You know how you can be listening to a song for years and years and never hear things that someone else hears? That’s what’s so great about popular music, really. There’s a little something for everyone.

My bandmate Steve has brought something to my attention that I hadn’t ever realized/heard in the opening lines of one of my favorite songs, Don’t Stop Believin’ by Journey: Steve Perry does not sing “just a small town girl”, he actually sings “yusta small town girl”. IT’S A MOTHERFLIPPIN’ _Y_ SOUND, NOT A _J_ SOUND!

So Steve’s theory about this is that Steve Perry did this on purpose to soften the J sound. I haven’t decided yet whether I agree with him on that, but I definitely hear the Y sound he’s talking about. S sounds, T sounds, P sounds ARE common problems for mics.  I suppose it makes sense that sounds like CH and J would also cause problems too.

But then again, we could all just be nuts. But now that I’ve heard “yusta”, I will never listen to that song the same again.

Do you hear it?

So I’ve been hearing a new song on mix 93.1 that I kinda like. Apparently, it’s sung by La Roux, and I always thought it was called “Burnin’ Through” because that’s what it sounds like she says. Apparently I’m horribly mistaken and it’s called “Bulletproof“. Man, is my face red.

On a side note, my co-worker described her as the girl who looks like Clay Aiken with a mohawk. You be the judge:

La Roux – Bullet Proof from serkan söğüt on Vimeo.

Thanks to this Swiffer commercial:

my 5 year old was singing, “He’s a lady, a sexy lady…” in the backseat of my car last week. My wife, her mother, and I all gave each other quizzical looks because we couldn’t figure out what was going on, then my daughter said, “You know, like in the commercial!” We kinda started laughing when we realized what she was talking about, which prompted her to sing it even more and louder, giggling more with each refrain. “Hee-hee-he’s a lady..hee hee…a SEXY LADY…ha ha ha ha!”

Never mind that she’s 5 and doesn’t even know what sexy means. Now we laugh whenever that damn commercial comes on.

The Jennifer Lopez classic Love Don’t Cost a Thing was on Mix 93.1 earlier today while I was working, and it reminded me of when the song first came out. I’ve always thought she says, “think I work at CVS, I don’t” at one point. I know those aren’t the actual lyrics, though.   In fact, I don’t think I know what the actual lyrics are. After a quick google search, I’ve determine they must be, “think you gotta keep me iced, you don’t”.

Regardless, it’s a stupid song. As if J-Lo would work at a Consumer Value Store. And did anyone see her performances on SNL recently? What was THAT all about?

South Park’s 13th season opened with an episode called “I See Dead Celebrities” in which Patrick Swayze, Michael Jackson, Farrah Fawcett, Ed McMahon, Walter Cronkite, DJ AM, David Carradine, Bea Arthur, and others appear in Purgatory. It was the Summer of Death after all.

Of particular note, however, was Cartman’s appreciation for advertising hero Billy Mays who is shown here hawking a product called Chipoltaway, which removes blood stains from one’s underwear after eating Chipotle.

"When change comes around, men swim in me!"

John Mellencamp (John Cougar? John Cougar Mellencamp?) is a mainstay on mix 93.1, which I listen to daily in my office. Jack and Diane is one of his more popular hits, and I hear it at least a couple times a week. One of the lines from the song is, “change comes around real soon, makes us women and men”, but if I’m not paying attention, it sounds like he says, “makes us swimmin’ in men”. I know those aren’t the real lyrics, but if you listen, it really sounds like that’s what he’s saying. Listen for yourself! (As an aside, how oss are the handclaps at the beginning?):

Two misheard lyrics in one song! Last Sunday, we took Quinn to Southwick’s Zoo in Mendon, MA. On the way home, we were listening to the same mix CD that contains the iCarly and Drake & Josh theme songs that I made for our Lancaster, PA trip last October. Quinn is actually starting to enjoy some of the other songs on it now, and will request that we skip to a specific track. So part of the way home, we heard a request from the back seat, “Can you play the ‘great night’ song?” My wife and I looked at each other, confused. There were no songs we could think of with the lyrics “great night”, and Quinn couldn’t sing it for us. So we skipped through all the songs so she could tell us what she wanted, and just as we got to Grade 9 by the Barenaked Ladies, we realized what she meant. Apparently, she thought they were saying “great night baby”. We tried to explain that it was “grade 9″, but to no avail.

Ladies and gentlemen, may I introduce to you...Butt Queen!

So for the last week, Quinn has been making us listen to that track incessantly. On Saturday, she kept giggling at the line where Ed Robertson sings, “they called me Eddie”. I asked her why she thought it was funny, and she said because his real name is Freddy. I asked her why she thought that, and she said because she looked it up on the internet. Four year olds say the darndest things. Then yesterday, all three of us were in the car, listening to it yet again, and I was telling my wife how she likes the “they called me Eddie” line, and then Quinn started saying something about how “they called him butt queen for some reason”. It took us awhile to realize what she was saying (“butt cream?” “butt freak?”), and couldn’t understand where “butt queen” came from. Until we were listening to the song again, and got to the line where Tyler Stewart sings “they called me Buckwheat!”. Apparently Quinn thought he was saying “butt queen”.

I fear now that Quinn is listening to more music, the misheard lyrics will increase at an exponential rate.

Back in high school, I worked part time at Stop and Shop. I worked there in the summers through college, as well. I’ve made a couple friends along the way as a result, and worked with quite a variety of people there over the years. Unfortunately, I don’t remember the name of the woman who is the origin of this story, but we’ll call her Barbara, because that might be right. But probably not. Anyway, we were talking about music or whatever, and for some reason we started talking about Lay Down Sally by Eric Clapton. Perhaps it was playing in the store at the time. Anyway, she told me how her young daughter thought the lyrics were “way down cellar”, and I thought this was funny, because it kind of sounds like that’s what he’s saying.

"Help! It's cold down here, and I'm lonely..."

It's all Carrot Top's fault

While playing Guitar Hero on X-Box at a friend’s this weekend, Spiderwebs by No Doubt came up in the game. I remembered when this song came out over 10 years ago. Our friend Kevin used to think the lyrics in the chorus were “it’s all your fault I scream my balls off”, but they’re really “it’s all your fault I screen my phone calls”. But if you listen to it and listen for his misheard lyrics, it does sound like Gwen Stefani says that. Even though it makes no sense in the context of the song.

Here at Songspeak, we love the Foo Fighters. I don’t remember if this particular misheard lyric was due to me, Matt, or just something we heard somewhere else, but it’s a misheard lyric nonetheless.

It’s from their song Learn to Fly. It sounds like Dave Grohl sings, “I’m looking to the sky to save me, looking for a satellite”, but “satellite” is really “sign of life”.

Really, this post is just an excuse to post the video for the song. We’ve talked about Foo Fighters’ hilarious videos before (most notably for Big Me), but this one takes the proverbial cake. The bands plays multiple characters throughout the video, and the only thing I remember about seeing it for the first time was Matt showing it to me on the computer and giggling the most squealish giggle I’ve ever heard come out of him when fat lady Dave Grohl pictures the guy’s head as a hamburger and licks his teeth.