…hold me closer, Tony Danza…
…there's a bathroom on the right…
…pour some shook up ramen…
…I blow bubbles when you are not here…
Has this happened to you? You are singing along with a song and blurt out what you thought were the lyrics. Suddenly, your friends stop what they were doing and stare at you. Misunderstood song lyrics are fairly common. I remember seeing a page-a-day calendar dedicated to misheard lyrics, and The Archive of Misheard Lyrics, which dates back to the mid-nineties, has thousands of misheard lyrics. In fact, the web address, www.kissthisguy.com, was chosen in honor of a possible misunderstood lyric. The submissions come from the general public, and in the Frequently Asked Questions, the site owner points out that even some of the "correct lyrics" are incorrect; you should not use the site as a source. That being said, it is fun to browse.
If you want to confirm or learn song lyrics, check out LyricWiki.org. It was last week's ResourceShelf (a website that compiles online resources) Resource of the Week. You can read why by clicking here. While browsing this site, I found that it is more productive to search by artist than by title. For example, when I searched for "In Your Eyes," the site did not find the popular Peter Gabriel song. However, when I searched for Peter Gabriel, I saw the song listed under his 1986 album So. When browsing by song, you will have to know the name of the artist. Song titles that begin with the letter "I" are alphabetized by the artist (first name first) rather than by the song title. Despite these difficulties, LyricWiki.org is useful. Other sites offer song lyrics, but this one has a cleaner design and will not harass you with popup ads.
In case you were wondering, the misunderstood lyrics listed above are actually:
…hold me closer, tiny dancer… "Tiny Dancer” --Elton John
…there's a bad moon on the rise… “Bad Moon Rising” --Creedence Clearwater Revival
…pour some sugar on me… “Pour Some Sugar on Me” --Def Leppard
…my world crumbles when you are not near… “I Try” --Macy Gray
Feel free to add your own to the comments section.