The word Mondegreen is an example of what it means: Misheard lyrics in songs. The word was coined by the journalist Sylvia Wright in 1954, when she misheard the lyrics in a Scottish ballad; instead of hearing They have slain the Earl o’ Moray, / And laid him on the green, she heard Lady Mondegreen.
Examples of this happen frequently; when I was a child, I misheard the lyrics from Dashing through the snow in a one-horse open sleigh as a one-hose hope and slay – I had no idea what that was supposed to mean, but I sang it with gusto! A famous mondegreen is Bob Dylan’s The answer, my friend, is blowing in the wind misheard as The ants are my friends. All the whiskey in the sea can be heard in Club Tropica, by Wham!; the actual line is All that’s missing is the sea. From Toto’s song Africa, instead of the line bless the rains down in Africa, some people hear left my brains down in Africa. In Abba’s Dancing Queen, they sing feel the beat from the tambourine, but I hear tangerine. There are likely as many mondegreens as there are songs, as garbled communication, Chinese whispers, accents and the mix of words and music can all lead to different conclusions than those intended by the singers or songwriters.
Have you ever misheard lyrics? Share your mondegreens below!
Stephanie Huesler 
There’s a nice one from Switzerland. A Portuguese labourer shouts down to his supervisor: “Komme Stei!” (his broken Swiss-German for: “a stone is coming”) The boss understands it as their regular greeting: “Como está?” and answers appropriately, before being struck down by a brick.
When John Fogarty sings “there’s a bad moon on the rise,” some people hear “there’s a bathroom on the right.”
🤣 That’s a good one!
Back in high school, my boyfriend and I went to see his little sister on the school stage with the other first graders in a play. They started off with The Pledge of Allegiance… (we could hear her loud and clear, she was in the front) …to the Flag of the United States of America, and to the republic, and witches dance.
🤣 That’s funny!