7 ms·

Excuse Me While I Kiss This Guy: The Science of Misheard Song Lyrics

69 points by benbreen 12y ago

mswift42 12y ago
Metallica, One: Doctors impersonate me. http://www.kissthisguy.com/doctors-impersonate-me-metallica-misheard-3974.htm http://www.kissthisguy.com/doctors-impersonate-me-metallica-...
jsnk 12y ago
This is basically where half the traffic for ytmnd used to come from back in the day (http://dew.ytmnd.com/ http://dew.ytmnd.com/).
stevenspasbo 12y ago
Jimi actually replaced the actual lyrics with that a few times, one of which can be heard on the Jimi Hendrix Experience Box Set. Spotify link: spotify:track:5YxfZTUX7sZ5JyYvEsesxB
- lalos 12y ago
  Alternative spotify link http://open.spotify.com/track/5YxfZTUX7sZ5JyYvEsesxB http://open.spotify.com/track/5YxfZTUX7sZ5JyYvEsesxB
- lotsofmangos 12y ago
  Was going to say that this was perhaps a bad example. Many song writers make deliberate use of homophones.
TrainedMonkey 12y ago
Best misheard lyrics I've heard is Wishmaster by Nightwish - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gg5_mlQOsUQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gg5_mlQOsUQ
- breakingcups 12y ago
  Or, the world-famous Llama song (http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/flash/llama http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/flash/llama)
caseysoftware 12y ago
At Clarify.io we're working in the automatic speech recognition space and the stuff the systems come up with are hilarious. There are so many sets of syllables that make sense different ways. It's amazing that it doesn't happen to humans even more.
- kaybe 12y ago
  You should make a blog post about that.
- smartscience 12y ago
  Like https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-ZnPE3G_YY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-ZnPE3G_YY ? Matches the lip reading too.
Rolpa 12y ago
Lock the catbox!
brianstorms 12y ago
Jon Carroll at SF Chronicle has written a lot about mondegreens both in the pages of the Chronicle and in topics on The WELL for years. Here are some of his classic pieces on mondegreens: http://www.sfgate.com/entertainment/carroll/article/JON-CARROLL-Mondegreen-And-Loving-It-3319390.php http://www.sfgate.com/entertainment/carroll/article/JON-CARR... http://www.sfgate.com/entertainment/carroll/article/JON-CARROLL-Zen-and-the-Art-Of-Mondegreens-3330389.php http://www.sfgate.com/entertainment/carroll/article/JON-CARR... http://www.sfgate.com/entertainment/carroll/article/JON-CARROLL-I-m-Not-Blue-I-m-Mondegreen-3320697.php http://www.sfgate.com/entertainment/carroll/article/JON-CARR... http://www.sfgate.com/entertainment/carroll/article/JON-CARROLL-Mystery-Mondegreens-And-So-Much-3330750.php http://www.sfgate.com/entertainment/carroll/article/JON-CARR...
mpthrapp 12y ago
I've always liked "Wrapped up like a douche" (Revved up like a deuce) in Blinded by the Light.
- grubles 12y ago
  "Wrapped up like a douche. Another boner in the night."
- tokenadult 12y ago
  I always heard it as "ripped off like a douche," which sounded very indecent, even though it makes no sense at all. Yes, "Blinded by the Light" as performed by Manfred Mann's Earth Band is my all-time longest-misheard song. I finally looked up the lyrics. "Revved up like a deuce" doesn't mean anything to me, which is why I never heard the song that way, but now at least I know what the songwriter (Bruce Springsteen) intended. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blinded_by_the_Light https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blinded_by_the_Light
  - saretired 12y ago
    A "deuce" was a two-seater hot rod (cf. "Little Deuce Coupe" by the Beach Boys). I suppose it's now archaic slang. But I'm still puzzled, because Springsteen's original lyric is "cut loose like a deuce" and I have no idea what that means.
- dghughes 12y ago
  Yeah that one always throws me and I always forget to look up what it's supposed to be and then when I hear it again I forget, repeat. By the way I will forget this comment too.
- werdnapk 12y ago
  Here's a skit from an old Canadian comedy show about this song (apologies for the quality, but the original aired sometime in the early 90's I believe). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9_3nQFNy-w https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9_3nQFNy-w Mark McKinney's (from Kids in the Hall) younger brother was part of this group. Every time I hear that song, I remember this skit.
LeoPanthera 12y ago
My favourite example of this has always been "Lock the Taskbar": http://youtu.be/WEWG6kSYqlY http://youtu.be/WEWG6kSYqlY
- soylentcola 12y ago
  I still sing this when I've got to click that on a Windows PC at work.
o0-0o 12y ago
"I wanna fuck you like Superman"
michaelchisari 12y ago
I still can't hear "Blank Space" by Taylor Swift without hearing "Starbucks lovers" instead of "list of ex-lovers".
- adpirz 12y ago
  I thought that's what she was saying! Like a modern take on "star-crossed lovers". Weird.
- auganov 12y ago
  Oh no :-( Was always wondering what "Starbucks lovers" meant....
- sreyaNotfilc 12y ago
  I just listened to this song on Youtube. Never heard it before, so I tried listening very carefully. I still cannot make out "list of ex-lovers". So strange that I cannot make out the correct phrase even after listening to that part over and over again.
RoboTeddy 12y ago
"how to wreck a nice beach you sing calm incense" puzzle: the above is the title of an academic paper. figure out what the thesis of the paper is! solution: http://goo.gl/4Gx7da http://goo.gl/4Gx7da
- girvo 12y ago
  I got the first part, but the latter half didn't fit for me, that's just an artifact of my accent however, "calm" and "com-" are very different for me :)
davidw 12y ago
I can't get no sadist faction.
- tokenadult 12y ago
  Do you pronounce "sadist" with a first vowel as in the word "saddest"? I usually hear the word "sadist" pronounced with the first vowel of the word "latest," but I've actually never looked it up. http://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/us/definition/english/sadist http://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/us/definition/engl... http://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/american-english/sadist http://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/american-engli... https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20120201061147AAa9X9E https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20120201061147A...
  - davidw 12y ago
    Well, they're British - maybe that's the way they say it?
mrlyc 12y ago
My sister always sang "But I'm only a cross-eyed octopus" instead of cockeyed optimist.
hluska 12y ago
"You say that ironing was the shackles of youth ah ha." Deciphering Michael Stipe's voice was a huge part of my first forays online. I can't imagine what I would have done with a site like Genius.
pwenzel 12y ago
I see the bad moon rising I see trouble on the way I see earthquakes and lightnin' I see bad times today Don't go around tonight Well, it's bound to take your life There's the bathroom on right.
- NDizzle 12y ago
  My wife, word for word. At the top of her lungs.
Groxx 12y ago
Personal favorite is "Oh Canada, we stand on cars and freeze!"
RobertKerans 12y ago
This horrible song, 'A Donkey', by Cheryl Cole: http://youtu.be/HJ7LsLEERkE http://youtu.be/HJ7LsLEERkE She seems to be really excited about that donkey for some reason.
lotsofmangos 12y ago
Rathergood mined this ground well. I particularly like Destiny's Child meat dependency - http://www.rathergood.com/alf http://www.rathergood.com/alf and Pavarotti's deep love of elephants - http://www.rathergood.com/elephants http://www.rathergood.com/elephants
thret 12y ago
I think this is the best youtube compilation of misheard lyrics (there are a lot to choose from). http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0nVvRwrgsGU http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0nVvRwrgsGU Personal favourite: I got string on my face, the smell of fat chicks just put my spine out of place.
ioseph 12y ago
Personal favourite: (some language factors at play) Is it Reebok or Nike? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQ4c54rCJ_k https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQ4c54rCJ_k
TallGuyShort 12y ago
I always misheard Fallout Boy's "Going Down". They say "a loaded God complex, cock it and pull it", but I always heard "loaded gun complex", due to the context of cocking a firearm and then pulling the trigger.
- KeytarHero 12y ago
  You're certainly not the only one to mishear the lyrics of that song https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kvx0ncTxxL0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kvx0ncTxxL0
dredmorbius 12y ago
My personal favorite isn't quite a mondegreen, but a lyrics shift. I've long swapped "Waking Up is Hard to Do" for the original "Breaking Up is Hard to Do" in Neil Sedaka's song. Years later on NPR's "Wait Wait", he said that he'd rewritten the song with the same words for his grandchildren. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=127043815 http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1270438...
- ScottBurson 12y ago
  The interesting thing to me about this one is a line from the chorus that I always heard as "Comma comma down dooby-do down down", which of course makes no sense whatsoever. Somewhere along the way I saw an alternative transcription, "Come-a come-a down...", which I thought was much more plausible, as "comedown" is a word that would make sense here. But I just checked a couple of the lyrics sites, and they say "Comma comma"!
jws 12y ago
cdza has a "History of Misheard Lyrics". https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_6jRICTGmnM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_6jRICTGmnM For those unfamiliar with cdza, they film musical experiments, frequently humorous in a distinctive "in studio" style, generally as a single shot.
johnmaguire2013 12y ago
I knew someone who, years ago, while singing along to "Boulevard of Broken Dreams" proclaimed "I wish someone would pillow fight me" instead of "I wish someone up there would find me"
thatswrong0 12y ago
"Like a rhin like a rhino! I'm not easily offended." Actually "Like a riot, like a riot, oh!" I don't really understand half of the things in Phoenix songs. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4BJDNw7o6so https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4BJDNw7o6so I also somehow thought "Baby you're a firework!" was "Baby you're a ferris wheel!" for a while. No idea how my brain did that.
otikik 12y ago
On the same alley, but in a different level, is bad lip reading. My favorite is Russian Unicorn. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YjaZNYSt7o0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YjaZNYSt7o0
calhoun137 12y ago
"A dead head sticking off a cadillac" -from boys of summer
smoyer 12y ago
My sister produced my all-time favorite - "I flew the bat-plane" by The Eagles.
Rusky 12y ago
Similarly, lyrics in a language you don't know. Someone did this to the entire Duck Tales theme song in Finish: http://youtu.be/Xm8WmiKj5go http://youtu.be/Xm8WmiKj5go "your school's stupid, your school's bwaha"
te_platt 12y ago
I lived a couple of years in Brazil and a couple of years in Chile and counted myself fluent in the language when I could comfortably understand the songs on the radio. This article makes me think the difference between fluent and native speaker is being able to make good sense out of misheard lyrics.
antisuji 12y ago
My most recent one was Maroon 5's "you got to lose that jacket / you got to lose that jacket / you got to lo-oo-oo-oo-oo-oo-ose that jacket".
cottonseed 12y ago
My favorite is Alanis Morissette: "Of the cross eyed bear that you gave me".
dev360 12y ago
Theres an interesting story about Bob Dylan offering the song Lay Lady Lay to the band Everly Brothers, but they misheard the part where he sings 'lay across my big brass bed' and rejected the song.

69 points by benbreen 12y ago

Metallica, One: Doctors impersonate me. http://www.kissthisguy.com/doctors-impersonate-me-metallica-misheard-3974.htm http://www.kissthisguy.com/doctors-impersonate-me-metallica-...

jsnk 12y ago

This is basically where half the traffic for ytmnd used to come from back in the day (http://dew.ytmnd.com/ http://dew.ytmnd.com/).

stevenspasbo 12y ago

Jimi actually replaced the actual lyrics with that a few times, one of which can be heard on the Jimi Hendrix Experience Box Set. Spotify link: spotify:track:5YxfZTUX7sZ5JyYvEsesxB

lalos 12y ago
Alternative spotify link http://open.spotify.com/track/5YxfZTUX7sZ5JyYvEsesxB http://open.spotify.com/track/5YxfZTUX7sZ5JyYvEsesxB
lotsofmangos 12y ago
Was going to say that this was perhaps a bad example. Many song writers make deliberate use of homophones.

TrainedMonkey 12y ago

Best misheard lyrics I've heard is Wishmaster by Nightwish - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gg5_mlQOsUQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gg5_mlQOsUQ

breakingcups 12y ago
Or, the world-famous Llama song (http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/flash/llama http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/flash/llama)

caseysoftware 12y ago

At Clarify.io we're working in the automatic speech recognition space and the stuff the systems come up with are hilarious. There are so many sets of syllables that make sense different ways. It's amazing that it doesn't happen to humans even more.

kaybe 12y ago
You should make a blog post about that.
smartscience 12y ago
Like https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-ZnPE3G_YY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-ZnPE3G_YY ? Matches the lip reading too.

Rolpa 12y ago

Lock the catbox!

brianstorms 12y ago

Jon Carroll at SF Chronicle has written a lot about mondegreens both in the pages of the Chronicle and in topics on The WELL for years. Here are some of his classic pieces on mondegreens: http://www.sfgate.com/entertainment/carroll/article/JON-CARROLL-Mondegreen-And-Loving-It-3319390.php http://www.sfgate.com/entertainment/carroll/article/JON-CARR... http://www.sfgate.com/entertainment/carroll/article/JON-CARROLL-Zen-and-the-Art-Of-Mondegreens-3330389.php http://www.sfgate.com/entertainment/carroll/article/JON-CARR... http://www.sfgate.com/entertainment/carroll/article/JON-CARROLL-I-m-Not-Blue-I-m-Mondegreen-3320697.php http://www.sfgate.com/entertainment/carroll/article/JON-CARR... http://www.sfgate.com/entertainment/carroll/article/JON-CARROLL-Mystery-Mondegreens-And-So-Much-3330750.php http://www.sfgate.com/entertainment/carroll/article/JON-CARR...

mpthrapp 12y ago

I've always liked "Wrapped up like a douche" (Revved up like a deuce) in Blinded by the Light.

grubles 12y ago
"Wrapped up like a douche. Another boner in the night."
tokenadult 12y ago
I always heard it as "ripped off like a douche," which sounded very indecent, even though it makes no sense at all. Yes, "Blinded by the Light" as performed by Manfred Mann's Earth Band is my all-time longest-misheard song. I finally looked up the lyrics. "Revved up like a deuce" doesn't mean anything to me, which is why I never heard the song that way, but now at least I know what the songwriter (Bruce Springsteen) intended. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blinded_by_the_Light https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blinded_by_the_Light
- saretired 12y ago
  A "deuce" was a two-seater hot rod (cf. "Little Deuce Coupe" by the Beach Boys). I suppose it's now archaic slang. But I'm still puzzled, because Springsteen's original lyric is "cut loose like a deuce" and I have no idea what that means.
dghughes 12y ago
Yeah that one always throws me and I always forget to look up what it's supposed to be and then when I hear it again I forget, repeat. By the way I will forget this comment too.
werdnapk 12y ago
Here's a skit from an old Canadian comedy show about this song (apologies for the quality, but the original aired sometime in the early 90's I believe). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9_3nQFNy-w https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9_3nQFNy-w Mark McKinney's (from Kids in the Hall) younger brother was part of this group. Every time I hear that song, I remember this skit.

LeoPanthera 12y ago

My favourite example of this has always been "Lock the Taskbar": http://youtu.be/WEWG6kSYqlY http://youtu.be/WEWG6kSYqlY

soylentcola 12y ago
I still sing this when I've got to click that on a Windows PC at work.

o0-0o 12y ago

"I wanna fuck you like Superman"

michaelchisari 12y ago

I still can't hear "Blank Space" by Taylor Swift without hearing "Starbucks lovers" instead of "list of ex-lovers".

adpirz 12y ago
I thought that's what she was saying! Like a modern take on "star-crossed lovers". Weird.
auganov 12y ago
Oh no :-( Was always wondering what "Starbucks lovers" meant....
sreyaNotfilc 12y ago
I just listened to this song on Youtube. Never heard it before, so I tried listening very carefully. I still cannot make out "list of ex-lovers". So strange that I cannot make out the correct phrase even after listening to that part over and over again.

RoboTeddy 12y ago

"how to wreck a nice beach you sing calm incense" puzzle: the above is the title of an academic paper. figure out what the thesis of the paper is! solution: http://goo.gl/4Gx7da http://goo.gl/4Gx7da

girvo 12y ago
I got the first part, but the latter half didn't fit for me, that's just an artifact of my accent however, "calm" and "com-" are very different for me :)

davidw 12y ago

I can't get no sadist faction.

tokenadult 12y ago
Do you pronounce "sadist" with a first vowel as in the word "saddest"? I usually hear the word "sadist" pronounced with the first vowel of the word "latest," but I've actually never looked it up. http://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/us/definition/english/sadist http://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/us/definition/engl... http://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/american-english/sadist http://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/american-engli... https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20120201061147AAa9X9E https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20120201061147A...
- davidw 12y ago
  Well, they're British - maybe that's the way they say it?

mrlyc 12y ago

My sister always sang "But I'm only a cross-eyed octopus" instead of cockeyed optimist.

hluska 12y ago

"You say that ironing was the shackles of youth ah ha." Deciphering Michael Stipe's voice was a huge part of my first forays online. I can't imagine what I would have done with a site like Genius.

pwenzel 12y ago

I see the bad moon rising I see trouble on the way I see earthquakes and lightnin' I see bad times today Don't go around tonight Well, it's bound to take your life There's the bathroom on right.

NDizzle 12y ago
My wife, word for word. At the top of her lungs.

Groxx 12y ago

Personal favorite is "Oh Canada, we stand on cars and freeze!"

RobertKerans 12y ago

This horrible song, 'A Donkey', by Cheryl Cole: http://youtu.be/HJ7LsLEERkE http://youtu.be/HJ7LsLEERkE She seems to be really excited about that donkey for some reason.

lotsofmangos 12y ago

Rathergood mined this ground well. I particularly like Destiny's Child meat dependency - http://www.rathergood.com/alf http://www.rathergood.com/alf and Pavarotti's deep love of elephants - http://www.rathergood.com/elephants http://www.rathergood.com/elephants

thret 12y ago

I think this is the best youtube compilation of misheard lyrics (there are a lot to choose from). http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0nVvRwrgsGU http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0nVvRwrgsGU Personal favourite: I got string on my face, the smell of fat chicks just put my spine out of place.

ioseph 12y ago

Personal favourite: (some language factors at play) Is it Reebok or Nike? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQ4c54rCJ_k https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQ4c54rCJ_k

TallGuyShort 12y ago

I always misheard Fallout Boy's "Going Down". They say "a loaded God complex, cock it and pull it", but I always heard "loaded gun complex", due to the context of cocking a firearm and then pulling the trigger.

KeytarHero 12y ago
You're certainly not the only one to mishear the lyrics of that song https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kvx0ncTxxL0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kvx0ncTxxL0

dredmorbius 12y ago

My personal favorite isn't quite a mondegreen, but a lyrics shift. I've long swapped "Waking Up is Hard to Do" for the original "Breaking Up is Hard to Do" in Neil Sedaka's song. Years later on NPR's "Wait Wait", he said that he'd rewritten the song with the same words for his grandchildren. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=127043815 http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1270438...

ScottBurson 12y ago
The interesting thing to me about this one is a line from the chorus that I always heard as "Comma comma down dooby-do down down", which of course makes no sense whatsoever. Somewhere along the way I saw an alternative transcription, "Come-a come-a down...", which I thought was much more plausible, as "comedown" is a word that would make sense here. But I just checked a couple of the lyrics sites, and they say "Comma comma"!

jws 12y ago

cdza has a "History of Misheard Lyrics". https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_6jRICTGmnM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_6jRICTGmnM For those unfamiliar with cdza, they film musical experiments, frequently humorous in a distinctive "in studio" style, generally as a single shot.

johnmaguire2013 12y ago

I knew someone who, years ago, while singing along to "Boulevard of Broken Dreams" proclaimed "I wish someone would pillow fight me" instead of "I wish someone up there would find me"

thatswrong0 12y ago

"Like a rhin like a rhino! I'm not easily offended." Actually "Like a riot, like a riot, oh!" I don't really understand half of the things in Phoenix songs. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4BJDNw7o6so https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4BJDNw7o6so I also somehow thought "Baby you're a firework!" was "Baby you're a ferris wheel!" for a while. No idea how my brain did that.

otikik 12y ago

On the same alley, but in a different level, is bad lip reading. My favorite is Russian Unicorn. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YjaZNYSt7o0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YjaZNYSt7o0

calhoun137 12y ago

"A dead head sticking off a cadillac" -from boys of summer

smoyer 12y ago

My sister produced my all-time favorite - "I flew the bat-plane" by The Eagles.

Rusky 12y ago

Similarly, lyrics in a language you don't know. Someone did this to the entire Duck Tales theme song in Finish: http://youtu.be/Xm8WmiKj5go http://youtu.be/Xm8WmiKj5go "your school's stupid, your school's bwaha"

te_platt 12y ago

I lived a couple of years in Brazil and a couple of years in Chile and counted myself fluent in the language when I could comfortably understand the songs on the radio. This article makes me think the difference between fluent and native speaker is being able to make good sense out of misheard lyrics.

antisuji 12y ago

My most recent one was Maroon 5's "you got to lose that jacket / you got to lose that jacket / you got to lo-oo-oo-oo-oo-oo-ose that jacket".

cottonseed 12y ago

My favorite is Alanis Morissette: "Of the cross eyed bear that you gave me".

dev360 12y ago

Theres an interesting story about Bob Dylan offering the song Lay Lady Lay to the band Everly Brothers, but they misheard the part where he sings 'lay across my big brass bed' and rejected the song.