Scrolling through Facebook the other day, I came across this post by a friend: “So, all this time, the Beach Boys were singing ‘Barbara Ann,’ not ‘Boberan.’ I always wondered who would name their daughter Boberan. Turns out no one would.”
It immediately triggered a memory of a feature story I wrote years ago titled “Twisted Tunes.” Back in the day, we asked readers to send in examples of mangled song lyrics. It could be their own mistakes or things they’d overheard.
I looked through the newspaper archives and found the piece, which was published in The Chattanooga Times in 1992. Boomers, take note. Most of the songs were from your era. Below is a section of excerpts from that 30-year-old article, followed by some modern-day examples of Twisted Tunes.
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We received 15 letters on the old Credence Clearwater Revival song “Bad Moon Rising.” Many think the lyric “there’s a bad moon on the rise” was – brace yourself – “there’s a bathroom on the right.”