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!).
Blue album at Amazon.com
May paradise, and put up a f***ing line.
They paved paradise, and put up a parking lot.
The Story: I just thought he was talking about a nice spring day that everyone wants to enjoy. But he's telling them to wait in line, because so does everyone else. - Submitted by: Sarah
They say paradise took out a pocket knife.
They paved paradise and put up a parking lot.
The Story: I just thought she was singing about a murderous taxi driver! :-/ - Submitted by: Laa
Gravestone robbery
Raised on robbery
The Story: Actually, this misheard lyric didn't come from Joni singing it- it came from what I thought the dj said was the song title. - Submitted by: Dean Nye
It's a Commodore Christmas
They're cutting the cheese.
It's coming on Christmas
They're cutting down trees.
The Story: The morning DJ's on my favorite radio station were playing a recording of Robert Downey, Jr.'s rendition of Joni Mitchell's 'River' from Downey's new cd, and the DJ's kept misinterpreting the lyrics. Man, they had me laughing so hard while I was driving, I had to really watch where I was going, as I laughed so hard, my eyes teared up! It took a Joni Mitchell fan who was familiar with the original version to call the station and set the DJ's straight regarding the lyrics to the song. - Submitted by: Sharon 'Parodiva' Krebs
Like Norris Hopewell and Robert Hale
Magnolias hopeful in her auburn hair
The Story: I sang this wrong lyric for years. I thought Norris Hope and Robert Hale were little know B-list actors that I had never heard of. Because the line is: "Through stand - in boys and extra players, magnolias hopeful in her auburn hair." - Submitted by: joyce
We are stardust
We are going
And we're 'bout to s*** ourselves
After the fartin'.
We are stardust
We are golden
And we've got to get ourselves
Back to the garden.
The Story: I heard this on the radio, and then my uncle heard me singing the misheard version above. He told me about how, growing up in the 'hippie' era, he first heard this song and associated it with that era. He said that, where he grew up, the hippie era was perceived in such bizarre terms that scarcely anyone would have been surprised if a song of that time had such far out lyrics. He wasn't sure of the real lyrics himself, so he ended up checking out a Joni Mitchell disk from the library, and that's how we learned the actual lyrics. - Submitted by: Heidi Jones
New entries in this section are currently reviewed by Karen. Previous editors (if any) are listed on the editors page.
Would you like to Submit some Misheard Lyrics for a song We're always looking
for more entries.
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All correct lyrics are copyrighted, amIright.com does not claim ownership of the original lyrics.
