Interesting Facts #53

misheard song lyrics.

The term for where a person mishears song lyrics is Mondegreen, first used by Sylvia Wright in 1954 after she misheard "laid him on the green" for "Lady mondgreen"

Famous examples include "'scuse me while I kiss this guy" ('scuse me while I kiss the sky) from Purple Haze by Jimi Hendrix, "The ants are my friends, the're blowing in the wind" by By Bob Dylan, "and I know that the hotdogs go on" by Celine Dion, "scare a moose, scare a moose will you do a fan tango" by queen (actually Bohemian Rhapsody has quite a few mondegreen lyrics "miss miller no, I will not let him go, beelzebub has a devil for a sideboard"), my personal favourite from the Eurythymics "Sweet dreams are made of cheese, who am I to dis the Bries, I travel the world in generic jeans" and other classics such as Abba's "feel the heat of the tangerine, see that girl, hear her scream, kicking the dancing queen" and hot chocolate's "I remove umbilicals, where you from?" and the Falco hit "I'm potatoes, I'm potatoes, I'm potatoes, I'm potatoes oh oh I'm Potatoes".

More recent cases have included Taylor Swift with "the bakers gonna bake, bake, bake, bake, bake" and "I'm begging you for Birdseed, birdseed, birdseed" by Duffy

Mondegreens are not confined to modern songs either, O Fortuna by Carl Orff can be misheard as "This octopus, it has new boots, send it to North Korea" not that the original lyrics were in English to begin with. The classic hymn "while shepherds washed their socks by night while watching BBC.." was often sung in our school assembled.

And my personal Mondegreen "After the poison summer has gone" from the Eagles "Boys of Summer"

The comedian Peter Kay shared his "wash your back for good" and "staple the vicar" on YouTube which will make you laugh and you will find many more mondegreens out there.

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