Get ready to adjust your headphones as we count down the nineties tracks that tricked us all into singing complete nonsense.
Back in the nineties, before lyrics were a quick web search away, we had to rely on our own ears and imagination to sing along to radio hits. Naturally, this led to a golden era of glorious misheard lyrics, officially known as mondegreens. Here are twelve iconic nineties tracks where millions of fans got the words hilariously wrong.
Fans swore Alanis Morissette was screaming about "the cross-eyed bear that you gave to me." The real line is "the cross I bear that you gave to me." It turns out she was holding an emotional grudge, not a teddy bear with vision problems.
Sources: Wikipedia · Photo: Raph_PH / CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Listeners frequently heard Michael Stipe sing "Calling Jamaica" in the high-energy chorus. The correct lyric is "Call me when you try to wake her." Stipe sang the phrase so fast that a whole nation thought the song was an advertisement for international phone calls.
Sources: Wikipedia · Photo: A derivative work by CityFeedback, from a variety of images creditted above / CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Pop fans insisted Macy Gray was lamenting that "I wear goggles when you are not near." The actual words are "My world crumbles when you are not near." Her distinctive, raspy vocal style left many convinced she needed swimming accessories during a breakup.
Sources: Wikipedia · Photo: livepict.com / CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Skater kids regularly sang "I walk alone to get the feeling right." The genuine line is "I wore cologne to get the feeling right." Mark Hoppus was actually smelling nice for a date rather than going on a moody stroll.
Sources: Wikipedia · Photo: BreakfestEater2000 / CC0, via Wikimedia Commons
Radio listeners thought the Eurodance band was chanting "I'm blue, if I was green I would die." The real chorus is simply "I'm blue, da ba dee da ba daa." The Italian group was actually singing catchy gibberish rather than issuing a strange colorful ultimatum.
Sources: Wikipedia · Photo: Sven Mandel / CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Grunge fans often heard Kurt Cobain shout "Here we are now, in containers." The official lyric is "Here we are now, entertain us." Cobain mumbled the slacker anthem so heavily that singing about shipping crates felt totally plausible at the time.
Sources: Wikipedia
Partiers across the globe shouted "Kick a chicken with it" when the beat dropped. The actual hook is "Gettin' jiggy wit it." Before late nineties slang hit the mainstream dictionary, listeners assumed the Fresh Prince was advocating farmyard violence.
Sources: Wikipedia · Photo: TechCrunch / CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Dance floor regulars around the world famously misheard the refrain as "Is this the Reebok or the Nike." The correct lyric is "This is the rhythm of the night." The Eurodance track inadvertently created one of the greatest accidental sneaker commercials in history.
Sources: Wikipedia
Clubbers thought vocalist Martha Wash was dramatically proclaiming "Everybody's dead now." The real lyric is "Everybody dance now." A single misheard consonant turned an uplifting dance anthem into a scene from a horror film.
Sources: Wikipedia
Alternative rock fans swore Eddie Vedder was singing "Jeremy's broken glass today." The actual line is "Jeremy spoke in class today." Vedder's iconic grunge growl led many listeners to imagine shattered windows instead of a tense classroom moment.
Sources: Wikipedia · Photo: Lugnuts / CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Adjust your tracking and drop your most embarrassing misheard 90s lyric in the comments below. This is Common Clickbait signing off the airwaves, but our request line is always open for your wonderfully warped nostalgia.
The Common Clickbait crew who watch too much so you do not have to. Fueled by nostalgia, cheap snacks, and an unhealthy need to be right about the ending.
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