'Scuse Me While I Kiss This Guy

Well Now.... It seems I have your attention! Haha...

No, this post isn't about kissing, or guys, or even kissing guys. This post is about something that I have always enjoyed - misunderstood, misheard, mispronounced or otherwise mangled song lyrics. This has been something I have enjoyed reading about since I was 9 or 10 years old. It was at that time I received a book that has been one of my all time favorites. Misheard lyrics actually have a proper name it's Mondegreens. The term was coined by writer Sylvia Green in The Atlantic in 1954. A mondegreen is a word, phrase, line of poetry or song lyric that you hear incorrectly. Now don't say you didn't learn something today!!

You may be wondering, why in the world is she going on about mondegreens? Well, I'll tell you. Tonight as my beautiful Abbey was playing in the bath, she was singing, this is customary. What truly got my attention and made me laugh out loud was what she was singing. It went like this "Mama's little baby loves short men, short men, mama's little baby loves short men yeah". I didn't have the heart to tell her what the song really said, and besides, her version made just about as much sense! You may be wondering, where a four-year old heard a plantation song, which is titled "Short'nin Bread", it's all Laurie Berkner's fault.

'Scuse Me While I Kiss This Guy' is one of the most widely known mondegreens. The song actually says, "'Scuse Me While I Kiss the Sky". It's a Jimi Hendrix song that was popular in the 60's, but if you've listened to the radio (classic rock)in the last 25 years or so, I'm sure you've heard it.

Here are few more of my all time favorite mondegreens:

You made the rice, I made the gravy.
Actual lyric:You may be right, I may be crazy.
(Billy Joel)

There's a bathroom on the right.
Actual lyric:There's a bad moon on the rise.
(CCR)

The girl with colitis goes by.
Actual lyric:The girl with kaleidoscope eyes.
(Beatles

She's got a chicken to ride.
Actual lyric:She's got a ticket to ride.
(Beatles

Jose can you see?
Actual lyric:O, Say can you see?
(The Star Spangled Banner)

I wanna know
Have you ever seen Loraine?
Actual lyric:I wanna know
Have you ever seen the rain?
(Creedence Clearwater Revival)

I'm noticing a theme here, it seems CCR and the Beatles have a lot of mondegreens. I wonder if that was a sign of the times (the 60's) or if they were just hard to understand?

If you want to read more and laugh til you pee, go here.

Thank you sweet Abbey for the laugh, and for the inspiration for this post.