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Songs you "misheard" the first time you heard them

Reverend said:
Not strictly 'misheard' lyrics but when someone subtitles a song in a foreign language in English the results can be hilarious.
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Not exactly "hilarious" but when Mocedades had their one hit "Eres Tu" back in 1974, the "B" side was allegedly the English version but the lyrics were entirely different when translated:

This site has multiple user-posted translations of the original.
That same site posted the English lyrics for the "B" side as sung.

Quite a difference.
 
kevtronics said:
The lyrics to "99 Luftballons" were also changed quite a bit when they made the English version.
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Add "Sukiyaki" to this list. The English version by A Taste of Honey was in no way a translation of Kyu Sakamoto's Japanese original. And, as most everyone must know by now, neither set of lyrics has anything to do with sukiyaki. The title was a random Japanese word chosen by someone at the American label that released Sakamoto's song here, just to drive home, with what passed at the time for humor, the novelty of a song on American radio being sung in Japanese.
 
Bongwater said:
For decades (since I was a little kid until just recently), I actually thought the chorus of "Bennie And The Jets" went;

She's got electric boobs!
Her mom has two!
You know I read it in a magazine!

It was really:

She's got electric boots!
A mohair suit!
You know I read it in a magazine!

I'm so lucky this never came up any time I had a karaoke mic shoved in my face......
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So I'm not the only one who heard it as "electric boobs" instead of "electric boots"! But, frankly, even though I know it is wrong, I like that version of the lyric better than the correct version.
 
K.M. Richards said:
Indeed. Thanks for adding that to the exception list.
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During the 60's, Rock 'n' Roll surged into the music scene in Mexico. A huge percentage of the songs were covers of U.S. Top 40 hits. Some were fairly good translations, but many had totally different lyrics.

The PD of XEOY, Radio Mil, one of the Top 40 stations in that era in Mexico City (Radio Mil, La DF, Radio ´Éxitos, Radio Variedades) had a side gig doing the lyrics of a huge percentage of those songs. The record labels with pop artists hired him to write Spanish lyrics, probably knowing that he'd give preference to those songs at Radio Mil.

Payola was legal in Mexico.

The effects of United States Top 40 songs and artists were so great that we even saw top groups named Los Hooligans, Los Johnny Jets, Los Rocking Devils, Los Teen Tops, Los Hitters, Los Blue Caps, Los Gibson Boys and many more. It was not until the very late 60's and early 60's that we started seeing many more original songs written and composed in México that this obsession with English names for groups and translated pop songs faded away.

One of my tasks as an intern at XERC in Mexico City in 1963 was to create the "bilingues 7-90" which were mixes of the original English language song and the local Spanish language version. Essentially, it was the first verse in English, and a transition to the second verse during the "bridge" to the Spanish language one. Because I was the closest to being bilingual at the station, I got to do a bunch of those... facilitated by the fact that the strict union contract did not have a clause about "remixes".
 
CTListener said:
Add "Sukiyaki" to this list. The English version by A Taste of Honey was in no way a translation of Kyu Sakamoto's Japanese original. And, as most everyone must know by now, neither set of lyrics has anything to do with sukiyaki. The title was a random Japanese word chosen by someone at the American label that released Sakamoto's song here, just to drive home, with what passed at the time for humor, the novelty of a song on American radio being sung in Japanese.
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I seem to remember another English language hit version of "Sukiyaki", also a love song as was A Taste of Honey's version, a few years before or after but I can't find any reference to it.
 
Mike in Destin said:
"Don't bring me down, Bruce."

How about songs that sound alike?
Genesis "Misunderstanding" sounds like Sly and the Family Stone "Hot fun in the summertime " (dum dum dum dum dum).
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🎵 There must be some misummerstanding ... 🎵 :p
 
michael hagerty said:
1979 on a monaural AM radio? Maybe a pocket transistor?

C'mon.

And, while we're at it, a LOT of people didn't listen to pop music radio closely. That's not what it was for.
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"Cruel To Be Kind" is a fairly well known saying. "Cool to be kind" makes little sense. It's inexplicable to me that someone could misunderstand that song unless they truly were not really listening...
 
tbolt909 said:
"Cruel To Be Kind" is a fairly well known saying. "Cool to be kind" makes little sense.
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Just the opposite. I've never hear the "Cruel to be Kind" expression other than as a song title. "Cool to be Kind" makes a lot of sense in negative times like today.
tbolt909 said:
It's inexplicable to me that someone could misunderstand that song unless they truly were not really listening...
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Well, lets start with ESL listeners... even listeners in ESL households. There are about 50 million documented in that category. Add in their families, and you have a quarter of all Americans.

Then there are those who, back then, as Michael said, listened to AM stations that tried to never let the modulation meter fall below 90%. And then there were people who "thought it said that" and never considered they might have heard it wrong.
 
What if the singer "misheard" a song? That's apparently how the lyrics to The Band's "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down" were changed in Joan Baez's version.
 
DavidEduardo said:
Just the opposite. I've never hear the "Cruel to be Kind" expression other than as a song title. "Cool to be Kind" makes a lot of sense in negative times like today.
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The title is a play on words, a twist on the common expression "cool to be kind." It wasn't used in that late '70s hit as any sort of commentary on the times. Like most other pop hits, it was a relationship song.
 
A couple of mine I haven't seen noted yet;
"All Right Now" - Free
"let's move before they raise the parking rate" heard as "let's move before they raise the f-'in rent"
"Rapture" - Blondie
"finger popping" heard as "finger f-king"
Some Taylor Swift song where she sings about going out dressed up like hipsters heard as dressed up like Hitler.

b-turner said:
Night Ranger's Sister Christian: I always hear "Motorhead what's your price to fight".
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I was working weekend overnight at an AOR when that song was current. Had one guy call up and want to hear "the Motorhead song". I don't think we played anything by that band, but he insisted we did. "The Motorhead song!!" The only lyrics he knew were "Motorhead driving thru the night". Finally figured out what song he was talking about. Then there was the caller who insisted that Bono from U2 was married to Cher but that's a story for another day. :rolleyes:
Working at that station convinced me that no one even remotely normal listened to AOR stations in the middle of the night. :LOL:
 


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