Weird History Readers Share Song Lyrics They Got Wrong For Years And We're 'Hear' For It
Vote up the “wrong” lyrics that might actually sound better than the originals.
You're cruisin' along, listening to music, and one of your favorite tunes comes on - of course, you sing along! But there might be some lyrics that you don't quite understand, so you go with what you hear.
It's only years later that you learn you've been wrong all along.
At that point, you have a few options. You can shift to the original lyrics or keep going with your own. When we asked Weird History readers about their own misheard lyrics, there was a mix on which of these paths they chose. We don't blame them, either. The swaps they made for the passages they've been getting wrong for years are pretty funny and, at times, brilliant.
We gathered some lyrics that have proven to be challenging - ones we've been getting wrong, too. We're considering going with these versions, though - what about you?
- Video: YouTube
16,523 VOTESI was singing “I miss the rains down in Africa” when it’s actually “I bless the rains down in Africa.” It’s easier to hear in the newer version [of] the song.
I have always sung it as “I guess it rains down in Africa.”
And Jaime was shocked:
What!!?? That is my favorite song and I am just learning that it isn’t I miss the rains down in Africa!
- Video: YouTube
22,940 VOTESBlinded by the light lol! You know what I mean.
[Editorial Note: He was referring to a misunderstanding of the word “deuce” - many people heard “douche.”]
I've always thought it was “dressed up like a demon in the middle of the night.” I have no idea what it really says!
Sanna provided the correct lyrics:
"Blinded by the light, Revved up like a Deuce, another runner in the night."
- Video: YouTube
33,361 VOTES“Bad Moon on the Rise...” I got the first line ok but thought the 2nd time was “There's a Bathroom on the Right...” for some reason.
[F]un fact: after John Fogerty heard about that common misheard lyric, he started singing it that way in concerts.
[Editorial Note: This is true!]
I always sang “Baboon on the rice!”
- Video: YouTube
42,013 VOTESIn "Lady Marmalade," I always thought "Living his grey flannel life" was really “digging a grave while alive.”
The lyric right before this is "Now he's at home doing nine to five," I thought now that he's home, the daily grind feels like he's just waiting to die in comparison to the adventure he just had with Lady Marmalade. He'll never have it so good again. I like my lyrics better, so that's how I sing it. Which version seems better too you, A or B?
A. Now he's at home doing nine to five
Living his grey flannel life
B. Now he's at home doing nine to five
Digging a grave while alive
- Video: YouTube
52,796 VOTESNot me but my granddaughter when she was four… she would sing "Put another dime in the juice box.” [N]one of my grandkids knows what a jukebox is.
- Video: YouTube
62,388 VOTESOh, I have a good one. My mom had a friend that always thought the words to Karma Chameleon [were] “become a come-a-come-a-come-a-come-a comedian.”
My next verse on that same song was "you common ho, you common hoooo... oooo..."
- Video: YouTube
72,021 VOTESElton John’s “Tiny Dancer.” I thought it was “Hold me close I’m tired of dancing.” [A friend] laughed so hard when he heard me sing it. LOL!!
[W]hen I was a kid I thought it was “hold me closer Tony Danza."
I thought it was “Hold me close I'm trying to dance here.”
- Video: YouTube
81,837 VOTESWhen I was little I thought the Kenny Rogers song, "Lucille," said, "You picked a fine time to leave me Lucille, with FOUR HUNDRED CHILDREN, and a crop in the field…"
John thought something slightly different:
Kenny Rogers' "You picked a fine time to leave me Lucille, with four hundred children and crops in the field."
- Video: YouTube
91,361 VOTESI thought “Drift Away” went “Give me the Beach Boys and free my soul...” Apparently, it's “Give me the beat, boys, and free my soul. I want to get lost in your rock and roll and drift away.”
My stepdaughter used to sing it "[G]ive me The Beach Balls to free my soul I wanna get lost in the rock and roll and drift away."
“Baby this is what you came for. Lightning triceratops and more” instead of “This is what you came for lightning strikes every time she moves.”
- Video: YouTube
101,925 VOTESWhen I was a kid I thought Michael Jackson’s “Smooth Criminal” lyrics included “Annie do you want cake, do you want cake, Annie.”
- Video: YouTube
111,518 VOTESLove shack, baby love shack….Heennrryy, I’m rusty…
She was actually singing “tin roof, rusted”
I always thought it was "ain't rude! Resting."
- Video: YouTube
121,250 VOTES"Dirty deeds of the Dunder Chief." Man, when I was younger... I thought that Dunder Chief was a bad person.
I thought it was “Dirty deeds and the thunder cheeks.” Thought they liked big butts.
I have always sang “Dirty Deeds Dunder Jeep!!!” Until I asked my friends what a Dunder Jeep was and then I was exposed!!!
- Video: YouTube
13964 VOTESSo not me, but my ex was convinced that The Clash song "Rock the Casbah" was actually them singing “Rock the Gas Pump.” My laughing at this made him even more angry and adamant he was right... Granted, I had to explain what the Casbah was to him as he didn't know what it was. The realization of what he was singing though.
Going further I always thought a woman “Chery” wouldn’t like it. Instead, it is “Sharia” as in “Sharia Law” wouldn’t like it.
I always thought it was, “Sher-eef (sheriff) don’t like it”, as in “the law don’t like it,” which I guess was kinda close?
- Video: YouTube
14930 VOTES"My pony played the mamba.... listen to the radio.... we built this city on rock and roll."
[M]y pony was really Marconi.... a guy in the band who ironically played the mamba... I was 47 years old when I realized this....
- Video: YouTube
151,107 VOTES“Two chickens to paralyze” by Eddie Money
I thought it was “[Two] ticks and a parasite.”
- Video: YouTube
16778 VOTESI’d proudly belt out “CANNONBALL “ when in reality it was “Panama.”
I say "cannibal."
- Video: YouTube
171,027 VOTES“Take me down to the very last city. Where the grass is green and the girls are pretty…” and for an embarrassingly long time.
- Video: YouTube
At the beginning of “Fight For Your Right To Party,” apparently he says “Kick it,” but I always thought it was "Chicken!"
- Video: YouTube
19758 VOTES"Beast of burden." Thought it said, “pizza is burning.”
I thought it was “pink suburban.”
As a kid always thought it was, “I’ll never be your Easter Bunny.”
- Video: YouTube
20747 VOTES"I've got no job but I'll get over it… you're never gonna get me down"... Chumbawamba but it really goes "I get knocked down but I get up again, you're never gonna keep me down."
- Video: YouTube
21567 VOTESJustin Timberlake “Sexyback” - I thought “take it to the bridge” was "take it to the fridge’' for the longest time.
- Video: YouTube
22789 VOTESI sang for years - don’t go Jason Waterfall - thought it was his name - till the other day and my friend told me the lyrics were “don’t go chasing waterfalls.” I still sing it as Jason though.
- Video: YouTube
23642 VOTES"Going off the rails on a gravy train," Ozzy Osborne. I was last week years old when my husband said “it’s Crazy Train.”
- Video: YouTube
24651 VOTES"Ain't nothing gonna break my stride" (Matthew Wilder). I thought it was "You ain't nothing but a break in my spine."
- Video: YouTube
25723 VOTESI thought the words to Bohemian Rhapsody were “mama, just killed a bird” and spent a whole evening in the early 2000s trying to prove this until I was proved very wrong.
I thought Freddie Mercury was saying “I’m just a pool boy, I need no sympathy” for the longest time.
For Deborah, it was:
“Bismillah! We will not let you go.” Until I saw the movie I thought they sang “Miss Miller we will not let you go.”
