Favorite mondegreens

Also

Student of humanity
Active Member
I keep forgetting to come back here and start this thread. I have a few mondegreens that float around in my brain and every now and then pass by the viewing window like underpants in a front-loading washer, but for now I'll just drop in the original.

The American writer Sylvia Wright coined the term in 1954, recalling a childhood memory of her mother reading the Scottish ballad "The Bonnie Earl o' Moray", and mishearing the words "laid him on the green" as "Lady Mondegreen".
 
I guess this could qualify:

At an open mic session some years back, I sang a song called "I Woke Up a Mess Again Today," written by Chuck McDermott for his group Wheatstraw. When the session was over, a gentleman came up to compliment me on my singing a certain song. Since I'd performed three songs, I asked him which one. He said, "I Woke Up a Mexican Today."

John Prine tells the story of a time he had a gig. The playlist for the second set his classic song "That's the Way the World Goes Round," which had the line "Its a half an inch of water and you think you're gonna drown." As he tells the tale, during the break between the sets, a woman approached him and asked to sing that song about the "happy enchilada."

"I've never written a song about any kind of enchilada," he replied. "I think you're confusing me with somebody else."

"No, you wrote a song about a happy enchilada."

"Well, how does it go?"

"It's a happy enchilada and you think you're gonna drown."

"I'm glad you like the words!"

And when the song came up in the second set's play list, that's the way he sang it.
 
The classic, usually mentioned by a guy who goes around NPR shows now and then, talking about mondegreens:

From Purple Rain, Jimi Hendrix

Scuse me while I kiss the sky
becomes
Scuse me while I kiss this guy
 
Last edited:
Back
Top