Greatest Mis-Heard Song Lyrics Ever

Every year or so, I'll hear a song on the radio that breaks through the aural sludge to capture my attention. That happened with "Closing Time" by Semisonic and even in Spanish, with "Soy Mujer" (I am a Woman) by La India (The Latina Kate Smith, given her belt-it-out style). I became entranced with a snippet of theme music from the Brazilian telenovela "Senhora do Destinho" (Woman of Destiny). Those melancholy five seconds of music haunted me for months until I finally heard them again on my Rhapsody online music channel and I identified the song as "Encontros e Despedidas" (Arrivals and Departures) by the incomparable Maria Rita.

Lately, I found myself tuned in to a group called the Killers because of radio play of their song "Somebody Told Me." The song has a dense, lyric-heavy sound; what caught my attention were the lyrics I heard, or, more important, thought I heard when the song played on WPLJ in New York.

I found one phrase particularly clever, something only somebody familiar with the New York medical scene would appreciate. I finally found the lyrics online and, to my shock, learned I had garbled the lyrics. I couldn't believe it because that part of the song sounds perfectly clear to me. Here's how the lyrics in question read:

Well somebody told me
You had a boyfriend
Who looked like a girlfriend
That I had in February of last year


On its own, that's a daring image, right up there with "Dude Looks Like a Lady" by Arrowsmith and "Rebel Rebel" by David Bowie. But what I loved about what I thought I heard was this twist:

Well somebody told me
You had a boyfriend
Who looked like a girlfriend
That I had in Bellevue

What makes the last line shriekingly funny is that Bellevue is a major hospital in New York, renowned for its mental-health services. Now, read the lyrics in that light. Pretty hilarious, right?

This marks one case where the mis-heard lyrics markedly improve the original lyrics. Here's to the Killers.