I’ve always been bothered by " Baby I’m a Want You" by Bread.
It should be “Baby I’m a wantin’ you” or “Baby I want you” This has driven me crazy for years.
The second line of this song is equally ungrammatical—“Baby I’m a need you…”
Well, that could be correct if the girl addressed in the song is bi.
I remember Rolling Stone trying to make sense of that one. I think the reviewer postulated that it was a “phonetic homage” to “Maybe I’m Amazed.”
In context, that line makes perfect sense. The singer is running down a list of Virginia’s odd-but-endearing-to-him characteristics:
then he says:
and then has a moment of realization:
because he, the singer, is the smoker, not Virginia. Then he says:
To mean, well, that little mistake doesn’t matter, let’s move on and talk more about the subject at hand, this girl ofmine:
I think the song is terribly clever and cute. But what do I know?
Another one that just popped up in mp3 rotation to remind me of its badness is Melissa Etheridge’s Yes I Am, a song of great overall passion and power brought low with one grammatically dubious lyric:
Okay, I know why she went that way, the sanctify bit was too good to skip, but oh, you and I? Melissa, Melissa, your English teachers from Leavenworth High School are all waiting for an opportunity to give you a whack for that one, sweetie. Ugh.
Well, I’ve read that he wrote the lyrics to this song on the spot after he heard some douchebag at a party actually say “if it wasn’t for date rape I’d never get laid,” but…I don’t see anything wrong with this line at all. It fits perfectly with the story and sounds really cool too.
Two of my own:
Rod Stewart’s Maggie Mae
“I laughed at all of your jokes/
My love you didn’t need to coax”
Come on Rod. Such a good song, such a lame lyric.
But I believe Nancy Sinatra said it best when she said
“You’re always lyin’
When you ought’to be truthin’”
Well, if we’re allowed to pick on musicals… (I’m going to get known as the One-Trick-RENT-Pony around here if I’m not careful.)
“Maybe they’re dressing
After all, what does one wear that’s apropos
For a party that’s also a crime?”
Apropos? I think you mean appropriate. “After all, what does one wear that’s at an appropriate time…” or “After all, what does one wear that’s incidentally for a party that’s also a crime?” are almost acceptable independently, but it seems to clear to me that Larson was aiming for an “appropriate” synonym and missing by a mile.
I must admit that I don’t know what song this is, but I don’t think it’s ungrammatical. “I must be sure…that you would love me more than [you love] her.” The “her” is objective, as it should be, isn’t it? (Unless “…you would love me more than she [would love me],” but like I said, I don’t know the song or the context.
I always automatically mentally change the next line to “It must have been something I ate.” Improves the song no end.
I beg to differ. The hills are alive…with the sound of music. 
It’s “If I Fell” by the Beatles, so the context is that the singer is male. See my “bi” wisecrack above.
** I’m your Venus,
I’m your fire,
Your desire**
originally posted by MineFujiko
The “superhero” episode of Futurama had a takeoff on this, with lyrics such as:
Clobberella beats you up!
Clobberella beats you up!
Who does Clobberella beat up? YOU!!
Dearest gods. I can’t believe that a few minutes ago this horrible piece of dreck from my childhood just popped into my head. It’s been a long time since I’ve spontaneously screamed.
Porcupine Pie, by Neil Diamond:
Porcupine pie, porcupine pie, porcupine pie,
Vanilla soup
A double scoop, please.
Ah, but maybe I won’t, maybe I want, maybe I’ll try
The tutti fruit
with fruity blue cheese.
Can anyone please tell me what the hell the nice little Jewish boy from NYC was thinking when he put together a song that sounds like the original redneck acid trip, with munchies no less?
Worst. Song. Ever. “Honey” and “MacArthur Park” are friggin Mozart next to this travesty.
I’d supressed it for at least a decade and a half, and thinking about this thread made it just BLOOM in my head.
Curses.
I’ve vote for:
"Lavender blue, dilly dilly,
lavender green.
If I were king, dilly dilly,
I’d need a queen.
Who told me so, dilly dilly,
who told me so?
I told myself, dilly dilly,
I told me so.
If your dilly dilly heart
beats a dilly dilly way,
and if you answer yes,
in a dilly dilly church
on a dilly dilly day,
you’ll be wed in a dilly dilly dress of
(one more time!)
lavender blue, dilly dilly,
lavender green…"
Please, someone shoot me.
Julie
“Someone left a cake out in the rain and I don’t think I can take it, 'cause it took so long to bake it, and I’ll never have that recipe again. Ohhhhhhhhhhhh nooooooooooo!”:smack:
I think the lyric is “I’ll stop the world and melt with you.” though Alias thinks it’s “meld.” Either he is turning into goo or he’s a vulcan.
And you bring up "Meet Virginia but ignore…“Her timing is quite unusual. You see her confidence is tragic, but her intuition’s magic. The shape of her body…unusual.”
He repeats unusual and implies that she has the body of a rhombus. Virginia is an odd girl.
Actually, that is one theme song I would not mind singing along to.
If any of you ever vacation here in the fiftieth state, won’t you please sample our local Hawaiian music radio stations? Then you too will be able to thrill to classic island songs like Mana’o Company’s “Drop Baby Drop”:
My heart does the tango
With every little move you make
I love you like a mango
Wish we can make it everyday
And now for the chorus! C’mon, everybody!
I want you to drop, baby, drop, baby, drop
Got to drop all your love on me
Drop baby, drop, baby, drop
Drop ‘cause I’m hungry
[repeat one bajillion times]
I know that the singer is comparing the babe of his dreams to a mango (round, orange, and sticky?), but the way it’s phrased makes it sound like he loves her with the fiery passion only a mango is capable of.
“Turn The Page.” I don’t remember who sings it. You hear it on classic rock stations, and I think Metallica covered it. The first verse ends with the line “You think about the woman or the girl you knew the night before.” The woman or the girl??? Um, wouldn’t that be statutory rape?
The funny thing is, if he just said “the girl you knew the night before,” it would be OK because I would assume that he means ‘girl’ as in ‘girlfriend.’ But specifying “woman or girl” throws a creepy predatory vibe over the whole song.
That’s a Bob Seger song. Girl doesn’t mean a female under 13 - if it does, 3/4 of all rock singers are guitar of the same thing. 
Wish I could enjoy that smell, but my employer’s random drug testing has taken it from me.
Cecil covers colitas for us:
http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a5_001.html
Somebody mentioned Rod Stewart. That reminds me of this awful phrase: