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!).
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Across my dreams, with nymphs of wonder
I chase the bright elusive butterfly of love.
Across my dreams, with nets of wonder
I chase the bright elusive butterfly of love.
The Story: I never could hear the simple word 'nets' on just listening to the song. My mind seemed to hear the word 'nymphs' instead, lending I suppose a more eerie romantic mood to the song. Only when I eventually sang this as a karaoke song did I finally learn that the word was simply 'nets'. - Submitted by: Robert Jones
Don't be concerned, it will not harm you
It's only neighbors doing something I'm not sure of
Don't be concerned, it will not harm you
It's only me pursuing something I'm not sure of
The Story: I misheard these lyrics when I was eight years old, and my family thought it was deliriously funny; from that point on, any strange or unidentified noise would be explained by family members as 'only neighbors doing something I'm not sure of.' - Submitted by: Mark Besten
Ike Chase deprived all Lucy's butterflies of love.
I chase the bright, elusive butterfly of love.
The Story: Back when I was a middle school student, I was at the home of my older sister who was already married. My brother-in-law was listening to some of his favorite oldies discs, and that's how I heard this song for the first time. It made a considerable impression on me, and a while later I was singing part of it, with the above misheard lyrics. My brother-in-law chuckled and said, 'What's that you said?' I told him and he broke out laughing uncontrollably. Later when I halfway convinced him that I wasn't singing it funny on purpose but really thought I'd heard the words that way, he told me that it was interesting, and that 'Lucy's Butterfly' might be an actual kind of butterfly. He got out a butterfly book and showed how a lot of real kinds of butterflies have girls' names. But he couldn't find a Lucy's Butterfly after all. He decided he must have gotten the idea by confusion from Lucy's Warbler, which he knows to be a real kind of bird. - Submitted by: Miranda Turner
New entries in this section are currently reviewed by Brian Kelly. Previous editors (if any) are listed on the editors page.