When I was little I used to think there was a country called “Orientar” (where the Three Kings came from). I also thought St. Mary was really fat, based (honestly!) on the phrase “round yon virgin.” (That latter doesn’t really count, I guess, as it’s a case of the words being misinterpreted, not misheard.) In the Beatles’ “Back in the USSR,” I only recently learned that the singer flew with a paper back on his knees rather than a paperback. What are your favorites?
BTW, I sing a lot of karaoke, and I find sometimes that the same song will have slightly different lyrics in the subtitles of one disc vs. another. E.g., in “Zoot Suit Riot,” sometimes it’s “Fat cat came to play, now I want to swing you down,” and sometimes “want to swing you dove” and I don’t even know which is correct (but the latter at least rhymes with the next line, “Now you sailors know where your women come for love”). Have you ever had that experience?
I have heard this sung not once, not twice, but thrice - instead of “dark sacred night” in the second verse of What a Wonderful World, many seem content with the logic of “dogs say goodnight”.
Slightly off topic, but I often suffer these at the shop. I hear something like “ten seventeen” when the til person said “ten seventy”. I got the oddest look when I handed over a twenty pound note and a twenty pence piece, thinking I was doing her a favour by making the change £10.03 instead of £9.73.
It was my turn to have a funny look when my change turned out to be £9.50
Chap I used to work with, lovely bloke, his whole life was Jimi Hendrix. Just mad on Hendrix - knew everything about him, could explain very nuance of his playing, a real encyclopedia of Hendrixology. Except this lyrics - virtually every lyric he’d quote was a mondegreen - my favourite, and he resisted correction on this for hours, was from “House Burning Down” was “well, I asked my friend, where was that tax book coming from…”.
His total mis-hearing of the lyrics of Neil young’s “After The Goldrush” was also hilarious, as I recall.
That’s weird because the actual lyrics are “I want to swing you done,” which emphasizes the sexual subtext moreso than either of those options. “I want to swing you done,” i.e.: I’ll give you more loving than your sailor can.
My mondegreen is the same as AmericanMaid’s mother. It’s so hard to tell with Alanis that I didn’t question the logic.
Not my favorite, just the most recent:
Gwen Stefani singing “ain’t no harm in that girl” instead of “ain’t no holla-back girl”.
How the heck would I know what a “holla-back girl” is???
At least I didn’t think it was “ain’t no Harlem black girl” like someone else on the board.
Heh, my husband had the same one, too. We heard the song on the radio, and he said, “What kind of bear? A cross-eyed bear?” I’m glad I wasn’t driving, because I was hysterically laughing in the back seat!
