At first for example when I heard Rita Ora RIP I thought it was about a jealous girl threatening to kill her bfs old mistress.

''RIP to the girl you used to see, her days are over''.

Until I realised she was talking about herself. Anyone else ever get the meaning of a song wrong?

I used to think that Good Riddance (Time of your Life) by Green Day was about death and somebody dying (the song title never really dawned on me, but with songs like Ha Ha You're Dead in their back catalogue, I could see why).

As it turns out, Billie Joe Armstrong wrote the song under the title "Time of Your Life" as a sarcastic expression of the bitterness of a breakup when his girlfriend moved to Ecuador.

People seem to think I will always love you by Whitney is a love song which is why at one point it was an overused song to have at your wedding. But actually, it's a song about a breakup and learning to move on. I assume people just go by the chorus and ignore the verses

Quite a few people i know thought Small Bump by Ed Sheeran was about looking forward to becoming a dad. But they clearly didn't listen to the lyrics as it is actually about a miscarriage.

Puff The Magic Dragon People seem to have an impression that it is about drugs but it is really about a little boy's pet dragon called Puff

Cher Lloyd - Play Boi

"Like a hole in a three letter donkey"

I honestly had NO idea why she was talking about donkeys with holes in them....

but got told it means asshole ... how embarrassing!

Megadeth's video/song "A Tout Le Monde" was banned from MTV after rumours started that it was about suicide.

Of course, it wasn't - the song is about what you would say to loved ones in your final moments, but a few lines in there led people to wrong conclusions.

I thought RIP was about the ex girlfriend. Although, she's not threatening to kill her, just saying her guy should leave her in the past. Funnily, I used to think she was singing about herself.

I could be wrong, though.

This same thing can be said for "You're Beautiful" by James Blunt. This was also a very popular wedding song at one point. Presumably many people chose it based on just the first three lines of the chorus, without realising that the song is about having feelings for someone you know you'll never be with and not knowing what to do about it.

I thought that too, she's saying forget about the ex, i'm here now.

I used to think Craig David's Fill Me In was about a guy accusing his girlfriend of cheating on him (based on the chorus)... until I actually listened to the verses which clearly state it's the girlfriend's parents who are questioning what she was up to

What is embarrasing is how bad those lyrics actually are!

Another mis understood song is Every Breath You Take by The Police. A song about stalking someone which people take to be a love song to be played at weddings

I think its quite clever

I went to a wedding once where the groom sang 'Lola' to his new wife. Every word was kept the same except for the word Lola which he changed to Lisa and Soho which he changed to some Greek resort where they met. Everything else was the original lyrics.

Half the guests looked on with that "Aw, isn't that sweet" look on their faces and the other half, the musically literate half, looked at each other in horror and confusion.

Did we know something he didn't or did he know something we didn't?

How people can think "You're Beautiful" is a song appropriate for a wedding when it contains the repeated line 'but I'll never be with you' in it is beyond me...

A lot of Scissor Sisters' songs have been interpreted in various ways if you look at the lyrics.

Not sure exactly, but I'm pretty sure Springsteen said the Summer of 69 was about sex, and the guys who did it said Teenage Kicks was about self-pleasure, but I don't know if these are what people think they're about or not.

David Bowie's Starman - I thought that was about drugs, but again I'm not sure if that's the commonly accepted interpretation haha

R.e.m's The One I Love is quite a mean spirited song but some people dedicate it to their loved ones.

Everyone always gets the meaning of Price Tag wrong. People always forget there are verses and just interpret the chorus. Every time I see someone say "If it isn't about the money, why isn't the song free," I want to slap them.

This always amuses me. Do they not hear 'A simple prop to occupy my time'?

David Gray - The One I Love

It's not a happy, romantic song. It's a love song, yes, but not a happy one.

I'm fairly certain there are laws against abusing the mentally disabled.

Hotel California is not about a hotel in California. It's about the depraved nature of the music scene at the time in that era and in that particular state and the "check out any time you like" is a reference to getting high and/or passing away due to addiction because it was considered part of the lifestyle for bands at the time and the various movements involved, not actually trying to leave a hotel. The "they can fight it with their steely knives but they just can't kill the beast" is a reference to getting medical help that doesn't actual solve the addiction, not some dudes trying to fight some demon with swords. And yes, this should be obvious but surprisingly people that go to university can be shockingly stupid.

That reminds me of people opting for Puff Daddy's "I'll Be Missing You" at funerals. The chorus is fine but I think "Listen to the verses! Was your grandma a rapper who was shot dead?"!


Really? I must listen to the lyrics of that one then and also tell my mum, who liked along to it with a certain person in mind!

Come Up And See Me, Make Me Smile is another one. People always think that's a really sweet song but its actually a diss song to his ex.

It was actually Bryan Adams who sang Summer Of 69 and yes it is about sex, especially seen as Bryan was actually born in 1959 so it wouldn't have been about a relationship in 1969!

My sister went to a co-worker's wedding last week and the bride & groom danced to "Every Breath You Take" by The Police. How can people still not get what this song is about?

Feargal Sharkey was on TV once talking about Teenage Kicks - the original lyrics were "I wanna hold IT tight", not "hold HER tight".

Perfect Day by Lou Reed pops up sometimes as a wedding song - not bad for a tune about taking a heroin overdose.

Waterloo Sunset by The Kinks ditto - it's about being happy being by yourself, nothing to do with being in love. And it was originally written about Liverpool, not London.

It's about a guy who has been shot, is dying, and is thinking about the one they love.

It's a very sweet, nice song on the face of it but it really is very sad. I certainly wouldn't sing it to a partner.