WHAT IN THE WORLD IS A MONDEGREEN? AND A GIVEAWAY by Cheryl Pierson

by

I had posted this a few years back, but reading through it made me laugh all over again, and I’d forgotten so many of the mistaken words and phrases in Dr. Barber’s link. I just had to share it again. I’m so fascinated with the English language, and the “ins and outs” of it. They say laughter is the best medicine, and boy, this sure made me laugh all over again, and brought back some great memories.

I know you are wondering–just what IS a mondegreen? Mondegreen is a word that means the mishearing of a popular phrase or song lyric. (BOY, have I been there many times!)

I found this information and a wonderful list of Mondegreens on Dr. Michael Barber’s link on the web.  Here’s what he has to say about the origin of the word Mondegreen.

The word Mondegreen, meaning a mishearing of a popular phrase or song lyric, was coined by the writer Sylvia Wright.

As a child she had heard the Scottish ballad “The Bonny Earl of Murray” and had believed that one stanza went like this:

Ye Highlands and Ye Lowlands

Oh where hae you been?

They hae slay the Earl of Murray,

 And Lady Mondegreen.

Poor Lady Mondegreen, thought Sylvia Wright. A tragic heroine dying with her liege; how poetic. When it turned out, some years later, that what they had actually done was slay the Earl of Murray and lay him on the green, Wright was so distraught by the sudden disappearance of her heroine that she memorialized her with a neologism.

I have never heard of a Mondegreen before just about three days ago, and then, in the space of those three days, I saw it used twice in internet postings. I had to find out exactly what it was.

We’ve all done this, haven’t we? We want to sing along but we aren’t sure of the lyrics so we just…sing what it sounds like, even though it might not make the best sense. Later, we find out what we were singing was, well, not right, and didn’t make the best sense, as we’d always thought!

I’ll go first. When I was about 8, the James Bond movie Thunderball came out. The theme song was sung by Tom Jones.  Here’s the verse I always sang wrong:

He knows the meaning of success,
his needs are more so he gives less,
they call him the winner who takes all,
and he strikes like Thunderball.

Well, in my defense, I was 8 years old and what I actually sang made sense to ME: Instead of “they call him the winner who takes all” I sang, “the cold in the winter who takes all”—see? Perfect sense! Summer days were gone.

When Garth Brooks’ song Shameless came out, my sister and I happened to be talking on the phone one day about music and she said, “There is one song I don’t get. That song by Garth Brooks… “SHAVING”—why is he singing about shaving?”  I thought she was putting me on, but no. She really thought he was singing SHAVING instead of SHAMELESS.

My mom told me one time that when she was young, she and her sisters would go buy a Hit Parade magazine and gather round the radio listening to the “hits”, hoping they were in their magazine. They’d find it quickly in the magazine and try to memorize the lyrics along with the music. But there was one song that had some Spanish words in it and they just had to try to mimic the sounds, because none of them had a clue about Spanish, and I’m guessing that even if that song was included in the magazine, there would have been very little chance they’d have figured out the pronunciation on their own. I said, “Weren’t you embarrassed to be singing the wrong words?” She said, “No, because no one else could do any better.” HA! I have laughed and laughed about that through the years. The problem with a Mondegreen in another language is there are so many possibilities of what you might accidentally be singing about.

Here is a fun partial list of some Mondegreens you might recognize. For the full list, go to Dr. Barber’s page here: https://uh.edu/~mbarber/mondegreens.html

The artist is Elton John (Rocket Man), the Mondegreen is:  Rocket man, burning all the trees off every lawn. The actual words are: Rocket man, burning out his fuse up here alone.

The artist is Don Henley (Boys of Summer). The Mondegreen is: after the poison summer has gone. The actual words are: after the boys of summer have gone.

How about Fleetwood Mac’s “Dreams”? Mondegreen is: when the rainbow shaves you clean you’ll know. Actual words are: when the rain washes you clean you’ll know.

And here’s a good one too, from Creedence Clearwater Revival’s Bad Moon Rising. The Mondegreen is a choice this time, with: There’s a bathroom on the right, OR There’s a baboon on the rise. Of course, it’s actually There’s a bad moon on the rise.

What about you? Do you have a Mondegreen to share with us today? Leave a comment for a chance to win a digital  copy of any of my books or my latest story LANDON — your choice!  Now, don’t be shy–tell us a mondegreen you’ve used, or that someone else has said that made you giggle. I really do love these!

CHERYL’S AMAZON AUTHOR PAGE: https://tinyurl.com/yc6t7vj4

42 thoughts on “WHAT IN THE WORLD IS A MONDEGREEN? AND A GIVEAWAY by Cheryl Pierson”

    • Denise! I don’t know some of these! I am going to get myself over to Google! LOL Thanks for this–I love to learn all there is to know about the language. You’ve given me a great purpose today.

  2. Good morning Cheryl! Oh, I have done it many times! I just can’t think of all the songs now! LOL what always had me laughing was a friend of my Brother’s, Chris, would make up lyrics for songs! Remember the song, Rollercoaster? He would sing,”toast in the toaster” in the verses and that just being one of the silly things he would mimic. He would make fun of them. I always laugh at us singing 50 ways to leave your lover! I mean…really? Hehehe.. but, it was fun singing it. Still is! Heh.

    Thanks for the laughs this morning! God Bless!

    • LOLLOL! OH MY GOODNESS! Now, he didn’t turn out to be Weird Al Yankovic did he? Because I love that man! My d-i-l is a dyed-in-the-wool fan of Weird Al. She loves him. And I’m jealous because she’s seen him in concert a few times.That is so funny–toast in the toaster! LOL 50 Ways to Leave Your Lover would be so much fun to parody. LOL Thanks for stopping by and making me laugh.

  3. Yep we have all made up lyrics over the years and I can’t think of any right now. That Creedence song really brought back memories for me because we use the sang bathroom or the right for a long time.

    • Quilt Lady, I had a friend who sang “There’s a bad moon on the right”…LOLLOL But in all honesty, I do have to say that CCR’s lyrics ARE hard to understand in places! So in our defense… LOL

  5. Oh my, I love this post….I had no idea what it was called, but of course, I’ve sang songs like I heard them. My grandchildren absolutely loved it when I had the radio playing while we sang songs in the swimming pool…I’d get the lyrics wrong and they’d laugh their heads off and tease me. To this day, they still remember me and the crazy lyrics I’d come up with….and remind me about it! Now I can tell them what it is, mondegreen! Thanks, Cheryl!

    • Karen, that’s so funny. Kids are so good at reminding you of stuff like that, aren’t they? I’m sure my family had tons of laughs at my expense when I was a kid–I had two older sisters who were 12 and 10 when I was born and our house was always filled with music, so there were plenty of opportunities for “the baby” to misunderstand words and sing them anyway, anywhere, right out loud. LOL I can still remember ‘that look’ my sister gave me when I sang Thunderball wrong. LOL The eye roll she gave me, and that condescinding smile that adults give kids at times like that. LOLLOL

  6. I have thought a song said something different then it actually does, but I can’t think of them at the moment.

    • I can remember words I mispronounced more readily than the mondegreens, because I did try to be careful with the lyrics to songs–I sang constantly and I didn’t want to sing them wrong! LOL I remember when I was about 6 or 7, using the word “ordinarily”–only I was saying “ordMARily” LOL When My mom told me (very gently) that I was saying it wrong, I remember feeling shocked and then really embarrassed because at that age, it seems like everyone else in the world knows more than you do. LOL

  7. The Kenny Rogers song Lucille!
    Actual lyrics: “You picked a find time to leave me Lucille, with FOUR HUNGRY children and a crop in the field.”
    The way we heard it: “You picked a fine time to leave me Lucille, with FOUR HUNDRED children and a crop in the field.”
    We never could figure out why he had so many kids!

    • Kim you are not alone! I think a lot of people thought he was saying four hundred children! LOL (And wondering the same thing–why did they have so many kids?) lol

    • Christy, my thing about Secret Agent Man was wondering WHY did they “give him a number and take away his name”? Not long after that, I realized that secret agents had numbers when I started watching 007 movies. Then it all made sense, but until then, that posed a huge question for me. LOL

    • Minna, I do, too. There is so much about language that we never learn in school, but the nuances and the way the words are ordered in a sentence, and so many other things make such a difference in the meaning.

    • I mainly remember it more in middle school than any other time, because we all wanted to be singers during those years–that was during the 60’s and there were so many great singers and so much fabulous music! My cousin and I idolized Petula Clark, and we’d practice singing “Downtown” every time we’d get together. And then we’d fantasize about being the first female singer in Paul Revere and the Raiders’ band and of course we’d sing along with Mark Lindsay and think how great we sounded. LOL (Probably singing wrong words all the while!) LOL

  12. Oh the songs… I remember hearing different ones and misunderstanding words, LOL. Then you find out what it really is and laugh at yourself! Recently I have listened to some KPOP and misheard some of what they are saying… closed caption cleared that up when I was watching the videos!

    • Yes, Colleen! Closed caption is such a help in most cases but, yeah, it can be wrong at times, too! LOL I think songs are a lot harder to understand in today’s world than they were “back in the day” when I was growing up. And like my mom, I loved to go buy the HIT PARADE magazine and just have it right there in black and white! LOL

  14. The most recent one for me was Ella Langley and Riley Green’s “ You Look Like You Love Me.” I couldn’t figure out “I don’t blame you for looking me up and down across this room” I thought she said “crawfish” and I was imagining a fishing trip or party with lots of seafood:) 🙂 I finally asked my daughters what she was saying. It probably didn’t help that I usually heard this song on the radio when I was working in the barn with a bunch of very noisy pigs. Hard to hear clearly in that environment 🙂

    • HAHAHA! That is hysterical! Love that one, Alice! I’ve never heard that song, so now I will need to find it on YOUTUBE and give it a listen! Thanks for commenting and making me laugh!

  15. From the Eagles Take It Easy
    Well I’m a-standin’ on the corner in winslow, arizona
    With such a fine sight to see
    It’s a girl, my lord, in a flatbed ford
    Slowin’ down to take a look at me

    It was several years of hearing this song that I actually found out it was a flatbed ford instead of big black ford and Winslow instead of Windsor.

    • Connie, the only reason I knew they were saying flatbed ford was because my husband was in a band back in his highschool days and they played on the bed of a flatbed truck in the grocery store parking lot. LOL If I didn’t have that vital tidbit of information, well, big black ford would have made good sense to me! LOL Also, Jackson Browne’s version is easier to understand in many places.

  16. I know I have done this many times but can’t remember to what song. Especially the more modern ones. I was singing along to some song not long ago and my daughter said what did you say. I told her what I thought it was and she died laughing. Said that isn’t what it says. I said well that’s what it sounds like to me. Oh well, I liked it my way better. lol

  17. Oh my gosh! I do this so many times with songs. Off the top of my head I just can’t think of one. 🙁

    • Carrie, I probably wouldn’t have remembered the Thunderball one, except my sister and I were driving along singing it together and she started laughing (ruining my moment of trying to impress her). LOL

  18. Not a mondegreen but many years ago during gospel singing at a Sunday Evening service the song leader got mixed up with ‘Will there be any stars in my crown’ and where he was supposed to sing ‘Oh yes there’ll be many’ he broke out with ‘No not one’ from ‘There’s not a friend like the lowly Jesus’ haha…of course we laughed and luckily he was a good natured man. I recall he sang the ‘No not one’ line in a very deep voice. Memories.

  20. I really need to get here earlier, but it was enjoyable reading all the comments. I know I have sung the wrong lyrics, but can’t think of any in particular right now. The words were so much easier to make out back when we were in school. Now, half the time it is any guess what they are saying. In cases like that, I think it is perfectly fine for you to make up what ever lyrics you want.
    Thanks for a late night (early morning) smile.

      • We had a heavy rain last night/early morning and it turned off really cool again. Supposed to be more of the same tonight, I think, but I don’t think they’re looking for anything truly severe in our area–looked like that stuff was going to be more toward the eastern part of the state this time around. Thanks for thinking of me, my friend!

  21. Pingback: Welcome Guest Author Charlene Raddon - Petticoats & Pistols

Comments are closed.

Petticoats & Pistols