Misheard lyrics (also called mondegreens) occur when people misunderstand the lyrics in a song. These are NOT intentional rephrasing of lyrics, which is called parody.
This page contains all the misheard lyrics for A Charge To Keep I Have that have been submitted to this site and the old collection from inthe80s started in 1996.
For more information about the misheard lyrics available on this site, please read our FAQ.
Hey Charles, to....keep
A charge to keep
Steven Wynn adds: "This is a famous misheard lyric in Southern Black Baptist churches for people who grew up in the 60's. It was sung very slow and mournful. What would happen is a person (usually an older black male) would speak first: "A Charge To Keep I Have, a God to glorify." Then the congregation would sing slowly: "A Charge......to.....keep..." Bit it sounded like they were saying, "Hey Charles!" Back in the day I had a friend whose name was Charles, he said when he'd go to his homeroom class in high school he would be greeted by "Hey Charles..." playfully sung, by his fellow students, in the manner we had all heard at church. Another famous one (from southern black churches in the 60's). Us kids would always sing this song at Easter: "Heroes! Jessie Rose!! "Heroes! Jessie Rose! But the real lyrics were: He rose. Yes He rose. He rose. Yes He rose. Just a few things your site should know, to make it even more thorough than it already is."
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