Whether you get the lyrics wrong on purpose because you’re an immature kid at heart, or you simply never learned the right words, we all have some famous songs that we never hear as the artist intended. Some of these misinterpretations are more commonly experienced than others—including a handful of misheard song lyrics that are probably more well known than the real ones. Here are 30 classic song lines that we just can’t get right.
1 | “Tiny Dancer,” Elton John
UniWhat the lyrics are: "Hold me closer, tiny dancer."
What people hear: "Hold me closer, Tony Danza."
There was no going back to hearing this line as intended, once Who’s the Boss? made actor Tony Danza a household name. Even Elton John would probably agree that a hug from that lovable lunk doesn’t sound half bad. And for more music nostalgia, This Was Most Likely the Prom Song the Year You Graduated High School
2 | “Drift Away,” Uncle Kracker
LavaWhat the lyrics are: “Give me the beat, boys, and free my soul.”
What people hear: “Give me the Beach Boys and free my soul.”
The already wistful nature of “Drift Away” made the notion of Uncle Kracker asking for someone to put on Pet Sounds not all that unreasonable. It’s hard to fault anyone who got this one wrong—just try to not get lost in the rock and roll of “Caroline, No.”
3 | “Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap,” AC/DC
AtlanticWhat the lyrics are: “Dirty deeds, and they’re done dirt cheap.”
What people hear: “Dirty deeds and the Thunder Jeep.”
Bon Scott does a fine job conveying the toughness of the song’s hitman protagonist, but his dirty deeds would undoubtedly be a bit cooler if he weren't doing them while driving around in some Mad Max-esque “Thunder Jeep.”
4 | “Waterfalls,” TLC
LaFaceWhat the lyrics are: “Don’t go chasing waterfalls.”
What people hear: “Don’t go, Jason Waterfalls.”
Despite the song’s title being right there to reference, some people are nevertheless convinced that the members of TLC are begging a man named Jason Waterfalls to stay. And for more heart-healing songs, here are The 100 Best Breakup Songs of All Time.
5 | “It’s Gonna Be Me,” NSYNC
JiveWhat the lyrics are: “It’s gonna be me.”
What people hear: “It’s gonna be May.”
Justin Timberlake’s playful pronunciation of the word “me” in this NSYNC hit not only confused some listeners, but has also turned the line into a meme that we will be subjected to every April 30th until the end of time.
6 | “Purple Haze,” Jimi Hendrix
RepriseWhat the lyrics are: “‘Scuse me while I kiss the sky.”
What people hear: “‘Scuse me while I kiss this guy.”
“Purple Haze” came out just in time for 1967’s Summer of Love, so it wouldn’t have been too out there for Jimi Hendrix to ask for a moment to go smooch a dude. But no, he was actually just talking about the sky above.
7 | “Dancing Queen,” ABBA
AtlanticWhat the lyrics are: “See that girl, watch that scene, digging the dancing queen.”
What people hear: “See that girl, watch her scream, kicking the dancing queen.”
The dancing queen could probably stand to be taken down a peg or two, but she does not deserve to be kicked, so it’s nice that the loud woman attacking her is merely the figment of some ABBA fans’ imaginations. And for more record-breaking hits, This Was the Best-Selling Album the Year You Were Born.
8 | “Bad Moon Rising,” Creedence Clearwater Revival
Universal Music GroupWhat the lyrics are: “There is a bad moon on the rise.”
What people hear: “There is a bathroom on the right.”
Directions to the lavatory are usually quite helpful, but they work best when tailored to a specific location. Creedence Clearwater Revival was just talking about a bad moon on the rise in their song about impending doom.
9 | “Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This),” Eurythmics
RCAWhat the lyrics are: “Sweet dreams are made of this.”
What people hear: “Sweet dreams are made of these.”
One of the more technical nitpicks on this list comes from the Eurythmics’ biggest hit. Annie Lennox sings “this” in such a bizarre way that a ton of people reasonably assumed she was saying “these,” which still works. Those who think she's saying that "sweet dreams are made of cheese," however, should try to listen more carefully.
10 | “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” Nirvana
DGCWhat the lyrics are: “Here we are now, entertain us.”
What people hear: “Here we are now, in containers”
Kurt Cobain's purposefully obtuse and mumbly lyrics can indeed be hard to parse sometimes, but give the man more credit. The true lyrics for “Smells Like Teen Spirit” are better than the bad high school poetry of “in containers.”
11 | “We Will Rock You,” Queen
ElektraWhat the lyrics are: “Kicking your can all over the place…”
What people hear: “Kicking your cat all over the place…”
People who know about Freddie Mercury’s personal life know that he had many cats that he absolutely adored. The idea of him including a line about feline violence in a Queen song is patently absurd.
12 | “Single Ladies (Put a Ring in It),” Beyoncé
ColumbiaWhat the lyrics are: “...hold me tighter than my Deréon jeans.”
What people hear: “...hold me tighter than my very own jeans.”
Because we’re not all experts in circa 2008 women’s fashion, it’s understandable that many would misinterpret Beyoncé’s shoutout to the clothing brand. But since House of Deréon is, in fact, co-owned by the singer, the misheard version is just as true a statement.
13 | “Rio,” Duran Duran
CapitolWhat the lyrics are: “Like a birthday or a pretty view.”
What people hear: “Like a birthday or a preview.”
It’s already sort of a lazy compliment to tell a woman she looks “like a pretty view,” as Duran Duran does in the song’s real lyrics. So is saying she looks like “a preview” any worse? At least that’s confusing enough to be interesting.
14 | “I Can See Clearly Now,” Johnny Nash
EpicWhat the lyrics are: “I can see clearly now, the rain is gone.”
What people hear: “I can see clearly now, Lorraine is gone.”
Yes, it would be incredibly funny if Johnny Nash was singing about his elation at being rid of a thorn in his side named Lorraine. In reality, he’s just talking about the weather—and even that’s probably just a metaphor.
15 | “Desperado,” The Eagles
AsylumWhat the lyrics are: “You’ve been out ridin’ fences for so long now.”
What people hear: “You’ve been outright offensive for so long now.”
It’s a song about a cowboy, and a thing cowboys do is ride their horse around the perimeter of a pasture, checking the fence for breaches. One could presumably still be outright offensive while doing this lonely work, but that’s not what the Eagles had in mind.
16 | “I Want to Hold Your Hand,” The Beatles
CapitolWhat the lyrics are: “I can’t hide.”
What people hear: “I get high.”
Of course the Fab Four weren’t singing about substance abuse in 1963: Given the era and the stage of their careers, it makes no sense that such a line would end up on a track. That logic did not stop many people, including Bob Dylan, from mistakenly assuming otherwise.
17 | “Don’t Bring Me Down,” Electric Light Orchestra
Virgin EMIWhat the lyrics are: “Don’t bring me down, groose.”
What people hear: “Don’t bring me down, Bruce.”
It’s hard to give anyone a hard time for thinking Jeff Lynne is singing “Bruce” in “Don’t Bring Me Down,” when he himself admits he made up “groose” as a lyrical filler word. What gives him the right? Now he just sings the wrong lyrics anyway.
18 | “Rock the Casbah,” The Clash
EpicWhat the lyrics are: “Rockin’ the Casbah, rock the Casbah.”
What people hear: “Lock the taskbar, lock the taskbar.”
Nothing would be more punk than for The Clash to suddenly shift gears, mid-song, to start talking about computer keyboards, but the chorus to “Rock the Casbah” is about partying in the face of governmental oppression, which is cool enough as is.
19 | “Africa,” Toto
ColumbiaWhat the lyrics are: “I bless the rains down in Africa.”
What people hear: “I miss the rains down in Africa.”
People were likely just giving Toto the benefit of the doubt by assuming those lyrics were the band reminiscing about a beautiful storm during a past trip, but nope. This Los Angeles-based rock band was, for some reason, blessing the rains in Africa.
20 | “All of Me,” John Legend
ColumbiaWhat the lyrics are: “My head’s under water, but I’m breathing fine.”
What people hear: “My head’s under water, but I’m breathing fire.”
In either interpretation of this song’s lyrics, John Legend is living up to his surname and flexing a superhuman power. Which would you prefer?
21 | “Rock and Roll All Nite,” KISS
CasablancaWhat the lyrics are: “I want to rock and roll all night, and party every day.”
What people hear: “I want to rock and roll all night, and part of every day.”
Once you reach a certain age, rock and roll-ing only part of every day sounds way more appealing than the other option, so maybe this mishearing can be partially chalked up to aging KISS fans’ wishful thinking.
22 | “Anaconda,” Nicki Minaj
RepublicWhat the lyrics are: “...and when we done I make him buy me Balmain."
What people hear: “...and when we done I make him buy me lo mein.”
Nicki Minaj more than likely has had her former lovers buy her meals, and some of those may very well have included the popular Chinese noodle dish, but in this “Anaconda” bar, she’s talking about luxury fashion.
23 | “Livin’ on a Prayer,” Bon Jovi
IslandWhat the lyrics are: “It doesn’t make a difference if we make it or not.”
What people hear: “It doesn’t make a difference if we’re naked or not.”
Context and location are incredibly important factors in whether or not it makes a difference if someone is naked. Jon Bon Jovi understands this, which is why he didn’t make claims to the contrary in “Livin’ on a Prayer.”
24 | “Respect,” Aretha Franklin
AtlanticWhat the lyrics are: “R-E-S-P-E-C-T, take care, TCB.”
What people hear: “R-E-S-P-E-C-T, take out T-C-P.”
If you’ve ever listened to “Respect” and tried to figure out the anagram word-scramble puzzle of adding then subtracting letters, you’re not alone. In actuality, after spelling out the titular word, Aretha Franklin sang “take care, TCB,” which is an acronym for “take care of business.”
25 | “Blowin' in the Wind,” Bob Dylan
ColumbiaWhat the lyrics are: “The answer, my friend, is blowin’ in the wind.”
What people hear: “The ants are my friends, they’re blowin’ in the wind.”
It’s doubtful that anyone truly ever believed that Bob Dylan was singing about watching his bug buddies carried away by a sudden gust, but it’s fun to imagine what his reaction would have been.
26 | “Like a Virgin,” Madonna
Warner Bros.What the lyrics are: “Like a virgin, touched for the very first time.”
What people hear: “Like a virgin, touched for the thirty-first time.”
It’s really none of our business how many times Madonna’s been touched, but in the chorus for “Like a Virgin,” she was singing about first contact. Just note the title.
27 | “Wannabe,” Spice Girls
VirginWhat the lyrics are: “Slam your body down and wind it all around.”
What people hear: “Slam your body down, the wine is all around.”
There could certainly be a correlation between slamming your body down and the wine freely flowing. Still, the Spice Girls were not singing about such bacchanalias in “Wannabe.”
28 | “Another Brick in the Wall,” Pink Floyd
ColumbiaWhat the lyrics are: “No dark sarcasm in the classroom.”
What people hear: “No docks or chasms in the classroom.”
Unless you’re getting an education in marine biology or bridge construction, chasms and docks really don’t have any place in the classroom. Pink Floyd was talking about the English education system’s intolerance for non-conformity here.
29 | “Israelites,” Desmond Dekker
UniWhat the lyrics are: “‘Darling,’ she said, ‘I was yours to be seen.’”
What people hear: “‘Darling,’ she said, ‘was yours too greasy?’”
Desmond Dekker’s thick Jamaican patois wasn’t easy for American ears to parse when “Israelites” dropped in ‘68. Still, the “greasy” interpretation of that line doesn’t make a lick of sense.
30 | “Live and Let Die,” Wings
AppleWhat the lyrics are: “But if this ever-changing world in which we’re living...”
What people hear: “But if this ever-changing world in which we live in…”
If people remembered their grade school grammar lessons, they’d already know that “in which we live in” is redundant, but the wrong hearing of this line persists, whether heard in the Wings original or the Guns N’ Roses cover.
