and song parodies *and bad lyrics in general.

http://amiright.com/

Edit: Manfred Mann's "Blinded by the Light" wins top billing with the most often misheard lyrics:

http://www.amiright.com/misheard/artist/manfredmannsearthband.shtml

AUGH! I've been wanting to know the REAL lyrics for this line SOOOOOOOO badly, and:
Correct Lyrics:
"Wrapped up like a deuce, another runner in the night."
Correct Lyrics:
"Revved up like a deuce, another runner in the night."
Correct Lyrics:
"Wrapped up like a deuce, another motor in the night."
Correct Lyrics:
"Wrapped up like a deuce, you know the runner in the night"
Correct Lyrics:
"Wrapped up like the deuce Another runner in the night."
Correct Lyrics:
"Wrapped up like a deuce The runner in the night."

Shoot--I remember that these are called mondegreens because somebody or likely several somebodies, "heard" Lady Mondegreen where the actual words were 'laid him on the green'. But I can't remember the song or the artist.

It was a poem by Sir Walter Scott. The Lay of the Last Minstrel, I think.

Bingley

top billing with the most often misheard lyrics

Here's my candidate for "top billing":

"Jose can you see"

My favorite was in church one Christmas, the music leader had apparently insisted that the choir learn to pronounce exelsius Spelling optionalcorrectly, ie with the x sounding as ch. With the result that 2/3 of the congregation heard "gloria in a Chelsea stable" and here I thought it all happened in a Bethlehem stable!

Spelling optional

Well, maybe not quite *that optional. It's the missing c that's pronounced like a ch (being in front of an e and all like that) The x is pronounced like a ks or like a k(in which case the c is pronounced like an sh) depending on the whim of the director.
There's even some who would pronounce the x like a hard g, making it come out sounding like "egg shell seece".

spelling optional what that really meant was that I decided to make correct spelling optional and not try to find the correct spelling somewhere out there in cyberville.
Exelsius came out as exemplar on the spell check.

and Zed comes out as Zeffirelli, if you pay attention to Ænigma, our (t)rusty spell-check !!

>"gloria in a Chelsea stable"

That would be the Clinton carol?

Jackie, I'm sure we wrote up the lyrics some time in the past. If'n I had one iota of talent of finding stuff in these million posts I'd go get for you.

A-HA! Just came across:
Bruce's lyrics were no paragon of clarity, but at least you could understand the words: "Cut loose like a deuce another runner in the night."
http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a5_148.html

Bruce Springsteen wrote "Blinded by the Light"?!?!
really?

It was Manfred Mann that got everbody mondegrinning:

The Manfred Mann's Earth Band ("Quinn the Eskimo") did a cover version of the tune in 1976. It became a hit, no doubt because the band made the lyrics even more opaque than they already were. They changed the line in question to "wrapped up like a deuce."

And for years I thought Eric Clapton's After Midnight was Captain Midnight.

I still think I like "Captain Midnight" better!

hasn't been covered, perhaps, with the frequency of Dylan, but deserves respect for this, for "Because the night" (remember Patti Smith), and that comeback song he wrote for Tina Turner (no, it wasn't "Private Dancer", that was by Mark Knopfler of Dire Straits), whose name I can't remember.

cheer

the sunshine warrior