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!).
Hats of for everything budding
Hats off for Edwin Beard Budding
The Story: I'm sure I'm not the only one who misheard this one. I don't know how I'm supposed to know that Edwin Beard Budding invented the lawnmower. This is a song about green bins so I just thought the lyrics had something to do with plants. - Submitted by: Ryan M Miller
Blue red yellow
Are the real colours
Blue red yellow
Are the real colours
Blue red yellow
Are the real colours
Blue red yellow
Are the real colours
New year, yellow
Pneumonia gallows
New year, yellow
Pneumonia gallows
New year, yellow
Pneumonia gallows
New year, yellow
Pneumonia gallows
The Story: I thought the chorus and the title of this song "Mr. Prism" were a reference to the album cover of The Dark Side of the Moon by Pink Floyd. This earlier album has a prism bending light into the different colors of the rainbow. - Submitted by: Ryan M Miller
Eyes wide shut, time runs out
Alligator motion
Head runs out, miracle now
Alligator days
Alligator motion
Eyes wide shut, time rounds up
Abacus in motion
Head plugged out, miracle doubt
All of this decays
Allocate emotion
The Story: My mind must still have been stuck on the music video for the song "The River" by another contemporary Australian psychedelic rock band, King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard. There is a scene in this other music video where seven cartoon alligators (or crocodiles?) swim down a river. - Submitted by: Ryan M Miller
Off the opium tower
Off the opium tower
Top of the old bell tower
Top of the old bell tower
The Story: A good portion of the band's song lyrics have something to do with drug trips, so I assumed they were singing about opium, a narcotic drug derived from poppies. - Submitted by: Ryan Miller
I've established gras foie mois
I establish ground for what
The Story: My assumption was that this was French for "fatty liver month" and it refers to the festival of Carnival where you party and drink until you destroy your liver before the start of Lent. Fun fact: The French equivalent of the term, mondegreen, is "Hallucination auditive". - Submitted by: Ryan Miller
Tesselation and rise up
Desolation riser
The Story: Tesselation is the act of laying tiles in such a way that there is no gap between them. - Submitted by: Ryan M Miller
I took another Shirley Temple, they're incredible, love!
I took an arbitrary gamble that required more luck
The Story: Assuming the song was about an alcoholic trying to sober-up, I guess I misheard the name of a non-alcoholic beverage. - Submitted by: Ryan M Miller
I've switched to ginger, different beers, and now I'm back on rum
I’ve switched to gin, tried different beers, and now I'm back on rum
The Story: I thought this song was about an alcoholic struggling to go sober. He tries drinking ginger ale but then he gradually shifts back to strong distilled beverages. - Submitted by: Ryan M Miller
Mutate
A shyga
Enhanced with
New day
Fresh angle
Enhancement
The Story: To this day, I still don't know what "Shyga!" means in the album name where this song is from "Shyga! The Sunlight Mound" - Submitted by: Ryan M Miller
You whack an old owl
You work it all out
The Story: I sincerely thought whacking an old owl was some kind of Australian slang idiom I'd never heard of. It never occurred to me that I was mishearing the vocals due to an Australian vowel shift. - Submitted by: Ryan M Miller
There are more Psychedelic Porn Crumpets misheard lyrics available.
New entries in this section are currently reviewed by Brian Kelly. Previous editors (if any) are listed on the editors page.
