Friday, August 9, 2024

Misheard Lyrics


I read articles every so often about songs that people hear different words than are actually words in the song. Apparently it has become sort of a game to expose these misheard lyrics.

Probably the most famous of these is Louie Louie. It was written in 1955 as a Jamaican sea shanty. The main problem was that when The Kingsmen sang it they mangled the words. And to be fair there might be a naughty word in there.

Smells Like Teen Spirit by Nirvana is much the same as Louie Louie.

Back in the 50's there was a popular song called Teen Angel. One day when Mom was going to the post office she spotted a little girl sitting on the curb. At the top of her lungs she was singing, "Clean Angel."

On the TV show All In The Family Archie and Edith sat at the piano and sang. So many people wrote in that they could not understand a portion of the song they were singing that they had to record it again. The line was Gee our old LaSalle ran great.

The musical band I worked with accepted requests for music to play and sing. A good friend of mine had a request. She wanted to hear One Spit And Twice Shine. The actual song is Once Bitten Twice Shy.

My aunt swore that it was The Singing Num because nuns do not sing. We argued about that for days.

Imagine my shock when I was walking into the Laundromat to hear the song Where Were You When The Ship Hit The Sand. My dirty little mind heard Where Were You When The Shi* Hit The Fan.

I suppose we are all surprised at times. Has it happened to you?

6 comments:

  1. Dear Emma i so agree with you on that because i too sometimes miss the actual words of the song.the tune still catchy enough to echo in my head later for a while. I miss words when tunes are twisted and singer shifts from higher node to lower and it is hard to understand what are the words become victim of shifting time

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  2. You are so right, Emma, and years ago there was a hit song by a Japanese singer , but I can't recall the title, and that one was mangled by so many English-speaking folks.

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