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!).
Fear of Music album at Amazon.com
Vernon down the house
Burning down the house
The Story: Since I live in Vernon, NJ, who else could hear it that way? - Submitted by: Cody Finke
Thief of London, Small City
Think of London, Small City
The Story: I thought the "Thief of London" was a historical criminal along the lines of Jack the Ripper - Submitted by: MJ
We are one with our eyesight
We are one with our sin.
We are born without eyesight
We are born without sin.
The Story: Back in the mid-80s, when I was in college in North Carolina, my roommate's girlfriend said 'Making Flippy Floppy' was her favorite song from 'Speaking in Tongues'...because she read so much meaning into the line: 'We are one with our eyesight/We are one with our sin.' I felt bad about breaking the news to her that she had misheard the lyric. I love the song, but I like my friend's take on that particular line better than the original. - Submitted by: Barry
Come and ride your whores
In the night,
in the night
Come and ride your whores
Come and ride your horse
In the night,
in the night
Come and ride your horse
The Story: I bought the Talking Heads cd 'True Stories' recently. The new Spacehog song 'I Want To Live' had just come out on the radio. It has a line that says 'You shine like an angel and ride like a whore'. I probably had the two songs confused. But you have to admit, 'horse' does kind of sound like 'whores'... - Submitted by: Heather
Seiko killer
Psycho killer
The Story: When I was young and didn't know English very well, I always heard "Seiko killer" in stead of "psycho killer" when this song was played on the radio. Seiko is a Japanese manufacturer of watches. In German it's pronounced like "psycho" in this song. I only found out the real text when I've first seen it in writing, maybe on a record or on TV. - Submitted by: Stefan Heimers
We’re on a ride to Norway
We’re on a ride to nowhere
The Story: It made me think how they would be on a road to Norway. - Submitted by: Cody Finke
Dive to the bottom
And we never come up
I poke a body for Bob and mama
Dive to the bottom
And we never come up
A polka party for Bob and Martha
The Story: At this part in the song, they were talking about being on a boat that lost it's rudder... I thought the guy was poking at dead bodies with a stick for fun. I assumed Bob was his brother and his mom and brother used to do stuff like this for fun, but they weren't there, or they died when they dived to the bottom and never came up, therefore the guy is sitting here poking at dead bodies in the memory of his mom and brother. This really makes no sense, but the real lyrics make even less sense... - Submitted by: Heather
I'm wearin' four v*****s.
I'm wearin' fur pajamas.
The Story: I've known this song for years, but I never knew all the words- only bits and pieces of it. It came on my ipod one day as I was cooking, and I randomly decide to pay attention to the lyrics so I could finally learn all of the lyrics. First line in and I was amusingly baffled because that was all I could hear! I even stopped cooking to rewind but that still didn't help. I finally had to leave the kitchen to look it up and get it right. - Submitted by: Rosa
There are more Talking Heads misheard lyrics available.
New entries in this section are currently reviewed by Brian Kelly. Previous editors (if any) are listed on the editors page.
