4 Classic Songs With Misunderstood Lyrics

For many, misunderstanding lyrics is an art form. No matter how clear the correct lyric is, some just get it wrong every time. Yet some tracks make it easy to mess up. “Blinded By The Light” remains one of the most famous examples. Revved up like a what? In this spirit of words gone bad, here are four classic songs with misunderstood lyrics.

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“Dancing Queen” by ABBA

Depending on how a song is mixed or how many voices are singing simultaneously, some words get smeared in the production. Many have misheard ABBA’s dance anthem, thinking the chorus lyrics go like this: “Dancing queen / Feel the beat from the tangerine.” Now, context clues go a long way to help you get it right. A tangerine is a type of mandarin orange, and unless someone throws it at your head, you can’t feel a beat from it. However, if you are at a discotheque and want to “feel the beat,” what you are really after is a tambourine.

Dancing queen,
Feel the beat from the tambourine.

“More Than A Woman” by Bee Gees

The Gibb brothers are famous for their harmonies, and especially the sky-high falsetto ones. But when you sing in falsetto, pitch and breath often trump annunciation. When I was a kid, I got this chorus way wrong. I thought they were singing “bald-headed woman.” And I thought I was the only one until a recent internet search. It’s only more embarrassing when you consider that the correct lyric is staring you in the face right in the song’s title.

“Highway Star” by Deep Purple

It’s perfectly understandable if you bungle the lyrics to a 70s groove this deep. You might be so enthralled with Ritchie Blackmore’s riff that your brain translates a silly word instead of what’s really there. During the second verse, some have heard: “Nobody gonna have my girl / She eats coleslaw every day.” Even if Ian Gillan’s girlfriend enjoys coleslaw enough to eat it daily, it’s a ridiculous thing to sing about. In a tune called “Highway Star”, the actual lyric, “She stays close on every bend,” fits the theme better than “my girl” gorging on chopped cabbage seven days a week.

“Don’t Bring Me Down” by Electric Light Orchestra

Your ears, like your eyes, can play tricks on you. We live in a world of distractions, and here, you might be distracted by ELO’s disco beat, forcing you to dance instead of think. Stacked harmonies deliver this chorus with what sounds like, “Don’t bring me down, Bruce.” There’s nothing wrong with this grammar, and it’s perfectly reasonable to imagine some guy named Bruce being a real jerk. But Jeff Lynne, needing to fill a gap in the chorus vocal, decided to holler, “Groose!” So, in this case, a nonsensical word is the correct word.

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