Thursday, August 16

mondegreens

A mondegreen is the mishearing (usually accidental) of a phrase as a homophone or near-homophone in such a way that it acquires a new meaning. (wikipedia.org) This is a good word for me to add to my vocabulary since I am a notoriously guilty of perpetrating said act. Please comment if you can recall any of my more famous mistakes.

Everyone knows the classic mondegreen, "There's a bathroom on the right", but here are some lesser known examples that I found online (warning: do not read on a full bladder):

Elton John:
Wrong lyric: Hold me closer, Tony Danza
Right lyric: Hold me closer, tiny dancer

The Ramones:
Wrong lyric: I want a piece of bacon
Right lyric: I want to be sedated

Steve Winwood:
Wrong lyric: Bake me a pie of love
Right lyric: Bring me a higher love

Eddie Money:
Wrong lyric: I've got two chickens with parrot eyes
Right lyric: I've got two tickets to paradise

BTO:
Wrong lyric: Makin' carrot biscuits
Right lyric: Takin care of business

The Rolling Stones:
Wrong lyric: I'll never leave your pizza burnin
Right lyric: I'll never be your beast of burden

Four Tops:
Wrong lyric: Sugar fried honey butt
Right lyric: Sugar pie honey bunch

Smokey Robinson & The Miracles:
Wrong lyric: Stick your head in lotion
Right lyric: I second that emotion

3 comments:

Mike Websdale & Dani Price said...

I could never figure out why that Kiss song from the 70's went
I wanna rock'n'roll all night and part of every day.

something said...

Ha ha ha HA ha Ha.

Don't forget:

Slow-walkin' Walter, fire engine guy.

Real Deep Purple Lyric:
Smoke on the water, fire in the sky

Anonymous said...

Games without frontiers - Peter Gabriel

You know how it goes.. "If looks could kill, they probably will, In games without frontiers, war without tears." (repeat - then chorus) "She's so popular"

Wrong Lyric - "She's so popular."

Real Lyric - "Jeux sans frontieres."

**It's the song title in french... what the effe!?