I had a friend who always thought that Raoul was shouting " Christine-- Hangnail!" instead of "Christine-- Angel?!" in the transition to the "POTO" boat scene... she thought his concern for her was purely for her personal grooming.
Omigod in Legally Blonde. When Elle says "...it's totally proposal eyes" I kept thinking "proposalize" or something like that. I thought Laura Bell was having a flashback to her Wicked days. My boyfriend corrected me after, seriously, the 4th time I saw the show (and I had been listening to the demo thinking the same thing!)
EDIT: I just read the whole thread, and I STRONGLY second Amneris' "I was in jail just before we met." I didn't realize it was "I wasn't jealous..." until I saw the show.
It's just a message board. Let's not take it too seriously.
First time I heard What You Own from Rent, I misheard "Angel's voice is in my ear" as "All those voices in my hair." I thought Mark was slightly mad.
As for the Neverson babies line... I didn't hear either "Neverson babies," or "nevers and maybes." That section was a jumble of meaningless noise until I thought to look it up in the lyrics booklet.
Ok this isn't so much 'misheard' since I know the actual lyric and all, but in Legally Blonde, during the Ireland (Reprise) I always hear "...you go out there and you get some Myron, the country of..." I know the word there is *Ireland,* I do, but I always hear it as Myron (sometimes as Byron) for some reason.
Omigod in Legally Blonde. When Elle says "...it's totally proposal eyes" I kept thinking "proposalize" or something like that.
And I totally thought that's what it was until now. Excellent.
In the title song from Pirate Queen, the lyric is "Give the girl a shot of whiskey/Set the pirate lady free". I kept hearing "...said the pirate may he breed".
In the Wedding Singer during "Not that Kind of Thing" when she sings "I shop you carry", I thought it was "I Shot Bucarry" and it dind't make sense and I always wondered who Bucarry was..
In "Ain't No Party" (Dreamgirls), she is so hard for me to understand. I, in all honesty, thought she was saying "murder" when she says marry. The lines would be: "My momma wants know when you gonna murder me." "When you gonna murder me?"
And in "All That Jazz" I always hear "Did she hear? Her baby's queer" instead of the real line.
Edit: WHOA! Someone else heard it too (the "Desperate whore" line)! Honestly, I STILL hear it as that. It's a better line, anyway.
LBB has diction issues. I confuse a lot of what she says in the recording. For instance, in "What You Want" when she's singing "right here" it often sounds like she's singing "not here." And I had to look up the "Is he not hot?" line in "Take It Like a Man."
Jimmy, what are you doing here in the middle of the night? It's almost 9 PM!
On the Sweeney revival recording, I could never understand anything Lauren Molina's saying during the "Kiss Me" quartet.
Actual lyric: "It never leaves my side, it's the only thing my mother gave me"
I heard: "Reticules aside, it's the only thing my mother gave me"
Actual lyrics: "It was a gate! It's the gate! We don't have a gate. Still there was a — Wait! There's another click! You must have heard that —"
I heard: "It was a gate! It's the gate, it's not a lot of gate *garbled mumbling*"
Also, it's not a showtune, but during "Pumping Up the Party" by Hannah Montana, I always mishear "Having fun without a plan" as "Having fun without a van" or - my personal favorite - "Having fun with Adavan." (Yay for Disney-sanctioned drug abuse!)
I misunderstood a lot when I first heard RENT. For instance: "AZT break" I heard as "Easy tea break?" and Roger goes, "You?" etc. etc. And I thought, 'gee the guy must really like tea...this makes no sense.'
And THAT'S why I have www.stlyrics.com bookmarked.
Here's a link to a YouTube video that a friend of mine made that has a number of ambiguous lyrics. The best one (and my favorite) is the first one from Suessical ("Horton Heard a Who"):
Real lyric: "So gently, and using the greatest of care, the elephant streched his great trunk through the air."
Misheard lyric (though it TOTALLY sounds like this): "So gently, and using the greatest of care, the elephant streched his great shlong through the air."
"Who is Stephen Sondheim?" -roninjoey "The man who wishes he had written Phantom of the Opera!" - SueleenGay