Way back before Facebook, Google search, Siri, and Alexa, people used to call radio stations – in droves. It was not uncommon to see multi-line phones in the air studio rhythmically flashing in-sync, all with someone on the other end, often with a question.
“Can you play some Fleetwood Mac?”
“Is there an opening act for the Romantics tonight?
“Am I the 9th caller?”
“Do you know if the Plymouth Salem schools are closed today?
“I was driving and didn’t catch it – what was that really cool song you were playing about an hour ago?”
“I am so bummed out tonight.”
“When do Stones tickets go on sale?”
“Is it s’posed to rain later today?
“Is this the DJ?”
Some of my favorites are when the caller knows a piece of a lyric and/or a bit of the melody to a song they’re trying to identify or remember. That’s when the jock on the other end of the phone got to play Sherlock Holmes, trying to figure out the artist and title.
In the process, you hear some incredibly weird lyrical interpretations from callers that have to be translated to the actual title. And that’s where our imperfect brains kick in to try to hear precisely what a singer is actually playing.
If this seems like an absurdity in our technologically advanced time, it’s really no different than watching an 80’s movie where our hero can’t find a pay phone or the correct change to make a call. Yes, there were no iPhones when “Beverly Hills Cop” or the original “Top Gun” was made.
Some artists were helpful, providing their lyrics on the album sleeve or even the back cover. But there was no standard. And as a result, no official way to truly know
the correct lyrics to many songs. Back when an artist like Joe Cocker (pictured) – who notably slurred his words – was climbing the charts, nailing the actual lyrics was often like a linguistic challenge and a topic of debate around dinner tables.
Today, most of us reach for our phones where the answer is readily available – Shazam identifies artist and title without a problem within earshot of the song.
Wondering about the chorus on that new Inhaler song? Google the lyrics.
All within the sound of your own voice or the tapping of your digits on a keyboard.
But it wasn’t always this way. Regular folks (yes, us!) would hear a song on the radio, our brains would come up with a reasonable interpretation, and those odd, incorrect lyrics could stay with us for a lifetime.
That line in Jimi’s “Purple Haze” was often weirdly translated into “S’cuse me while I kiss this guy.” Or CCR’s theme in “Bad Moon Rising” often got botched into “There’s a bathroom on the right.” (Yes, my favorite.)
Now, a new research study by the WordFinder team attempts to sort out song lyric confusion, creating a bizarro Casey Kasem list of the most “misheard” songs in history. In a sample of more than 1,000 Americans, respondents heard a song hook and were asked to choose the correct lyrics among four different options.
By the way, I’ll have the most “mis-heard song” coming up in just a minute.
Yes, there are apparent flies in the ointment. When was the study done? How did they come up with that list of songs they tested? And having four preset choices perhaps isn’t the most conclusive or most accurate way to determine right from wrong.
But let’s not get bogged down by the gory details. This is the fun side of research (yes, there is such a thing), the stuff that triggers lame morning show bits. In fact, back in the day, morning shows ran games like “Say What?” where the jock played one of those unintelligible lines from a song with garbled lyrics, digging for the correct answer. Pre-Internet search, it was actually lots of fun.
It turns out there’s an actual name for this phenomenon: mondegreen
It’s the act of mishearing a song’s lyrics, coming up with something else that’s totally wrong, and adopting that misinterpretation as the real deal.
The WordFinder study clears the air in many areas, but unfortunately also raises some questions, too. For example, we learn the following:
- 61% of us report inaccurate lyrics on Spotify
- Young Thug and Mick Jagger are the hardest-to-understand artists
- Nearly nine in ten Gen Zs say mis-heard lyrics often alter the meaning of songs for them.
- Men are more likely to have incorrectly heard a song verse that changed a song’s meaning.
That #1 most mis-heard song. I’ve got that for you next.
Oddly enough, the kicker is that nearly seven in ten of us (69%) actually prefer our “mondegreen” to the original – and correct – lyrics.
To perhaps no one’s surprise, it is EDM fans most apt to prefer their own version of a song’s lyrics than the musician’s actual lyrics. Rockers, on the other hand, are the group most likely to be sticklers about the original.
So, that #1 “mondegreen” of all time, the song most often misheard by music listeners:
“Enter Sandman” by Metallica
Apparently, “Exit light, enter night” often got mashed up into “Eggs and light, end all nights.” The study has no footnotes or crosstabulations but I’d be willing to bet those EDM lovers are ahead of the pack here, likely filling out the survey after participating in an extended rave.
Meantime, check out the rest of the top 10 (pictured) and click here to see the entire story, complete with generational breakouts.
There are some songs that absolutely belong on the top 40 of mondegreens. It’s no surprise to see Will Smith’s “Gettin’ Jiggy Wit It” (yes, that’s the correct title). On the other hand right above it, there’s Billy Joel’s “Piano Man.”
If you’re getting those lyrics wrong, you’ve obviously been spending too much time sitting with that old man makin’ love to his tonic and gin. Or Davy who’s still in the Navy.
So, what’s your pleasure?
What’s your favorite mondegreen? And how long did it take you to figure out your lame interpretation was off-base?
That’s why there’s a “comments” section below, or hit my Facebook or Twitter pages. Maybe the radio version of mondegreens will prove to be more interesting that this WordFinders’ research.
And as John Fogarty famous said, “There’s a bathroom on the right.”
Jacobs Media has consistently walked the walk in the digital space, providing insights and guidance through its well-read national Techsurveys.
In 2008, jacapps was launched - a mobile apps company that has designed and built more than 1,300 apps for both the Apple and Android platforms. In 2013, the DASH Conference was created - a mashup of radio and automotive, designed to foster better understanding of the "connected car" and its impact.
Along with providing the creative and intellectual direction for the company, Fred consults many of Jacobs Media's commercial and public radio clients, in addition to media brands looking to thrive in the rapidly changing tech environment.
Fred was inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame in 2018.
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I was so disappointed when I discovered the last line in V1 of “Ramblin’ Man” by the Allman Brothers wasn’t “I was born in the back seat of a RAMBLER rollin’ down Highway 41.”
Painful, right?
THE WAY WE WERE
Misheard: “We’re just two f**kers”
Real: “We just choose to forget”
PHILADELPHIA FREEDOM
Misheard: “gave me piece of mama, Daddy never had”
Real: “gave me peace of mind my Daddy never had”
You’re Just a Fire Monkey
“There’s A Bathroom On The Right” was the exact perfect title for this article. I’ll confess ONE of my misheard lyrics. And it’s actually from one of my favorite songs: “Dreams” by Fleetwood Mac. “When the rainbow sheds your green you’ll go”. Yes, I did feel like an idiot when I discovered the actual lyrics. And to this day, sometimes my mind will wander back to the ones I made up, despite having actually met and discussed this with Ms. Nicks herself in person at KOSI-FM in Denver back in 2000. (She was actually amused by it.) This was a fun article guys, and I appreciate it. I’m a 35 year radio vet… now doing meteorology for radio and internet where I’m not allowed to get the forecasts wrong, unlike song lyrics.
Thanks for the comment, Steve.
As a I kid, I never was quite sure what the Left Banke was saying in one line in the song “Walk Away Renee.”
When I heard the Four Tops cover, I was sure:
“Just walk away, Renee, you won’t see me by the Union Hall.”
“I feel her breasts in my face, her body close to me. Can’t look in her eyes, she stands 6-3.
She passes wind.”
I’m still trying to figure out the lyrics to all of Bob Dylan’s songs
Great post, Fred…… I remember those days….. Dressed up like a douche and a runner in the night……..
I always thought it was “wrapped up like a douche” haha
My experience says THIS is the number one most misheard lyric! I actually just heard someone say this a few days ago–a year shy of the song’s golden anniversary. That’s when you know your misheard lyric has staying power–when people are still botching it a half-century later!
Thank you, Manfred Mann.
If it is sometimes difficult for you, who speak English as a native language, to understand the lyrics of the songs, imagine how difficult it can be for those who do not speak it.
Many people call stations in Latin American countries asking for their favorite songs, but since they don’t know English they ask for them with their own translations.
This video represents our day-to-day situation and is really funny, although you have to know some Spanish to understand it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Huh3bbX8Px0
Hysterical, Tito! “Playstation – CD ROM”! And I love that the video starts with a guy in his car showing a radio with buttons, knobs and a CD player! I suddenly DON’T feel like I have the oldest car on the road! Thanks, friend!
The English speaking aspect is a good point, Tito. But as a number of people have already noted, it is questionable as to whether Dylan, Plant, Cocker and others were actually speaking English!
LOL…!!
By the way, did you ever understand The Kingsmen’s “Louie Louie”…?
For a non native English speaker it’s impossible to understand…
The story was that the Kingsmen recorded the song while drunk. Actually in retrospect, it was a brilliant move. I remember everybody buzzing about the song in junior high school.
It’s 1967, you’ve just gotten your big break on Argentine Banstand, and you bluff your way through the English lyrics of “A Well Rrespected Man”. “It’s oh so girl, and it’s oh so mine, and it’s something something never mind” https://youtu.be/GVixBrUnfWE
One I’ve never heard anywhere else, I was working Sunday morning at a local station in my home town during when Life in the Fast Lane was on the charts and a kid called up on the request line and wanted to hear Life In the Bass Lake.
Again, those crazy listeners.
Oh those request lines!
My late husband was famous for misunderstanding lyrics. The biggest one: ‘bald-headed woman, bald-headed woman for me’ for the Bee Gee’s ‘More than a Woman’.
My high school friend Stewart heard “my mama boohoo hooed it” into your mama blew a hoovie. He also thought Paperback Writer was a car spot and heard it as Paid for that Chrysler.
I worked on a country station for a short while. My brother would listen and he thought “Dust On The Bottle” was “Dust on the Bible.”
“Loser” by Beck. I always sing “Soaring over Canada” instead of “Soy un perdedor”
I have had so many over the years, it has sometimes taken me decades to actually hear the correct lyric. Can’t choose just one … they have become a blur in my memory.
But your recollection of listeners trying to request songs based on a lyric which they thought was the song title reminded me of, when I was doing afternoons on a CHR in 1984, listeners constantly calling in to request “This Gun’s For Hire”. It wasn’t until I had the air monitor turned up for a song of two (we all remember how we’d turn it down to avoid personal burnout on currents) that I heard the lyric in context and realized they were requesting Bruce Springsteen’s “Dancing In The Dark”.
I had to wonder after that how few of the listeners also had MTV, because every video was captioned with artist/title/label at the beginning and end.
I bet Courtney Cox knew the correct title …
Some of the listener mondegreens were priceless. Amazing how they heard different hooks than the artist intended. Thanks, K.M.
When I was a kid, I thought the line in Led Zep’s “Good Times Bad Times” was “When my girl left home with a one-eyed man.”
Led Zep could end up being the band with the most mondegreens.
There are so many… “Ain’t No Woman Like a One-Eyed Cop” (“…One I Got”), “The Cat Just Peed in the Henhouse” (Goodbye Yellow Brick Road), “Fish Are Gonna Poop in My Bed” (Who’s Zoomin’ Who), and the one I’ve known the longest, “Mrs Brown You’ve Got an Ugly Daughter”.
I chalk it up to the limitations of AM radio and the crapola speaker on the one I own, where I originally heard a great deal of these tunes.
Alan, Peter Noone would not be happy if he knew this is how his big hit stayed in your head.
To this day, despite knowing the correct lyric is “Highway to the Danger Zone,” I will forever hear it as “I went to the Danger Zone” which my headcanon affirms makes it a better song. It makes Kenny Loggins more of a weary foreboder; he’s been to said zone, and knows of the danger it brings.
I’ve always thought of Kenny Loggins as a bold adventurer.
Hi,
Fun post today!
I still don’t know on Fat Boy’s Slim Right about Now song. I still hear both:
Right about now, the Funk Soul Brother and Right about now the Funks so Rubber. And of course, Taylor Swift and Starbucks Lover. I always hear it as Starbucks Lover.
My guitar teacher used to say: Welcome to the Hotel California, Its a lovely place if you can find a parking space, I remember that from the late 1970’s.
Those mondegreens stay in your head!
Such a fun post with so many great comments. I especially love the Bee Gees, “bald-headed woman, bald-headed woman for me” and The Eagle’s new single celebrating the great outdoors, “Life in the bass lake.”
As for Hendrix misheard lyric from Purple Haze, he had to go with “kiss this guy” because Herb Albert took the correct line and misapplied it to “This Guy’s in Love with You,” which I always heard as, “You see the sky? The sky’s in love with you.” And honest-to-goodness, I really thought that was the right line! I thought he was saying even the “sky” couldn’t help falling in love with this mesmerizing woman.
For me, Zeppelin’s “Whole Lotta Love” inexplicably started off with “You need Kool-Aid, baby I’m not Kool-Aid.”
And then there’s my friend who wasn’t sure why Toto’s trip to Africa included the line, “There’s nothing that a hundred men on Mars could ever do.”
You can’t make this stuff up. Truth is funnier than fiction.
I love the “Whole Lotta Love” mondegreen!
It wasn’t Coolant?
Not misheard…but a misunderstood lyric: Someone (younger than me) asked what the lyrics in “Piano Man” mean when Billy Joel sings: “And they sit at the bar and put bread in my jar…” I guess you have to be a musician–or someone who’s spent a lot of time drinking at piano bars–to know what he’s talking about.
Will the mondegreens ever end ? I hope not. And the laughs just keep on crumbin’.
Fred, Young Thug is a solo act, not a group called Young Thugs. Still can’t figure out why Camilla Cabello left her heart in Havana for this guy. Ooh na na.
Thanks for setting me straight. I DID know that Mick Jagger is not a band.
The mondegreen that stung, though, was around the time the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame chose a city in northeast Ohio for its headquarters rather than my home town S.F., whose own Huey Lewis & the News apparently were celebrating the choice: “The hear of rock and roll is in Cleveland…”
Great one, John.
Always loved the loose “translation“ of Joe Cocker’s lyrics from Woodstock’s “With A Little Help From My Friends” (you can find this on YouTube). It’s hilarious!