they’re saying right there? You think, ‘why have I been singing ‘wipe in the vaseline’…?
~ Ellen DeGeneres
Picture, if you will:
Mini-Feve. Eight years old. Holding a ‘mic’ (also known as an unsharpened pencil, rubber-tipped end up), belting out…
OLIVE IN THE STREET! THAT IS WHAT WE ARE…
(My apologies to Kenny and Dolly)
* * * * * * * * * *
Confessions, anyone? 😉
Oh how funny, I can just imagine that! 😀 …I KNOW I’ve done exactly this, but my memory fails me at this point. Will let it lie, see if anything pops up. “Islands in the Stream” will never be the same again…
I’ve managed to mangle a few tunes in my time. 😉
You should check out the Wikipedia article on ‘mondegreens.’ That’s the official name for misheard lyrics. A good article. Back in the 90s Gavin Edwards published a series of books that showed the funniest ones. The first book was called, ‘Scuse me while I kiss this guy.’
Haaa-ha-ha! Hendrix! 😀
Thanks for the suggestion. I’ll check it out. 🙂
Okay, *this* cracked me up:
QUOTE
“Blinded by the Light,” a cover of a Bruce Springsteen song by Manfred Mann’s Earth Band, contains what has been called “probably the most misheard lyric of all time”. The phrase “revved up like a deuce” (altered from Springsteen’s original “cut loose like a deuce”, both lyrics referring to the 1960s slang for a 1932 Ford coupé) is frequently misheard as “wrapped up like a douche”. Springsteen himself has joked about the controversy, claiming that it was not until Manfred Mann rewrote the song to be about a “feminine hygiene product” that the song became popular.
END QUOTE
Hey, Sometimes I think song writers purposely write lyrics that are totally unintelligible so that they can be misconstrued by their listeners 😉
Usually the vocalist is not the same person as the songwriter. Like in the example I pulled from the article The Varied God recommended: Springsteen wrote it, Manfred Mann made it popular.
Often, I think it’s a matter of poor elocution on the part of the vocalist(s). E-NUN-CI-ATE, people! Yeesh! 😉
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Actually schoolkids often mangle things, Art Linkletter capitalized on that with Kids say the darnedest things. “One nation, invisible…” I was a big Dr Demento fan for a lot of years too. Often I didn’t know the original song. My son took an immediate attraction to Dr D. When he was 14 I had him look up Lola because he liked Yoda so well. {plus at that age kids tend to be very homophobic, so it’s an eye opener.} I don’t think I know anybody that knows the words to “Cocaine” or “Louie Louie”.
The Alphabet Song: Ellemen-oh-pee!