23 Songs Lyrics Completely Misunderstood By People

1. Beyoncé, "Single Ladies"

"My daughter, when she was very small, thought Beyoncé was telling 'all the single lettuce' to put their hands up!"

2. Ed Sheeran, "Shape of You"

"My 5-year-old daughter sings, 'And last night you were in my room / And now my bedsheets smell like you' as 'And last night you were in my room / And now my buttcheeks smell like you,' and it kills me every time."

3. Sam Hunt, "Body Like A Backroad"

"When I first heard it, I thought he was saying, 'Body like a bathrobe.' I thought it was weird for him to compare a woman's body to a bathrobe, but I still sang along to it."

4. Sir Mix-a-Lot, "Baby Got Back"

"I used to say, 'I like big butts in a can of limes,' instead of 'I like big butts and I cannot lie' in front of all my friends and crush back in fifth grade."

5. Gwen Stefani, "Hollaback Girl"

"The first time I heard the song was on SNL, and I seriously thought I was watching her career implode. I heard 'I ain't no Harlem black girl,' but it's actually, 'I ain't no hollaback girl.'"

6. Michael Jackson, "Wanna Be Starting Something"

"For a long time I thought the 'Ma ma se, ma ma sa, ma ma coo sa' part was saying, 'Mama say mama sa ma Microsoft,' and I always wondered why it was never used in a Microsoft ad."

7. T.I., "Whatever You Like"

"I thought he was saying, 'Want Joe Biden / Need Joe Biden,' and I would actually sing these lyrics loud and proud at the clubs in college. (What? I just thought he REALLY liked Obama and Biden.) Nope, turns out he's singing, 'Want'cho body / Need yo body.'"

8. Garth Brooks, "Two Piña Coladas"

"Bring. Me. Two bean enchiladas!"

9. Next, "Too Close"

"The lyrics are 'Baby when we're grinding / I get so excited,' and my very innocent child brain always sang it as, 'Baby when you're crying / I get so excited.' I always thought it was kind of sadistic of them to be excited about their girlfriend crying, but now I get it. The 'You're making it hard for me' line also made much more sense after I realized this."

10. Charli XCX, "Boom Clap"

"My dad thought that the song 'Boom Clap' was 'Bump Fat,' and now I can't hear it the same way."

11. Kesha, "Your Love Is My Drug"

"I thought she sang, 'If I keep it up like a lovesick kraken,' but it's 'lovesick crackhead.' It took me asking my mom, 'What does she mean by lovesick kraken... what does that even look like?' for me to realize."

12. James Arthur, "Say You Won't Let Go"

"Instead of singing, 'I'm going to love you till my lungs give out,' I proudly sang, 'I'm gonna love you till my LOINS give out.' Jeez, man."

13. Smash Mouth, "All Star"

"I always thought it was, 'So what's wrong with Nick from the Backstreet?' (as in Nick Carter from the Backstreet Boys). It was really, 'So what's wrong with taking the backstreets?' I like my version better."

14. Spice Girls, "Wannabe"

"I thought the lyric 'Slam your body down and wind it all around' was 'Slam your body down the party's all around' for literally my entire life. I've been singing it wrong for 20 years, as have my little sister and all of my friends. It was heart-wrenching to learn I was wrong for so long, given that it was one of my faves. It's super hard to un-learn something like that."

15. Tina and Ike Turner, "Proud Mary"

"We thought 'Proud Mary' went, 'Donuts, donuts, donuts down the river.' We lovvvved that song for a while."

16. OutKast, "Hey Ya!"

"Instead of 'Shake it like a Polaroid picture,' I thought they said, 'Shake it like a pollywog hit ya!'"

17. Timbaland (featuring OneRepublic), "Apologize"

"I always thought the lyric, 'It's too late to apologize,' was 'It's too late to finally die / Too laaaate.' Didn't make sense, but still heard it for about 10 years before I realized."

18. Macy Gray, "I Try"

"Throughout my entire life I sang, 'I blow bubbles until you come here,' instead of 'My world crumbles when you are not near.' I didn't realize I was wrong until I was well into my twenties."

19. Train, "Hey Soul Sister"

"I have a friend who misheard the line 'Like a virgin, you're Madonna' as 'Like a bird in your vagina.' I don't know what he was thinking."

20. TLC, "Waterfalls"

"For the longest time I genuinely thought it was about some guy named Jason Waterfalls and he was always leaving this girl even though she begs him not to. I would always sing, 'Don't go, Jason Waterfalls' instead of 'Don't go chasing waterfalls.' And even as a kid I would sit there and think, 'Wow, Jason is kind of an ass.'"

21. Charlie Puth, "Attention"

"When he says, 'Throwin' that dirt all on my name,' I heard it as 'Turtle on my knee.'"

22. DNCE, "Cake By The Ocean"

"'Cake By The Ocean' by DNCE is one of my favorite songs, but it was ruined for me when I learned that I was singing the second line of the song wrong. I thought it was 'Waste time wiff a master pea,' when it was really 'Waste time with a masterpiece.' I'm still not sure why wiffing a master pea made sense to me."

23. "Twinkle Twinkle, Little Star"

"In 'Twinkle Twinkle, Little Star' I always sang, 'Like a diamond in DISGUISE' instead of 'in the sky.' I only realized I've been singing it wrong my whole life — 26 years — when reading a book to my preschool class last year."