As the Ramones so memorably didn’t sing, “Twenty-twenty-twenty-four hours to go…I want a piece of bacon.” Substitute ham, and you’ve got yourself Collective Cadenza’s History of Misheard Lyrics, Opus No. 13. The classically trained performers are nothing if not game. The visual aids are ridiculously on message. The goal? A one-take musical compendium of pop’s most commonly misapprehended phrases. (Prior projects include subjecting “What a Wonderful World” to sixteen musical genres and a lovely History of Lyrics That Aren’t Lyrics.)
With all the current debate over the real world worthiness of expensive college educations, it’s reassuring to see recent Julliard grads helping themselves to the crown once sported by Mr. Jaws and Dr. Demento.
And now, readers, it’s your turn to shake it like a polar bear ninja. Was your favorite aural fail acknowledged above? Or will you be using the space below to demand its inclusion in a follow up?
In 2Pac’s California Love, I always thought “California… knows how to party” was “California… no doubt about it”.
Of course I eventually learned that Chaka Khan was not singing “Climb Every Woman”.
Billy Jean. “Billy Jean is not my lover but the chair is not my size.”
Brick House was the most disgusting song. “Sho’ nuff her knockers fall clear to her knees.” GRRROSSSS!
What Jerry Garcia actually sang in the Grateful Dead song “Mississippi Half-Step Uptown Toodeloo” was “Get yourself a powder charge, seal that silver mine.”
I heard “Get yourself a pound of chocolate.” I didn’t know how you could seal a mine with that, but it sounded like the typical Jerry diet, so I just went with it.
“Bessie says you oughta know that Sweet Sue can share”. (Precious and few are the moments we two can share.)
And the reference in the clip reminded me that I thought, when I first heard it, that “More Than a Woman” was “Four-Letter Woman”…
My sister always sang “But I’m only a cross-eyed octopus” instead of cockeyed optimist.
My own mondegreen came from thinking that Herman’s Hermits sang “She’s a muscular boy. A complete impossibility.”
Gotta have Hendrix, ” ‘scuse me while I kiss this guy”
Ain’t no Hall-of-Fat girl …
I didn’t actually think those were the lyrics. I just couldn’t work out what she was really saying.
Grim poodle basher — Brimful of Asha
The Clash: “Rock the cash bar”
Michael Jackson (Billie Jean): “But the chair is not my son.”
“Let’s drink pop!” — The Ramones, “Blitzkrieg Bop”
Childhood me before knowing what a Margarita was … “Looking for my lost chain saw.”
My Swedish girlfriend’s daughter sings Nick Cave’s “sweet dot com”
My friend mistook “Lord I was born a ramblin’ man” for “Lord, I was born and raised in Maine.”
I mistook Blind Melon’s no Rain “you know I like to keep my cheeks dry today” for “you know I like to keep my chi inside of me”
Odyssey’s Lillian Lopez’ Native New Yorker wistfully wonders “…And oh, where did all those yesterdays go (yesterdays go)
When you still believed love could really be like a Broadway show (like a
Broadway show) You were the star, when did it close?”
I took the last line as, “You were the star, without any clothes…”
Friend thought Eric Claption’s “Forever Man” was “Four-Letter Man”
Friend thought Eric Clapton’s “Forever Man” was “Four-Letter Man”
My sister used to love singing about the cross-eyed bear in church when she was little (The cross I’d bear)
“Goin’ to the chapel, Leonard. Gonna get married.”
Thought the guy was carrying a “Hefty bag of homefries ah, ah, ah, ah ah,ah love” in Train’s Drive By.