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Mondegreens

Have you ever heard of a mondegreen?
It is the name given to a misheard lyric.
The phrase was coined by Sylvia Wright who, as a child, misheard the line 'I laid him on the green' as 'Lady Mondegreen'.
Cute isn't it!

We have all had a mondegreen or two in our time.
That is a definite.
This morning I read someones status update on Facebook and they had written the lyrics to "Forever in Blue Jeans".
It is a great song. 
However, for years I misheard the lyrics.
When Neil Diamond sang Forever in Blue Jeans, 
I heard him sing Reverend Eugene.
What tips this little anecdote to the pathetic side of the spectrum is that I knew the song title and wondered what that had to do with the song. 
However,
I still maintain that it was a plausible error.
Listen...


My other beauty was with Lionel Ritchie's "Hello".
You know that adorable love song,
where he sings
'I want to tell you so much I love you'
Yes, well I misheard that to be
'I want to tell you SOBER I love you.'
I didn't find out that I was wrong until I lived in Lithuania.
I was singing it one day and the guy who ran the hostel Valdas
started looking at me rather strangely.
As I kept singing he burst out laughing and simply said
'I don't think that song means what you think Louise, but that is a very Irish way of singing it.'
Confused, I looked up the lyrics and subsequently cringed.
Again, I reckon it was an easy mistake to make.
What do you think?

Apparently, there are some song titles that just lead to worldwide confusion. One of the biggest offenders is:

Bathroom on the right

 Malapropisms  can lead to funny instances too...
I saw this sketch this morning and it cracked me up


So, do you have any Mondegreens to share?

Comments

  1. Petite DeniseNovember 30, 2012 at 3:06 PM

    I used to think the lyrics of 'Last Christmas' were... "this year, semi frontiers, I'll give it to someone special." Also used to think 'Praise You' by Fatboy Slim was..."Praise you like a sherp" Oh and a friend of mine used to think 'I'm every woman' was 'Climb every woman' HaHa!!! I never knew what the mistakes were called, that's pretty cool!

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousDecember 28, 2012 at 4:11 PM

    Interpols "Rosemary" instead of "Sensitive to fate, not denial" I heard "sensitive debate night, denial" ! I would LOVE to go to a sensitive debate night!

    ReplyDelete

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