The trouble with a thread like this is that when one of these songs come on the radio, you find yourself singing the wrong words to yourself, even though you know the right ones!
I was listening this morning, and "The Israelites" came on. I couldn't help but sing along with it, of course singing "Me Ears Are Alight"!

I was just about to add to this thread when I got home, a bit eerie that it was on top when I came in.

Tonight my son kept singing a little song and I could not figure out what he was saying, then I heard him sing it again, "Charm in the barnyard, two zits." I couldn't figure out what the heck he meant till he sang it a couple more times, then I corrected him, "It's Shave and a haircut, two bits."

My favorite song that he got wrong was "Youth of the Nation" the lyrics are, "We are, we are, the youth of the nation" my son kept singing, "We are, we are, two dalmations."

Shania Twain's "You're Still The One" -
"But just look at us holding on" is correct, but I can't help but hear "Just look at a scolded nun", since my friend misheard it that way.

Another religious one: "We are Family" by Sister Sledge - "Just Let me state for the record" sounds amazingly like "Just let me staple the vicar" - painful!

Two I particularly remember are 'Spare him his life for his warm sausages' (from this monstrosity) from 'Bohemian Rhapsody' and 'The best love songs are written with a broken arm' (heart) from 'All you get from love is a love song' Regards, Tin

When I was a kid I thought Cher was singing about "Gypsies, transom thieves".

Dang sneaky gypsies, stealing people's windows.

I knew a guy who thought Peter Gabriel's big hit was about a snakecharmer. I don't think we corrected him because we thought it was funnier that way.

The term mondegreen is named for, what else, a misheard song lyric. Dictionary.com gives this cryptic note:

[After (Lady) Mondegreen, a misinterpretation of the line (hae laid) him on the green, from the song “The Bonny Earl of Murray”.]

Someone called in on the radio once and asked about a misheard lyric from "Kiss Me" by Sixpence None The Richer.
Actual lyric: "Upon a hanging tire"
misheard lyric:"My bra is hanging tight"

Y'know, it dawned on me yesterday that two of my favourite Hollies songs, 'The Day Curly Billy Shot Down Crazy Sam McGee' and 'Long Cool Woman In a Black Dress', are made up of about 80% unintelligible lyrics. The beauty of that is, you can sing whatever you like, and you don't know that you're singing the wrong words!

To go back quite a bit, I too had trouble with "Our Lips Are Sealed"---I thought they were singing "Honest, I See You".

Have you ever mistaken song lyrics, and then when you finally find out the real words, realise that your mistaken ones made more sense anyway?!
A typical example of that, for me, was 'She Loves You'. For many years, I thought the line said, 'Mightn't hurt you to apologise to her.'
Then I got hold of the official sheet music. The line actually says, 'Quieten her to-do, apologise to her'. Huh?
After realising that McCartney can write lines like that, I realised that maybe I might have had a future as a songwriter after all!

Indie Queen has made 2 great quizzes on this topic: The Lyrics That You Heard That You Thought It Couldn't Be... But Was Anyway... they are good.

Just to show that superstars have a sense of humour too, I heard a live recording bt John Fogerty yeaterday, and he sang 'Bad Moon Rising'. Toward the end of the song, he DEFINITELY sang 'There's a bathroom on the right.'!

Some time ago, I wrote about "Judy In Disguise (With Glasses)" by John Fred and His Playboys. John Fred found his inspiration when he misheard the Beatles' "Lucy In The Sky with Diamonds" as "Lucy In Disguise".

I wonder if there's any other songs that were inspired by misheard lyrics?

tjoeb};>

Just before Christmas, my friends and I had a little party and listened to a CD with modern arrangements of traditional Christmas songs.
In one of the songs (I can't remember which one, but it doesn't really matter) the background singers sang "Mary's boy child" over and over again. (just that phrase)
Near the end of the song, my friend asked :"Why do they sing 'Harry Potter! Harry Potter' "
When we listened to the song again, of course we all heard "Harry Potter" and kept singing it all night

When I was little, I swore that Jimi Hendrix was singing "Angel, where you going with that gun in your hand?" instead of "Hey Joe, where you going with that gun in your hand." I thought the song was called "Angel."

My nephew sings the "Double, Double Toil and Trouble" song from Harry Potter as "Double, Double Toilet Trouble." We always laugh too hard to correct him.

Y'know, I've always heard the line "you know the preacher likes the cold" as "you know the preacher lights the coals". Sounds logical, doesn't it? Keep from freezing his butt off! There's my long-time Mondegreen from "California Dreaming" (one of my all-time favorite rock songs)!

tjoeb};>

Tjoeb, you might not believe it, but that's exactly what I was singing too, until, well... I'd say about 3 minutes ago, when I read your post.
For one second I wasn't sure if I should believe you or myself, but then I just assumed you're someone who knows what he is talking about (plus I double checked the lyrics )
But, I actually decided I'll stick with my version, because it makes more sense to me.

Don't know if anyone remembers Shalamr, funk band from the 80s, their song "There It Is" sounds remarkably like it should actually be called "Ferret Ears".

Simon and Garfunkel's "Cecilia"...very easy to mistake the lyric "you're shaking my confidence daily" for "you're shaking my carpet of daydreams".

But my favourite is from Dylan's wonderful "Lily, Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts"...when he sings that "Rosemary combed her hair and took a carriage into town" I cold swear he's saying she went into town accompanied by a cabbage

For many years I thought "Jumpin' Jack Flash, it's a gas, gas, gas" was " Jumpin' Jack Flash, it's a silk sash bash".

I'm still laughing about the '45 versions of a pelican'! I thought it sounded like that too! One I thought of was 'Everglade' by L7, which starts 'Glade told her ma, home scene's lame'. For ages I thought it said 'Glade told her my horse is lame'. Neither makes that much sense though, I suppose.

This one seemed such a radical schism when my husband told me about it, i had to get out the CD and listen for it. Dang if Metallica isn't singing "It's State Patrol" when it says on the insert the song is "Sad but True"...

I used to think the line from the Stones "Brown Sugar" was "how come you taste so good" instead of "How come you dance so good". Then again, knowing Mick, it's easy to make that mistake.
Another one I did was mistaking "Hello mudduh, Hello fadduh here I am in Camp Granada" as "Hello Mudduh, Hello fadduh, here I am in Ensenada". I even argued the point with a guy once. Boy did I feel stupid later.

In the song War Pigs by Black Sabbath, the line where Ozzy shouts "Oh Lord yeah!" sounds curiously like "Oh lawn chair!"

It's a fun substitute during karaoke

jubal, I'm almost positive "how come you taste so good" IS the correct lyric for Brown Sugar. Maybe you were right all along!

There are a couple of these misheard lyrics that spring to mind. My daughter always used to like singing along to whatever was on the radio and the two I particularly remember are
The Stranglers 'Golden Brown' where she used to sing "lay me down with my machine gun" Now im not altogether sure of the correct lyrics I think it was something to do with 'manchira'? or maybe that is my misheard version.
The second one was 'Je sans frontiere' dont know who sang it but instead of "war without tears" she would sing "walls that have ears"

A favourite of mine was my mam asking me about that song "that bakes half a pie" She meant "MacArthur Park"