I would have thought we'd have a thread on this kicking around here somewhere, but I cannot find one. Misheard lyrics, aka 'mondegreens', can be hilarious. Sometimes I end up preferring them to the original lyrics, and sing them even after I find out what the correct lines are. The two most famous 'mondegreens' are probably 'There's a bathroom on the right' instead of 'There's a bad moon on the rise' and 'Excuse me while I kiss this guy' instead of 'Excuse me while I kiss the sky'. Here are a couple of mine to start things off:

'When I dropped that onion roll' instead of the correct 'When I jumped out on that road', from 'Running With the Devil' by Van Halen.

'Seen in the subway: Earth, Wind and Fire' instead of the correct 'Steam in the subway, earth is afire', from Duran Duran's 'Hungry Like the Wolf'.

I've already submitted these and others to a popular misheard lyric site. They posted them. I have tons more, but let's hear some of yours!

My husband swore that the lyric in Van Halen's "Jump" was:

"You've got to roll with punches and get to Montreal." He thought David Lee Roth was Canadian.

The actual lyric is:
"You've got to roll with the punches and get to what's real."

ROFL! That is hilarious!

England Dan and John Ford Coley: "I'm not talkin' bout my linen" instead of "I'm not talkin' bout movin' in."

Neil Diamond and that famous cleric, "Reverend Blue Jeans"
(What denomination was he?)

First heard in 1979, driving through Ohio: "Have you heard about the law, Susan?", instead of "have you heard about the lonesome loser?" (anyone remember this thing?)

Several friends of mine who swore that the lyric from the Springsteen song (covered with commercial success by Manfred Mann) "Blinded By the Light" was "Little Hurley Burley gave my anus curley-wurley." Of course this makes no sense, but neither do the actual lyrics!

Doug, I believe 'Blinded by the Light' is THE most quoted song on mis-heard lyrics sites, especially the second line
"...wrapped up like a deuce, another runner in the night..."
The meaning of the words is a total mystery to me

Well, at least you didn't have to live with a bunch of ninnies who insisted Springsteen was a genius... or did you?

While I have gotten caught in many traffic jams in New Jersey, on the NJTPK AND route 9, I have never seen any broken heroes on either of these legendary thoroughfares. Nor for that matter have I seen any amusement parks rising bold and stark, or anything approaching it. However, I do have to give the Boss points for audible '70's lyrics. He beats the heck out of Elton John. I remember driving back from Monticello Raceway sometime in '75 and having an argument with a bunch of horseplayers who claimed that the lyric in "Captain Fantastic" was "Battis needs a meal". (Paul Battis was a harness racing driver!)

A friend of mine thought that the line, in Hotel California, "warm smell of Callitas" (sp) was in fact "warm smell of police dust". He only found out that this was incorrect after singing it in public!!!!

A friend, eh? Suurrrre....It's always a 'friend' who mishears lyrics. I am just kidding, that is really funny. Actually, I had a friend (really) who thought the singer in Till Tuesday was singing 'This is scary' instead of 'Voices carry'.

Genius? Very doubtful, but you have to admit that without songs like 'Roll of the Dice', and 'Born in the USA', we would have a lot less air guitar players and very loud karaoke singers in the world...

I defy anyone to correctly interpret Elton John lyrics- he seems to sing in some dialect of English that I am not familiar with.

Mr. Dwight's lyrics are so eminently subject to
(mis)interpretation that in 1974, a DJ on AM RADIO (!!) in New York constantly referred to "Someone Saved My Life Tonight" as "Someone Shaved My Wife Tonight"... and got away with it!

Vis-a-vis David Lee Roth and the frozen north, I would simply note for the record that Mr. Roth was UNUSUALLY POLITE when Howard Stern made fun of him and suggested he was wearing a hair-weave (a reaction fully consonant with overt or even covert Canaditude). As for Montreal, it is well known that this heavily Catholic city nonetheless has a large Jewish demographic, and Mr. Roth just happens to be a member of the tribe. He claims Californian roots, but like MANY Canadians he is rather BRIGHT AND FUNNY. Could he be passing?

For years I thought the line "living in a powder keg and giving off sparks" from "Total Eclipse of the Heart" was "living in a poly gag and giving off sparks. One day it hit me what it was and made so much more sense! I always wondered what a poly gag was!

I already mentioned somewhere that I once asked my sister what an Amalsha Cup was. She told me it was really 'I'm All Shook Up' (Elvis). Well, I was only about 12 - 13 years old at the time!

Another misheard one was in 'Needles and Pins' by The Searchers. In that they sing the words, 'Hutna - Hutna'. For years I thought it was just one of those song phrases like 'shaboom shaboom' or something.

What they are really singing is 'Hurting her - Hurting her'.

I'll think of a good one eventually, I am going to make a shameless plug for our Quizzyland music quizzes as a few people have done these.

I'm drawing a blank...but I loved your story about Springsteen.
I've always wondered about his God like status myself, but I don't dare question it amongst a few of my old friends from high school, I'm not stupid!

You know that this is what generates about twenty percent of the errors in quizzyland in my opinion? People fighting over their version of a lyric?
You'll find that some of the "mondegreens" are so firmly entrenched in people's minds, that they just don't believe anything else.

I had a friend (no, really ) who thought that "Dressed for Success" by Roxette was "Dressed for safe sex"

My sister used to think the Oak Ridge Boys song "Bobbie Sue" was "Barbeque". She was just a little bitty thing at the time. She would walk around the house singing 'Barbeque, can't you see my love is true? I want to marry you...." It was cute.

Early 80's "Olive Cecile" for "Our Lips Are Sealed". Don't ask.

Around 76 or so I had genuine trouble figuring out why Frankie Valli was getting so worked up about what sounded like some Slavic woman. Though he "never laid a hand on" her, he nonetheless referred to her as "My Eizadorcha." My guess was that she was Czech, with blue eyes, blonde hair, long legs, and an accent so thick you could cut it with a knife.
Wassamatta, Frankie, you get bored with Italian girls, or what?

Two more.

In early 1980, I actually consulted Gray's Anatomy to see if there was some part of the female anatomy called a "salsill."
The Pretenders' "Brass In Pocket" was all over the FM airwaves, and Chrissie Hynde sang what sounded like "Gonna use may arms/Gonna use my legs/Gonna use my style/ Gonna use my salsill." I figured maybe I was missing out on something. Somehow the word got out somewhat later that the actual phrase was "soft-sell", but a quick Google check reveals now that the phrase was "side-step." None of this makes any more sense than "salsill".
If anyone actually has one of these, will you please let me know where it is and what is to be done with it?

Another anatomically explicit song was the Commodores' "Brick House", which appeared to contain the
lines, "She's a brick......... house/She's the one, the only one/Who's built like a (?????)"

After some abstraction I concluded that the curious phrase was "neck of a swan" (which, though evocative, makes no sense); my wife argued for "akamazon" (maybe Lionel threw in an extra syllable for emphasis?), but as I have now learned, it is "black amazon."

I have no idea if she had a salsill

LOL.....Doug, I am starting to wonder if you hear ANY lyrics correctly! Just kidding, these are all great, guys. I like this thread better than the devoted sites for mondegreens. This way, you get a whole bunch of different misheard song lyrics, instead of having to search each one line by line. I'm remembering lots more....

'Spain' by The Stranglers. I always heard 'But the place you got cotton pants'. The lyric is actually 'But the pleasure got caught in pain'.

Also, 'Safe European Home' by The Clash. The line is 'I went to the place where every white face is an invitation to robbery'. I always thought they were singing 'I went to the place where everyone's faced with an invitation to Robert Reid's'. I couldn't fathom what the dad from 'The Brady Bunch' had to do with The Clash's ill-fated vacation, or why it was a bad thing to get invited to his house.

I'm hijacking this thread, here's one for Coolupway,

"MG, I live just to touch you, when I double clutch you, you give me a thrill...
MG I'll polish and wax you, when somebody smacks you, I'll die, MG!"

All right, where did this come from and which song is it to the tune of.
I'm off subject but wanna see if Coolupway recognizes it.
It's not a mondegreen, but a parody.

Sorry, bruyere... drawing a blank, unless it's that dopey Toni Basile song, "Oh, Mickey," which seems a bit of a stretch!

'Angie' by the Stones? I have no idea either, coolup. Please tell us, Heather....name that tune!

Made famous for its leonine qualities this song was a big hit.
The source of the parody wouldn't worry you, nor I...

The 'black amazon' line just reminded me of a misheard lyric which never even occurred to me until someone mentioned it about a month ago.
Elto John's hit 'Island Girl' is absolutely hilarious if, when you hear it, you can imagine someone mishearing it as 'I Like Girls'!

Along THOSE lines, Dalgleish, let me mention the Michael Jackson song "Billie Jean", which is quite hilarious in hindsight. While the famous mondegreen in that one is "the chair is not my son" (though given some of Wacko Jacko's subsequent antics one hesitates to rule anything out!); I was partly though not entirely convinced that what was being said at another point in the song was "who will dance, on the floor, ON AROUND." At the time, it just so happened that one of the top horses at the Meadowlands went by that name... hey, if the guy went nuts about zebras and llamas, why not about a harness horse who once won the Meadowlands Open despite having to make THREE MOVES!!