Minor nitpick, and not with you, but with the composers: it’s actually spelled “Suwannee.” Foster’s song is immortalized on a sign as you pass over the river on I-10, depicting the musical notation for “way down upon the Swanee river,” although it doesn’t misspell the lyric or the river name. I wonder if either of them had ever been down here…
I did know that. I hate it when people sing it as the Latin “Ave Maria” (actually, in my Schubert edition, I believe it’s titled “Ave Maria: Ellens dritter Gesang”). Not only is it not what Schubert wrote, but it doesn’t work. Those are some torturous word rhythms.
Since someone mentioned a classical piece: Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata is actually Sonata number 14 in c-sharp minor “Quasi una fantasia”, opus 27, no 2, first movement. Beethoven had nothing to do with the Moonlight stuff.
Well, there you go.
Michael Penn’s only radio hit was called “No Myth” but the record company made him add a parenthetical so that the masses could find/buy the song. It was released as “No Myth (Romeo in Black Jeans)”
Ah, thanks. I couldn’t remember what language it was. Ma Ya Hi makes more sense than Numa Numa to me!
So the true fans can spot the poseurs.
According to Mick Jones, the title was also an homage to the Robert Johnson song Love in Vain.
Drum-rich, The Hey Song, often heard during sporting events (especially in the US) is a Gary Glitter work actually titled Rock and Roll, Part II.
Actually its Closer to Home on the original 45, I’m Your Captain on the original LP and IIRC I’m Your Captain (Closer tho Home) on the reissue CD so even they don’t know what the songs called. 
I would swear I had a 45 that said “Closer to Home” but can’t find web based proof, maybe I’m misremembering- if so, my apologies.
Your memory is fine. I have the 45, “Closer To Home” and the LP with “I’m Your Captain.” I have several GFR CDs where it is titled one or the other, depending on which version it is. I’d have to check to see if any name it both titles.
I don’t know if this counts or not, but a number of foreign-language songs were retitled when they were released in the United States. Las Ketchup’s song Aserejé was retitled “The Ketchup Song,” and the Japanese song Ue O Muite Aruko (I Look Up When I Walk) was retitled “Sukiyaki,” which Newsweek commented was akin to retitling Moon River “Beef Stew.” (The new title had nothing to do with the song- it was just a Japanese word English-speaking audiences were likely to recognize.)
“Brain Damage” by Pink Floyd is often called “Dark Side of the Moon”, just like the album.
The Moody Blues “Legend of the Mind,” is often known as “Timothy Leary’s Dead.”
Similarly “Forever Afternoon (Tuesday?)” is better known as “Tuesday Afternoon.”
The Allman Brother’s “Midnight Rider,” is sometimes referred to as “One More Silver Dollar.”
Seriously? I’ve never heard that one - but I’ve heard Melissa called “Sweet Melissa” and Dreams called “Dreams I’ll Never See.” The latter is the title Molly Hatchet used when they butchered the song.
My copy of the 45 had Tuesday Afternoon (Forever Afternoon) on the label.
That’s the same situation as the Grand Funk one. The popular title, “Tuesday Afternoon,” is what appeared on the 45, while the more oddball title was listed on the album.
Perhaps he was thinking of the opening line, which includes the words “stand by your man.”
“The Star Spangled Banner” was titled “The Defense of Ft. McHenry” by the author. A newspaperman later changed the title. (I don’t care if it is windy, I’m still spittin’.)
Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme may win the thread. Even people who remember that it’s really “Scarborough Fair” get it wrong.
The correct name is “Scarborough Fair/Canticle,” Canticle being the antiwar counterpoint that Paul Simon wrote and sings under Artie’s version of the folk song. I don’t think I’ve ever heard even a dj give the full name.