6 misheard lyrics
We’ve all been there. It goes something like this: You’re on a roadtrip with all your friends. All of you are loudly singing along with the blaring music. You are naively having the best time of your life, when everyone suddenly stops. The driver turns the music down. Everyone turns to look at you (except the driver, who instead makes intense eye contact through the rearview mirror). Someone asks about the lyrics you just sang, and you hesitantly tell them as you realize that you have made a serious mistake. Everyone laughs, someone corrects you and you are shamed for the rest of your life for those incorrect lyrics.
You’re not alone. Here are some funny ones that you may have heard (or misheard).
My editor came in hot with this one. For the song “Maneater” by Daryl Hall and John Oates, she always heard “Anteater” instead of “Maneater.” Watch out, boy, she'll chew you up! She's an anteater.
From my roommate: When she was young, she heard “Satellite Blue” in the song “Stuck Like Glue” by Sugarland. Woah oh, woah oh, satellite blue, you and me, baby, we’re satellite blue.
For the people who turned to TikTok at the beginning of the pandemic, one of the trending sounds featured the song “Roses” by SAINt JHN, remixed by Imanbek. The misheard lyrics varied, but my favorite translation was “I was in a corner with a bag of screaming goats.” For those who don’t know, the actual lyrics are “I walked in the corner with the body screaming dolo.” Now you know.
From one of our lovely music majors on campus, the Drake and Josh theme “I Found a Way” by Drake Bell includes the line, “It's gonna take some time, to realign.” This student was not alone. A relatively large group heard “realize” instead of “realign.” Drake Bell officially confirmed that the word was “realign.”
Another trending lyric was from “Feels” by Calvin Harris. The correct lyrics are “And do you mind if I steal a kiss? A little souvenir, can I steal it from you?” The twisted (and more fun) lyrics go something like: “Do you mind if I steal a kid, sir? Little Susan there, can I steal her from you?”
Language barriers are great opportunities for misheard lyrics, and I believe the most famous is the Latin classical piece “O Fortuna” by German composer Carl Orff. The original song translates to a dramatic piece about a character arc and how fate turns quickly. If you don’t listen closely, you’ll hear, “This octopus, let’s give him boots. Send him to North Korea! Ow, papercut! Sandpaper, ah!”
By Annelise Jacobs