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Misheard Song Lyrics -> Stories -> Chuck Berry

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!).


20th Century Masters: The Best Of Chuck Berry (Millennium Collection) album at Amazon.com
Chuck Berry's, "Bare Footin'"
The Misheard Lyrics:
bare puddin
The Real Lyrics:
Bare footin'
The Story: At a Southbend Silverhawks baseball game, they started playing that song and I leaned to my wife and said "bear puddin" she howled and said that the lyrics were Bare Footin for the sponsor of the night Barefoot wines. - Submitted by: jay glon
Chuck Berry's, "Johnny B. Goode"
The Misheard Lyrics:
His mother told him someday he would be a man
And he would be the leader of a railroad band.
The Real Lyrics:
His mother told him someday he would be a man
And he would be the leader of a big old band.
The Story: When my earliest hearings of this song (about the time it was in the movie "Back To The Future" in 1985) got me interested in it, I would listen and mishear this line as indicated above with the "railroad band" reference. Maybe my hearing was influenced by the the song's earlier reference to his playing his guitar beside a railroad track. In any event, I wondered what a railroad band might be. Maybe a band that played on trains? Or one that played beside railroad tracks like the song's title character did? - Submitted by: Marcia Todd
Chuck Berry's, "Nadine"
The Misheard Lyrics:
Nadine, let me inside you
The Real Lyrics:
Nadine Honey, is that you?
The Story: I was clicking through Facebook posts the day after he passed away, and happened upon a gig where he was playing this song with Keith Richards. I was getting ready to leave the house and getting things together when I heard this line coming out of my phone. Caused me to double back, put down my hustle and bustle and really listen closely. Even listening closely, I was sure he was really toeing the line of decency. I speculated about the story behind writing something so provocative, maybe pushed to it like "great balls of fire" from hearing about how sexual rock 'n' roll was? - Submitted by: Sean R White
Chuck Berry's, "Rock and Roll Music"
The Misheard Lyrics:
I took my loved one over 'cross the tracks
So we could hear 'em havin' whale attacks.
The Real Lyrics:
I took my loved one over 'cross the tracks
So we could hear the man a-wailin' sax.
The Story: I never could understand that line just from hearing the song; the above 'misheard' version is what it seemed to sound most like. Finally, when I sang it as a karaoke song, I learned the lyrics from the monitor. - Submitted by: Robert Jones
Chuck Berry's, "Roll Over Beethoven"
The Misheard Lyrics:
Roll over, Beethoven
Tell my jockey the news.
The Real Lyrics:
Roll over, Beethoven
Tell Tschaikowsky the news.
The Story: A high school friend of mine always asks a mutual friend who had a band in late 50's and early 60's to let onstage at a yearly 'oldies' charity format to sing Chuck Berry's 'Roll Over Beethoven'. Every year he belts out the same lyrics as noted above. We all die laughing and he's still not aware what he's doing. - Submitted by: Ed Brown
Chuck Berry's, "School Days"
The Misheard Lyrics:
Drop the corn right into the slop, you've gotta get somethin' that's really hot.
The Real Lyrics:
Drop the coin right into the slot, you've gotta hear somethin' that's really hot.
The Story: I thought he was still talking about lunch. - Submitted by: Anonymous
Chuck Berry's, "Too Much Monkey Business"
The Misheard Lyrics:
...Yokohama been bitin' in the wall.
Ohmeetree - Ohmeetrow...
The Real Lyrics:
...Yokohama - been fightin' in the war.
Army bunk - Army chow...
The Story: My interpretation of the lyrics at age 4, one of a stack of vintage 1950s 45s I played the grooves out of on an old mono turntable at the time. - Submitted by: Peter Werner
Chuck Berry's, "You Can Never Tell (C'est La Vie)"
The Misheard Lyrics:
And now the young monsieur and madame
Have run to Taco Bell.
or
And now the young monsieur and madame
Have run to Chaque Hôtel.
The Real Lyrics:
And now the young monsieur and madame
Have rung the chapel bell.
The Story: I don't know who it was that I heard singing this when I misheard these lines. That's because I heard it in the movie "Arthur And The Invisibles", but can't find its presence acknowledged on any soundtrack listing for that movie, let alone find a listing of who sang it therein. Anyhow, my first mishearing is how the sound struck me at first, but I knew that couldn't be right; after all the song is probably older than Taco Bell. So I decided that the second misheard version above must be closer to what I actually heard. But on checking a lyrics site, I found out, not so! Neither a Taco Bell nor a hotel are involved in the real lyrics. But I did correctly hear the word "bell" after all. - Submitted by: Melissa Conway
Chuck Berry's, "You Never Can Tell"
The Misheard Lyrics:
They bought a souped-up Jimny, 'twas a cherry-red 53
The Real Lyrics:
They bought a souped-up jitney, 'twas a cherry-red 53
The Story: Searching Google for "SX53HDC" turns up an image of a two-tone red Suzuki Jimny with all-terrain tyres, lift kit, snorkel, light bar and a '53 license plate. There may be more to those Back To The Future shenanigans than his cousin Marvin was letting on. - Submitted by: Martin Pritchard
Indexes: [#] [A] [B] [C] [D] [E] [F] [G] [H] [I] [J] [K] [L] [M] [N] [O] [P] [Q] [R] [S] [T] [U] [V] [W] [Y] [Z]

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