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Coffee Break

Coffee Break: Misheard lyrics

What songs do you want to hear for today's 9:30 Coffee Break?
What songs do you want to hear for today's 9:30 Coffee Break?Corey Sweeter for MPR

by Anna Reed

July 18, 2017

Today we played T. Rex's "20th Century Boy" which features the often misunderstood lyric "Friends say he's fine / Friends say he's good / Everybody says he's just like Robin Hood".

The concept of misunderstanding lyrics has a name - it's mondegreen! - a mishearing or misinterpretation of a phrase in a way that gives it a new meaning. There's lots of examples of misheard lyrics, and in fact here's a list that Current staffers came up with a few years ago.

So for today's 9:30 Coffee Break, what songs with misheard lyrics do you want to hear?

Respond with your song ideas in the comments below - and make sure to include both the real lyric and what you (or others) thought the lyric was.

Have an idea for a Coffee Break topic? Submit your idea for a future theme and browse past Coffee Breaks in our archive.

Songs played

Peter Gabriel - Games Without Frontiers
The Beatles - Ticket To Ride
Pearl Jam - Yellow Ledbetter
Electric Light Orchestra - Don't Bring Me Down
Johnny Rivers - Secret Agent Man
Nirvana - Smells Like Teen Spirit
Jimi Hendrix - Purple Haze