Misheard Song Lyrics -> Stories -> Beatles
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. For more information about the misheard lyrics available on this site, please read our FAQ.
This page contains a list of the songs that have stories about their misheard lyrics submitted.
Song names are sorted by first letter, excluding A and The. This is sorted by song title only, not by song title and performer. So if two different performers preformed the same song, you'll see misheard lyrics for both on the same page (provided the song title was spelt the same both times, and misheard lyrics have been submitted for both!).
Abbey Road album at Amazon.com
Beatles', "Across The Universe"
The Misheard Lyrics:
Ooooh, David, Oh.
The Real Lyrics:
Jai guru deeva om.
The Story: I was belting out in song in my room when I thought my roommate was gone. He was listeing to me from the hall as I was singing, 'Ooooh David! As soon as he could stop laughing, he corrected me. - Submitted by: PoKey_Penguin
Beatles', "Across the Universe"
The Misheard Lyrics:
My guru's name is Love
The Real Lyrics:
Jai guru deva om
The Story: Whenever I sing along to this song ( one of my favorites) I sing these words. I have since I first heard it. It's not an obscure mantra. It's plain english. It fits. Try it and you'll agree...Nothing's gonna change my world. - Submitted by: Steve
Beatles', "And I Love Her"
The Misheard Lyrics:
She gives me everything, and tender veal
The Real Lyrics:
She gives me everything, and tenderly
The Story: It never crossed my mind that I might be wrong about these lyrics. I sang them, unexamined, for ca. 20 years before it dawned on me that my version was patently absurd. But hey, maybe tender veal is a British thing...who can say? - Submitted by: Byron Brehm-Stecher
Beatles', "Eleanor Rigby"
The Misheard Lyrics:
All the lovely people,
Where do they all come from
Where do they all come from
The Real Lyrics:
All the lonely people,
Where do they all come from
Where do they all come from
The Story: I heard one of my older brothers singing 'lovely' instead of 'lonely'. When I told him he got it wrong he replied something like, 'I know, but I want a happy song right now.' - Submitted by: Dolf Lowey-Ball
Beatles', "Get Back"
The Misheard Lyrics:
Jo Jo was a man who thought he was an owner
But he knew it couldn't last
Jo Jo left his home in Tucson, Arizona
Boston, California past.
But he knew it couldn't last
Jo Jo left his home in Tucson, Arizona
Boston, California past.
The Real Lyrics:
Jo Jo was a man who thought he was a loner
But he knew it couldn't last
Jo Jo left his home in Tucson, Arizona
For some California grass.
But he knew it couldn't last
Jo Jo left his home in Tucson, Arizona
For some California grass.
The Story: I knew that what I was singing made no sense at all, but I didn't find out the real lyrics until I came across this website and realized I'm not the only one who's had trouble with this song. - Submitted by: Erinn
Beatles', "Get Back"
The Misheard Lyrics:
Jojo was a man who thought he was a woman
But he was another man.
But he was another man.
The Real Lyrics:
Jojo was a man who thought he was a loner
But he knew it wouldn't last.
But he knew it wouldn't last.
The Story: A couple of weeks ago I found out by accident on the Internet that I'd been wrong about this for 33 years. I thought Jojo was a confused transvestite, and that the Beatles were being rather intolerant by telling him to get back to where he once belonged. - Submitted by: Mitch Monger
Beatles', "Let It Be"
The Misheard Lyrics:
Speaking words of wiz-bum.
The Real Lyrics:
Speaking words of wisdom.
The Story: My four year old song asks my wife out of the blue one day, 'Mom, what's a wiz-bum?' As you can imagine, her imagination went wild. Did he crack the parental code on the Spice Channel? Did he pick this up at pre-school? So she asks, 'What are you talking about?' He says, 'You know (sings) 'Speaking words of wiz-bum, Let it Be.' Proud that our four year old had such good musical taste for a kid his age, and trying no to laugh out, she explained the correct words to him. The Beatles, and particularly the Let It Be album, remain his favorites. - Submitted by: Paul Cranage
Beatles', "Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds"
The Misheard Lyrics:
You've paid the tax, he's the queer of the shore.
The Real Lyrics:
Newspaper taxis appear on the shore.
The Story: I listened to this song and thought that line was incredibly stupid. (So was the rest of the song.) When I told my obsessive Beatles-fan friend what I thought they were, she screamed at me as if I had seen the Rocky Horror Show too many times. - Submitted by: different sort of freak
Beatles', "Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds"
The Misheard Lyrics:
Brown paper packages leer on the chore
The Real Lyrics:
Newspaper taxis appear on the shore
The Story: I was about 8 when I first heard this one. My dad was a fanatic, so I asked him how brown paper packages could leer. He laughed and corrected me. Not bad? Well, we were carting home all of my friends the night after my sleepover party, where I had told my friends that I knew the lyrics to every beatles song. Extreme Embarrassment!!! - Submitted by: Eva
Beatles', "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds"
The Misheard Lyrics:
Lucy in the sky would die.
The Real Lyrics:
Lucy in the sky with diamonds
The Story: My mom never quite grew out of her Beatle Phase. So I grew up listening to Beatles & 60's music, then later moving on to 80's. When I was little, I would sing 'Lucy in the Sky would Die' because it's what I thought they said. I never really thought about it until recently when I was getting my boyfriend into the 'Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band' Album CD. & showing him that there's more to music than Nirvana & other depressing music. (Yeah, I know the Beatles were one of Kurt's biggest influences.) I started laughing, because I finally realized how dumb I must have sounded getting it wrong all of those years! - Submitted by: Casey Barden
Beatles', "Norwegian Wood"
The Misheard Lyrics:
So I let her fly
The Real Lyrics:
So I lit a fire
The Story: I didn't know the correct version until very recently--I thought my version made complete sense for more than 30 years! My husband (who told me the real lyrics) could not believe that I had missed the whole point of the song! - Submitted by: Ronne Randall
Beatles', "Obladi Oblada"
The Misheard Lyrics:
Ob-la-di, ob-la-da, lygozor, brah!... ly ly ly ly lygozor!
The Real Lyrics:
Ob-la-di, ob-la-da, life goes on, brah!... Life, Life, Life, Life, life goes on.
The Story: My sister was so sure the that song was about a «lygozor» (which she was thinking it was a type or dinausor ) haha - Submitted by: Katleen Rousseau
Beatles', "Paperback Writer"
The Misheard Lyrics:
Isn't that right, girl?
The Real Lyrics:
Paperback writer
The Story: I got busted once when a friend heard me singing the song to myself. She cracked up. I didn't have a clue why she was laughing so hard.I knew I was a bad singer, but man, how rude would that be for her to laugh out loud at my singing. 'Is that what you think the lyric is?', she eventually asked me. Even after she corrected me, I had a tough time accepting it until I next heard the song. - Submitted by: Merrell Vannier
Beatles', "Paperback Writer"
The Misheard Lyrics:
Take the back right turn
The Real Lyrics:
Paperback writer
The Story: College roommate sang this at the top of her lungs ten years ago...and thought it was correct..(of course, we were kind and didn't laugh and tell everyone....not!) - Submitted by: Laurie Ann Lawrence
Beatles', "Penny Lane"
The Misheard Lyrics:
Penny Lane is in my ears and in my mind
Wet beneath the blue suburban skies.
Wet beneath the blue suburban skies.
The Real Lyrics:
Penny Lane is in my ears and in my eyes
There, beneath the blue suburban skies.
There, beneath the blue suburban skies.
The Story: Didn't know I was singing this song wrong since 7th grade Then, I was looking through this list of misheard lyrics. 'Haha' I thought. 'These people are so stupid...wait...really? Is that how it goes?' Crap. - Submitted by: mojofarm
Beatles', "Penny Lane"
The Misheard Lyrics:
Candy Lane
or
Andy Lane
or
and Elaine
The Real Lyrics:
Penny Lane
The Story: My friend told me that at one time a friend of hers thought the line was Andy Lane. My friend thought it was and Elaine. The second person's sister misheard it off of her and thought it was Candy Lane! And what's funny is that there's actually a street in our area called Candy Lane! - Submitted by: Lindsey
Beatles', "Rain"
The Misheard Lyrics:
Nair
The Real Lyrics:
('rain' reversed)
The Story: As a child, Andy Partridge of XTC wondered why John Lennon was singing about his mother's depilotary cream, according to the Mojo Lennon special! - Submitted by: Pickle
Beatles', "The Ballad of John and Yoko"
The Misheard Lyrics:
Hear the groundhogs say,
you can get naked ok,
you can get married in the altar this way.
you can get naked ok,
you can get married in the altar this way.
The Real Lyrics:
Peter Brown called to say
you can make it okay,
you can get married in Gibraltar near Spain.
you can make it okay,
you can get married in Gibraltar near Spain.
The Story: My sister and I were singing this song along with the album one day, and I stopped short as she sang the wrong lyrics with gusto. I took the needle off the record and said, "WHAT do you think they're saying?!?" She said it, somewhat embarassed, and I informed her what the real lyrics were. This began the "Valerie, what HOW does this song go?" craze I suffered through most of my teenage years. - Submitted by: Valerie Duffy
Beatles', "Ticket To Ride"
The Misheard Lyrics:
My pee-pee don't care.
The Real Lyrics:
My baby don't care.
The Story: My 6 year old misheard this Lyric. We were listening to a Beatles Greatest Hits cd in the car. Near the end of this song when they repeat this line over and over he started laughing and asked, 'Why are they singing about their pee-pee's?' Listen to the song, it does sound like that is what they are saying! - Submitted by: Cathy
There are more Beatles misheard lyrics available.
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