Getting Lyrics Wrong
Not Always The Worst Thing
Posted by Charlie Recksieck
on 2025-07-15
Even though I sing in public, I don’t always remember the words to songs.
Thank goodness for lyrics apps out there; I also use a homemade one that I love that I hope to bring to market someday (if you’re a singer, ask me about it and if you want to beta test).
I rely on the apps like a crutch.
When singing original songs that I wrote, it’s a blessing in that nobody knows what the words are supposed to be anyway - so if I forget the words to a tender song about a parent dying, I can always fake it with a scat of "beep bop biddily pop" and nobody’s the wiser.
Getting It Wrong
Singing along with the radio and getting the lyrics wrong is a long-standing tradition.
The phenomenon even has a name called a "mondegreen".
Here’s a few legendary ones:
I saw a standup comic tell a relatively famous lyric flub where he misheard "Big old jet airliner" in Steve Miller’s "Jet Airliner" (
written by Paul Pena) instead as something like "Bingo Jed had a light on."
Jimi Hendrix - "Purple Haze" has "'Scuse me while I kiss the sky" heard as: "'Scuse me while I kiss this guy"
Who doesn’t love Elton John "Tiny Dancer" instead with "Hold me closer, Tony Danza"
How about "The girl with colitis goes by" instead of "The girl with kaleidoscope eyes" in The Beatles "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds"
You don’t need to be Weird Al Yankovic to stumble on to these.
Feature, Not A Bug
I’ve got one case of a 1980’s Fleetwood Mac song that I misheard.
I believe I was in Victoria, British Columbia in a record store when I heard the Fleetwood Mac song "Seven Wonders" for the first time.
I was really loving humming the lyrics to myself later that day of "If I just have seven promises, one of the promises would be to you."
What a cool sentiment and lyric.
Unfortunately, the actual lyrics were "If I live to see the seven wonders, I’ll make a path to the rainbow’s end".
Now there’s a case of where I definitely liked my lyrics BETTER.
One could say that by trying to replicate something and getting it wrong is the act of mutation, and a critical part of evolution and how good mistakes can catch on.
Sing, Sing Out Strong
I say let’s own our vocal mistakes.
As long as you sing with confidence, that’s the way to go.
As Fred Willard tells Eugene Levy in Best In Show before they go onstage for opening night, "If there’s an empty space just say a line, even if it’s from another show."
I’ll leave you with another way to handle not knowing the lyrics.
Just get as far as you can and go "ba-dum, ba-dum".
Take it from Tony and his sailor dad getting the lyrics to "New York, New York" wrong on an episode of Taxi.
