Every so often I find out that I have been wrong about a particular saying, name, word, ect. Today it was a song. I have been singing this in the car for years only to be corrected when I muttered the words under my breath. The girl in the office asked, “what are you singing?” Immediately I became self conscious as I slowly muttered what I sang. Of course hysterical laughter followed suit as I asked what the real lyrics were. I was way off.
The song was “Voices Carry” by ‘Til Tuesday. It has always been a great song in my mind but I have been consistently wrong about the lyrics and what the song was about. I haven’t even watched the video until today. Not only did I have it wrong years ago but I self corrected the lyrics and made it worse.
The line “Hush hush, keep it down, Voices carry” never sounded that way to me. I originally thought it was “Hello Josh. You came downtown. This is Kerry”. As if the boyfriend or who ever, came late to downtown to meet his girl who is introducing him to her friend Kerry. I even had a scene in my head about how the interaction would go. Well, that was wrong and the more I thought about it the sillier it seemed. So I changed it.
Now it was “Oh Josh, keep it down now, you’re so scary.” That was the line I shot out this morning. It seemed to be more conducive with the tone of the song but alas, this too was wrong. So I get to be taunted for the next week or too with ‘Voices Carry” and I’m too stubborn to sing it correctly. Josh is scary.
EDIT!
I feel it is my duty to do this. I am now going to ruin Celine Dion’s song from the movie Titanic, “My heart Will Go On.” When she sings “..I believe that the heart does goes on” replace it with “the hot dogs go on”. I swear, you’ll never listen to it the same way again.
Casserole of Disaster 
Both of your version’s are hysterical. I’d like to know what other songs you got wrong. I have a friend who’s dad always thought the song by Seal said, “I’ve been kissed on the nose by a snake” rather than “I’ve been kissed by a rose on the grave.”
Oh that’s funny! I am pretty sure I screw a lot of songs up. Haven’t been called out on it until this morning, though.
DAMMIT! Now I have ‘Til Tuesday stuck in my head. Way to go and stuff. Ugh! I’m usually pretty good with lyrics, but am I the only one who doesn’t think Manfredd Mann was singing about a douche?
Oh snap! Dude, you’d be awesome at trying to interpret 99 luftbaloons! Isn’t there something about Captain Kirk?
Man that happens to me a lot.
But thats half the fun of songs that are kinda hard to understand.
Don’t know the lyrics? make up your own!
You should try and figure out the words to any song by The Locust.
My old fried Heather had a magical way around this conundrum.
If she didn’t really REALLY know the words, she would sing Watermelon.
As in- that Oh hush Line…
“Waaaaaater, water-mel-on… water-mel-on…”
That way you don’t get harassed for saying the wrong words, cause it’s OBVIOUSLY the wrong words.
or… uhm, you just don’t sing out loud.
OR LOOK UP LYRICS ON WIKIPEDIA! ya-har.
When I was about 4 or 5 I was singing carols at church and I sang, “Holy infant so tender and wild.” My mother laughed so hard at me. But I think your line is better.
Oh Will, I respect and love you. I really do. I mean you went in the service, you made a name for yourself in your career etc. but come on. Sometimes you can be such a dork!!
But I admit I have done things like that. If I am not 100% sure on something I try to google it first before I tell them. If I don’t have that option I just try to keep my mouth shut. I think people think I am smarter then I really am that way and I like it that way.
for a long. long time, i thought the ‘vocies carry’ part was ‘this is scary.’ the one lyric that should be obvious based on the title of the song…you’re not alone.
Hahahahaha. “Hello Josh, You came downtown”. Oh.my.God, I think I just peed my pants!
Okay, I have to confess, I’ve gotten the lyrics wrong to a handful of songs. Most are from my teen years so I’ll use that as the excuse (no interwebs back then!) . I swore Madonna was singing “Gonna dress you up in nylons” and that Elton John was singing “She’s got electric boobs and I know her too”. My all time favorite: Hot Chocolate’s “You Sexy Thing”. Come on, it sounds so much better as, “I believe in miracles, wear your bra, you sexy thing”. Ha. Love it.
Hahahaha…you totally just ruined “My Heart Will Go On” for me, but I definitely needed someone to ruin that for me, ’cause it should have been “ruined” and “shunned” all along, but alas, my musical taste is questionable at times 😉
I’m just sitting here cracking up reading this. I’m having myself a good little time here watching 120 Minutes on VH1 Classic and reading this stuff. You guys are hilarious. I can honestly say Iv’e never heard of anyone screwing up “Voices Carry.” I love that song by the way.
And yes, I’m still convinced to this day that Manfred Man was singing about a douche. Oh, and The Marshall Tucker Band was singing, “purty little love song.” I used to argue about that with my dad who would make fun of me for singing it wrong, but I still think that’s what they were saying.
wait…WHAT? i didn’t know it WASN’T “pretty little love song” until you just made me look it up.
i’ve gotten myself to stop hearing “douche” in the other song, but there’s just no way i’m going to be able to change my brain on that one.
i though she was saying: oh josh in the night time, i get so scary! lol
is funny!
OMG! This cracked me up! And thanks for ruining “My Heart Will Go On” for me! 😛