Misheard Lyrics Study Says You’re Not The Only One Who Can’t Understand Ozzy

We’ve all been there. You’re in the car with a good friend and you’re both singing along to a track that you grew up with and know every word to, but the good times suddenly dissipate when your face reddens as your friend tells you it’s “Kicking your can all over the place” and not “cat.”

Looking to quantify just how often this craw-in-a-hole-and-die feeling occurs, Blinkbox Music polled 2,000 adults and discovered that Ozzy Osbourne, Lady Gaga, and Bob Dylan are among the acts that we find it hardest to hear correctly. Almost a third polled were unable to understand Osbourne.

However, it was Swedish pop group ABBA‘s iconic hit Dancing Queen that, surprisingly enough, had the most consistently misheard lyric, with 22% of those polled hearing “See that girl, watch that scene, diggin’ the dancing queen” as “See that girl, watch her scream, kicking the dancing queen“.

As The Telegraph reports, other often misheard lyrics including the aforementioned We Will Rock You, and Bon Jovi‘s Livin’ on a Prayer, which came in third, with listeners hearing “It doesn’t make a difference if we’re naked or not” in place of “It doesn’t make a difference if we make it or not“.

Check out the 10 Hardest To Understand Music Acts and 10 Most Commonly Misheard Lyrics below.

Watch: ABBA – Dancing Queen

10 Hardest To Understand Music Acts

1. Ozzy Osbourne (28%)

2. Lady Gaga (22%)

3. Shaggy (22%)

4. Sean Paul (14%)

5. Jay Z (14%)

6. Rihanna (14%)

7. Miley Cyrus (13%)

8. Jimi Hendrix (10%)

9. Prince (9%)

10. Bob Dylan (8%)

10 Most Commonly Misheard Lyrics

1. ABBA – Dancing Queen (22%)

Wrong: See that girl, watch her scream, kicking the dancing queen

Right: See that girl, watch that scene, diggin’ the dancing queen

2. Queen – We Will Rock You (18%)

Wrong: Kicking your cat all over the place

Right: Kicking your can all over the place

3. Bon Jovi – Living On A Prayer (12%)

Wrong: It doesn’t make a difference if we’re naked or not

Right: It doesn’t make a difference if we make it or not

4. Madonna – Like a Virgin (12%)

Wrong: Like a virgin touched for the thirty-first time

Right: Like a virgin touched for the very first time

5. The Monkees – I’m A Believer (12%)

Wrong: Then I saw her face, now I’m gonna leave her

Right: Then I saw her face, now I’m a believer

6. Johnny Nash – I Can See Clearly Now (11%)

Wrong: I can see clearly now Lorraine has gone

Right: I can see clearly now, the rain is gone

7. Rihanna – We Found Love (11%)

Wrong: What it takes to form a line

Right: What it takes to come alive

8. Jimi Hendrix – Purple Haze (9%)

Wrong: Excuse me while I kiss this guy

Right: Excuse me whilst I kiss the sky

9. Spice Girls – Wannabe (9%)

Wrong: If you wanna be my lover, you gotta get rid of my friends

Right: If you wanna be my lover, you gotta get with my friends

10. Starship – We Built This City (8%)

Wrong: We built this city on logs and coal

Right: We built this city on rock and roll

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