Last week I used misheard lyrics to illustrated a point about God’s character and promises to us. Thanks to the magic of Google, we can now look up the words to any song if it’s meaning isn’t clear. But back in ye olden days of telephone cords and crimping irons, we only knew the real lyrics with confidence if we bought the cassette tape with the paper insert.
We couldn’t buy every single album of every song we liked. Even in the opulence of the 80’s we didn’t have that kind of cash. So we translated our music the best we could. When I polled my friends and family for their best misheard lyrics to make my point, I laughed until tears ran down my leg. I knew I had to share this sheer delight with you. So if you came looking for spiritual enlightenment today, I apologize for disappointing you. But if you could use belly laughs (and who can’t in our current climate), read on.
Not every musical error will jive with you, but I’ll provide links to help you find the songs you don’t know. The funniest ones are the songs you know well. And in an effort to be a little spiritual, I’ve divided them into two categories – 1. hymns/ praise music and 2. everything else. Enjoy.
Hymns/ Praise Music
- I have a feeling there are other kids raised on the Baptist Hymnal that feel me on this one. The song: There is a Balm in Gilead. Well, I didn’t know how a bomb was going to “heal the sin sick soul”, but I swore that’s what we sang. Even if you know the song you may want to click the link and hear the great Mahalia Jackson belt it out.
- One of my high school church choir directors submitted “What a Friend We Have in Cheeses”. I am glad the friend is actually Jesus because I love cheese a whole lot more than it loves me.
- Someone shared with me on FB that she always thought the praise song God is on the Move said that He was on the roof. Well, the Bible tells us he’s everywhere…
- A neighbor told me when the prolific Amy Grant sang “Stand up and sing one more hallelujah”, he always heard, “Come on and sing Wilma hallelujah”. He claims to have even rewound and listened to it over and over again! Maybe Mrs. Flintstone was into the praise and worship genre? I wouldn’t blame her. We wore that song out at our house.
Everything Else
- Will Smith’s funky dance anthem, Gettin’ Jiggy Wit It becomes a completely different kind of dance as “Kick a Chicken With It”.
- Speaking of kicking, let’s kick it way back to 1965, with Herman’s Hermits singing A Must to Avoid. Must husband’s sweet aunt Barbara thought the line, “She’s a must to avoid” was “She’s a muscular boy”. In either case, I would stay away.
- A co-worker always sang Sade’s Smooth Operator as “Sue Barbarado”. Admit it. If you know that song, you just sang those words.
- To a former aerobics student of mine, ACDC’s Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap got a gentler, kinder makeover with “Dirty knees in my dungarees”.
- My childhood neighbor brought a more recent tune to play. Attention by Charlie Puth starts with “You’ve been running ’round, running ’round running ’round, throwing that dirt all on my name”. But she heard, “throwing that turtle on my knee”. Poor turtle.
- A fellow mom from my daughter’s school thought Janet Jackson wanted to take her on an ice capade instead of Escapade.
- Billy Idol’s (somewhat creepy in my opinion) Eyes Without a Face sounded more like “How’s about a date?” to one online friend.
- Adele’s Chasing Pavements sounds a lot more fun as “Chasing Penguins”.
- Hall and Oates sang about a brutal woman in Maneater. I’m not sure what’s worse, if she ripped my “world apart” or ripped my “butt apart”.
- Green Day’s When I Come Around begged, “I’ve heard it all before, so don’t knock down my door.” “Sell donuts at my door” sounds a little sweeter (get it?).
- There are lots of misunderstood words in Nirvana’s Smells Like Teen Spirit, but my favorite might be “Here we are now, in containers” for the actual, “Here we are now, entertain us”.
- The Eurythmics told us, “Sweet dreams are made of this”, but one friend’s dreams were made of cheese! I have to admit I may have dreamed of cheese a time or two.
- As youngster, I liked the theme song for The Golden Girls. The sentiment of ride or die friendship resonated with me until the part that said, “And the heart attack would say, ‘Thank you for being a friend.'” A card with that message makes more sense.
- In the early, early 80’s Foreigner sang about love being “Urgent“. A girlfriend of mine thought they said “virgin”. And crazy enough, I don’t think this substitution changes the meaning of the song!
- 10 years later, R.E.M. sang about losing religion with the chorus, “That’s me in the corner. That’s me in the spotlight.” An online friend mistakenly heard, “Let’s pee in the corner. Let’s pee in the spotlight.” If you pee in a spotlight, I might lose my religion!
I have many more, but I might need to go change my pants. So I think I’ll save them for another post. But let’s keep the laughter going. Do you have a mistaken lyric to share with us? Drop it in the comments below.
And now for this week’s featured post from the link up!
My consequence is sleepless nights. Hers was headaches. I want to share from Barb at mylifeinourfathersworld.com because I don’t believe we are the only ones suffering physical symptoms from lack of peace and trust in God. Read Under Pressure and let it encourage you.
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Wow, thank you for featuring me this week! 😊
AND
I really needed the laughs this morning as my week has had the crazy knob turned WAY up!! 😅
We must have been living in the same week, Barb! And it’s my pleasure to share your post.
Love all these! Thank you for the smile today.
Thanks for smiling with me, Lynn!
These are so funny! I am sure I’ve misheard some, but I can’t think of them off the top of my head. If I remember any, I’ll come back and share.
My biggest misheard moment occurred in a conversation with my then boyfriend, now husband, when we were dating. He was a physics major, and he mentioned a course he was taking called x-ray diffraction. I had never heard that term, but it sounded to me like he was saying *-rated for action (trying to disguise it so I don’t get dinged as spam). But we went to a Christian college, so I knew that couldn’t be what he was saying. Finally I got the course catalog out back in my room and looked up physics major’s requirements so I could figure out what he was saying. After we had been dating for a long time, I told him about my mishearing. 🙂
That is so funny, Barbara! Thanks for sharing.
These made me laugh! I do use google a lot to look up words for songs when I think I’ve misheard or I’m not sure of the lyrics! There’s a popular worship song that played on the radio for a little bit here, I cannot remember the name of the song or band, and it sounded like they said some bad words in the middle of it! I had to goggle it to see what I was actually hearing – I made sure to sign along a lot louder and clearer whenever it came on after that, didn’t want my boys trying to sing what it sounded like rather than what it actually was, ha!
Oh my! That is funny!
Love this list that truly made me laugh out loud, Lauren! Thanks for this fun break from all the seriousness of this week.
I’m so glad it made you laugh. I have had so much fun putting it together!
The misheard hymn/praise music were so funny. Thanks for sharing, Lauren!
When our children were young, we use to play a Bible cassette tape for them as they went to sleep. The first couple of nights, my oldest daughter (age 3 or 4) would bust out laughing. Upon further questioning, she thought one of the names in the genealogies of Jesus was Nachos. She thought having food in His genealogy was hilarious.
Ha! I love this almost as much as I love nachos!
This list is hilarious! My husband and I laugh about words we got wrong. There are so many that we don’t know.
https://www.kathrineeldridge.com
It really is funny when you start remembering. Thanks for playing along!
I love this! It’s fun to laugh together while we remember or realize how we have misheard lyrics. 😂
Thank you, Amanda. I’ve had so much fun with it.
So funny! I have the hardest time hearing lyrics to songs, I often have to look them up to truly grasp the meaning. But I remember the old days of looking at album covers and cassette/cd inserts too.
As Edith Bunker would sing, “Those were the days!”
Hilarious! It reminds me of the book “A Monk Swimming” by Malachy McCourt. After his brother’s book “Angela’s Ashes” came out, Malachy McCourt wrote his own memoire. The title came from their Catholic upbringing. As a child hearing the “Hail Mary,” he thought the words “Blessed art thou amongst women” were “blessed at thou a monk swimming” and wondered what that had to do with anything!
I have never heard of this book but that is funny!
Hilarious! One more for you- In the Jimmy Buffet song Margaritaville he says he’s “searchin’ for my lost shaker of salt” she sang (for 20 years I might add) “searchin’ for my lost chigger saw.” She didn’t know what a chigger saw was but she sang it proud. As I got to be a teen, I listened to her closer, and asked her what the heck she was saying?! She told me and I said, “Mom! It’s searchin’ for my lost shaker of salt! You know, like the rim of salt on a margarita!” We still laugh. I think she learned it her way better because she’ll still sing it that way sometimes!
Hey, I have wanted to go after chiggers with a saw – or anything else I could get my hands on! Thanks so much for sharing another laugh with us!
I thought I typed my mom in the above comment! To clear it up, my mom was the singer searching for her lost chigger saw.
I think kids are the #1 source of misheard lyrics. But moms might be second!
This post is hilarious! Thank you for sharing!
So glad you had fun with it, Carrie. More coming on Friday!
Lauren, I am all too familiar with the tears running down my leg! Thanks so much for the laughs. This is a fabulous post! And we definitely can all use a good ole belly laugh every now and then. It is good for the soul and one of the best blessings on earth!
Shelbee
http://www.shelbeeontheedge.com
I’m so glad you had fun with it. It was so much fun to put together. More coming this Friday!
Oh my–those are hilarious! Now I don’t feel so silly about my wrong lyrics. Every time I access lyrics easily, I feel so thankful because, yes, I remember the days of having to buy the cassette for the paper insert. Young people these days just don’t know how good they have it!
I agree! Glad you enjoyed it, Amy.
I enjoyed reading these! One that sticks out in my head and I even know better but still hear it wrong is Manfred Mann’s song Blinded by the Light where it says “blinded by the light, revved up like a deuce…” What I hear is “blinded by the light, wrapped up like a douche…” Then there’s the joke about the little boy who said God’s first name was Howard. He goes on to explain that it even says it in a prayer: “Our Father who art in Heaven, Howard be thy name…”
Both of those are great! Thanks for playing along!
These are so hilarious! I have misheard some of these myself! Thanks for the laughter and for sharing at Thursday Favorite Things!
Thank you, Pam! I had fun putting the lists together.
This is really informative idea about the misheard lyrics and grace thanks sharing this article
Thanks for visiting my piece of the interwebs, Tom.
Wow this is amazing and help us information about the lyrics and grace and truth thanks sharing this article
You’re welcome.
This is great information about the misheard lyrics and grace and truth thanks sharing this article