I didn't think people listened to individual tracks long enough to even get to the lyrics these days.

http://www.merriam-webster.com/info/mondegreen.htm has some excellent examples.

Some of those from Mondegreen seem like a Weird Al Yankovic parody version of the original songs. You know he's kicking himself for not doing the song "It's a long way to the shop (if you want a sausage roll)".

I have a feeling some of those "misheard" lyrics are not actually misheard. Plenty of the more rude ones would be purposely changed by people who think it's hilarious to name body parts in songs (even if said versions of the songs never get recorded, let alone published).

I think a lot of the mis-hearing is probably down to:

* People being deaf from overuse of ear-buds at high volumes

* Brain damage from substance abuse (and/or the fact that it's cool to be dumb now).

* Pathetic lyrics sung by people who can't over some backing tracks that just aren't very good.

"You don't talk to me any more, when I kung-fu the door at the end of the day"

I remember a few which only made sense to me and my friends, as they referenced people we knew - most notably "Chris Miller! No! We will not let you go!"

the opening lines of broken wings by mr mr....

babe, don't understand, why we can't just hop along into each others pants.

In my experience, the "official" lyrics printed on album liners/covers/etc. are often not quite exact. I suspect that online lyrics are often typed in from such lyrics, so you shouldn't expect them to be more exact than these (though, sometimes, fans do upload more exact lyrics than the "official").

I'd like to claim credit for corrupting Atomic Kitten by singing "You can lick me hole again!" at the top of my voice in the local pub. It actually caught on pretty quickly, and soon everyone was singing it whenever it was played.

Sadly, I suspect this may be my only lasting legacy....

Is the surprise inclusion of a football manager in the Lion King. Listen to the very opening line where the name "Arsene Wenger" is quite clearly called out. Don't believe me? - Go listen...

..or did Freddie Mercury sing "Fried Chicken" or "Hot Chicken" at the end of One Vision??

It's baffled me for decades!!

Personally, my fave is Celine Dion goes from "The Heart does go on and on..." to "The Hot Dogs go on and on...."

Or REMs "Drive": does he sing "Tit, tot, tit, tot" or is it just the delay of "Tick tock tick tock"?

Where is my John Wayne,

Where is my furry sock?

Where is my happy ending,

Where have all the cowboys gone...

Sue Lawley,

Sue Lawley,

Sue Lawley...

To commemorate her half-century, let us not forget the first line of one song that went...

"Spend a lot of my time looking at the loo..."

My fav was always Madonna's Erotic:

Bill Oddie, Bill Oddie,

Put your hands all over my body.

The Bangles wanted to know: "...why did my mother have to kidnap Sasha Distel?"

It's not just mis-heard lyrics for which you have to thank downloads; they are also responsible for the shameful inability of today's youth to roll a decent joint.

An LP cover is just the right size and shape for constructing a proper multi-skinner e.g. the famous Camberwell Carrot or the Scout. (Also, getting up to turn over the LP provides a convenient excuse to skin up.) Even a CD box can be useful in creating a three-skinner.

But with downloads, there's no physical surface to use for rolling -- hence the popularity of pills and powders among the younger generation.

Anyone would think it was Friday or sumfink!

Always sounded that way to me too. Still does. I don't think it's a mishearing either.

Just hum the Benny Hill theme now.....

I used to read Smash Hits, and enjoyed it most when they were happy to print lyrics. I don't remember many of my albums having lyrics printed, The Farm's "Spartacus" being a notable exception in doing so for every track (I had a Dansette style player which I distrusted with a passion and consequently bought most things on tape; the vinyl editions, of course, may have been different).

PS. Madonna "Ray of Light", "Anna Friel...".

PPS. And don't get me started on George Michael.

Rob - the line is "Nants ingonya mabagithibaba" - roughly translated means "Dad, there's a lion"!

Alex - yes, he does sing "Fried chicken", that's the lyric. In one abandoned take during a bit of a mess-about in the studio, the lyrics included "One horn, two tits, John Deacon"...

No one mentioned the ability of MP3 and other compression techniques to remove "artifacts" from the music and make it fit in a smaller box. Many very subtle soundings of the human voice are cheerfully removed, recognized as sybilence, or other unwanted sounds (by those doing the compressing) in the name of better utilization of their bandwidth. Never mind that you paid for the whole thing > you still get an abbreviated version under the auspices that the public is uninformed and can not tell the difference! Maybe when an artist or a class action group sues over misrepresentation of product (over a few key words) being changed, or as on TV, a few key scenes being cut (for the sake of fitting in the allotted time slot) and thus completely changing the jest of the show, will the providers of truncated products and services find it is not worth it to shortchange the public and even the artist. As a sound/lighting/stage Tech, I no longer want to work for an industry that can not run a artistic work without cutting out completely or running credits so fast one can not read it, and thus "Give credit where credit is due" Wake up! Demand the best quality, and the entire product!