# Misheard song lyrics... **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 25, 2006, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misheard-song-lyrics/349885 "2006-03-25T20:35:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Lobsang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobsang/32/4067_2.png) [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2006, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misheard-song-lyrics/349885/1 "2006-03-25T20:35:36Z")
Not sure how often this turns up as a topic. So m’pologies if it’s old… But I am listending to live and let die. And every time I hear it I hear the lyrics as follows… “When you’ve got a job to do you’ve got to do it well. You’ve got to give the other fella hell.” But it’s supposed to be “Give the other man a hand” Anyone else hear it like I do? ---
**Author:** ![Galaxyhorse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/7bcc69/32.png) [@Galaxyhorse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Galaxyhorse)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2006, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misheard-song-lyrics/349885/2 "2006-03-25T22:47:27Z")
Misheard lyrics to Christmas songs are immortalized as ‘mondegreens.’ > **[Christmas Carol Mondegreens](https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/the-red-and-the-mondegreen/)** > > Misheard lyrics to Christmas songs are immortalized as 'mondegreens.' ---
**Author:** ![Hugh\_Jass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/4da419/32.png) [@Hugh\_Jass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hugh_Jass)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2006, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misheard-song-lyrics/349885/3 "2006-03-25T23:54:07Z")
this site is all about 'em: [http://www.kissthisguy.com/](http://www.kissthisguy.com/) I didn’t hear Live and Let Die that way, but I always heard “Big Jet Airliner” as “Big Ol’ Chet and Lionel” ---
**Author:** ![ouryL](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ouryl/32/6067_2.png) [@ouryL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ouryL)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2006, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misheard-song-lyrics/349885/4 "2006-03-26T01:00:14Z")
> [@Lobsang](#): > > Not sure how often this turns up as a topic. So m’pologies if it’s old… > But I am listending to live and let die. And every time I hear it I hear the lyrics as follows… > > “When you’ve got a job to do you’ve got to do it well. You’ve got to give the other fella hell.” > > But it’s supposed to be “Give the other man a hand” > Anyone else hear it like I do? Huh? I remember complaints when this song came out from local community leaders because of the swearing! ---
**Author:** ![Marlitharn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/779978/32.png) [@Marlitharn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marlitharn)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2006, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misheard-song-lyrics/349885/5 "2006-03-26T01:04:00Z")
I always thought the first line of “Little Bit of Soul” was, “When you’re feeling alone and a fish walks by…” And I never thought it was all that odd, because hey, it was the 60s, after all. ---
**Author:** ![Achren](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/898d66/32.png) [@Achren](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Achren)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2006, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misheard-song-lyrics/349885/6 "2006-03-26T01:08:54Z")
I rarely misheard the common lyrics (never heard kiss this guy), but I did wildly misunderstand lyrics no one else did. One example: Danger Zone (that song from Top Gun). I’d never seen the movie, just heard the song and instead of hearing “danger zone” I’d hear “nine-fifth hour”. Some years later I saw the movie, finally understood the real words and felt every inch the crazy person I was. ---
**Author:** ![What\_the](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f4b2a3/32.png) [@What\_the](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_the)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2006, 12:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misheard-song-lyrics/349885/7 "2006-03-26T12:08:12Z")
My first concert at the age of 15 in the mid 70’s … I thought the Doobie Bros. hit China Grove (which I apparently hadn’t heard before) was a teen anthem with the impassioned refrain “Trying to Grow”! ---
**Author:** ![indecisive1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/41988e/32.png) [@indecisive1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/indecisive1)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2006, 12:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misheard-song-lyrics/349885/8 "2006-03-26T12:29:04Z")
I thought AC/DC’s “Dirty deeds done dirt cheap” was Dirty jeans, tight, tight jeans. ---
**Author:** ![bubastis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/d07c76/32.png) [@bubastis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bubastis)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2006, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misheard-song-lyrics/349885/9 "2006-03-26T13:59:01Z")
The Police’ message in a bottle, I know he says five hundred years have passed since I wrote my note; however, I always hear five hundred years have passed since I broke my nose. I like my version. ---
**Author:** ![pokey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ebca7d/32.png) [@pokey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pokey)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2006, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misheard-song-lyrics/349885/10 "2006-03-26T14:14:49Z")
There’s a Keith Urban song, “You’ll Think of Me” that goes, “take your cat and leave my sweater” and but I thought it was “take your Kathy Lee (?) sweater” and I thought it was some kind of diss toward a person who wears Kathy Lee Gifford’s line of discount store clothing. Even though there was an extra syllable in there, my mind was still set on it for a long time. Even though it’s not how the song goes, I still imagine the person he’s singing to wears Kathy Lee clothes and that’s one of the reasons they’re breaking up. ---
**Author:** ![GingerOfTheNorth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/cdc98d/32.png) [@GingerOfTheNorth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GingerOfTheNorth)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2006, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misheard-song-lyrics/349885/11 "2006-03-26T15:25:57Z")
“Livin’ just to find emotion” in Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin’” is immortalized in the best flash EVER as “Heaven is a funky moose.” I confess that until recently, I had no idea what the line actually was. (The flash can be found [here](http://www.journeyloaded.com/loaded/flash.html). ---
**Author:** ![Ike\_Witt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ike_witt/32/283_2.png) [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2006, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misheard-song-lyrics/349885/12 "2006-03-26T15:40:11Z")
In the Prince song, if she is a Sexy Motherfucker why is she shaving her ass? ---
**Author:** ![Rysdad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/7cd45c/32.png) [@Rysdad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rysdad)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2006, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misheard-song-lyrics/349885/13 "2006-03-26T15:42:19Z")
John Fogerty in a TV concert once made fun of his own song _Bad Moon Rising_ when he sang the chorus as: “There’s a bathroom on the right”, as he pointed in that direction. Then, there is the line that I always hear in _Brother Love’s Traveling Salvation Show_: “Pack up the babies and cram the old ladies…” ---
**Author:** ![liberty3701](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/3d9bf3/32.png) [@liberty3701](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/liberty3701)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2006, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misheard-song-lyrics/349885/14 "2006-03-26T16:49:21Z")
“Blinded by the light, wrapped up like a douche, you know, the rumor in the night” Ah, Bruce, get those marbles out of your mouth. ---
**Author:** ![Lama\_Pacos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d6d6ee/32.png) [@Lama\_Pacos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lama_Pacos)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2006, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misheard-song-lyrics/349885/15 "2006-03-26T17:56:57Z")
For the Shakira song, “Objection”, I honestly thought the lyric was: “Objection, I don’t want a vivisection, to get a bit of your attention.” Which I thought was a great lyric! i was impressed. But apparently it’s: “Objection, I don’t wanna be the exception, to get a bit of your attention.” How dull. ---
**Author:** ![Snooooopy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ee7513/32.png) [@Snooooopy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snooooopy)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2006, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misheard-song-lyrics/349885/16 "2006-03-26T23:25:30Z")
> [@Galaxyhorse](#): > > Misheard lyrics to Christmas songs are immortalized as ‘mondegreens.’ > > [http://www.snopes.com/holidays/christmas/humor/mondegreens.asp](http://www.snopes.com/holidays/christmas/humor/mondegreens.asp) That site’s definition is overly restrictive. Mondegreens can be taken from any kind of song. ---
**Author:** ![Nobody](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/94ad74/32.png) [@Nobody](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nobody)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2006, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misheard-song-lyrics/349885/17 "2006-03-27T00:52:25Z")
> [@Achren](#): > > I rarely misheard the common lyrics (never heard kiss this guy), but I did wildly misunderstand lyrics no one else did. One example: Danger Zone (that song from Top Gun). I’d never seen the movie, just heard the song and instead of hearing “danger zone” I’d hear “nine-fifth hour”. Some years later I saw the movie, finally understood the real words and felt every inch the crazy person I was. Holly crap, I heard almost the exact same thing. Well, what I heard was 90th hour, but damn, kind of weird and yet refreshing that somebody else heard almost the same thing too. ---
**Author:** ![Wile\_E](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c37758/32.png) [@Wile\_E](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wile_E)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2006, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misheard-song-lyrics/349885/18 "2006-03-27T01:07:43Z")
> [@pokey](#): > > There’s a Keith Urban song, “You’ll Think of Me” that goes, “take your cat and leave my sweater” … That was Keith Urban?! Another reason to hate him. I accidentally heard that song one day and had it stuck in my head for hours. I thought we had this thread before? I could have sworn I’ve posted this here before. Anyway, my favorite mishears are Aerosmith’s “Lovin an Alligator”, a line in that Shania Twain song “Damn, I feel like a woman” that sounds to me like she’s saying “give 'em a labia” and another country song by Martina McBride(?) “This One’s for the Squirrels”. I don’t like country but my favorite radio station started sneaking in these “crossover” country songs, I found a new radio station… but I still sing “This One’s for the Squirrels.” ---
**Author:** ![MrJackboots](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c0e974/32.png) [@MrJackboots](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrJackboots)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2006, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misheard-song-lyrics/349885/19 "2006-03-27T02:30:27Z")
Delerium’s _Daylight_ is written as _You don’t have to be my Heaven, I won’t have to be your friend._ but I always hear it as _You don’t have to be my Heaven, I won’t have to be your sin._ I like my version much better. ---
**Author:** ![Martin\_Sable](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/22d042/32.png) [@Martin\_Sable](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martin_Sable)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2006, 5:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misheard-song-lyrics/349885/20 "2006-03-27T05:05:56Z")
An oldie used to drive me crazy every time it played on the radio. I knew I was hearing it wrong, because the words I was hearing were ridiculous. I couldn’t ask anyone else, because apparently the words I was hearing were so far off the mark, they had no idea what song I was talking about. So it became a kind of quest. every time the song popped up on the radio, I turned up the volume and listened very, very closely, sure that _this_ time I would understand what the singer was actually singing. And every single time, this is what I heard: “There’s a can of fishhhh…all over the world…tonight.” At least ten years went by before I finally figured out, “There’s a kind of hush…” [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misheard-song-lyrics/349885.md?page=2)