Has it ever happened to you to mishear a part of a song or sentence and keep on repeating and singing along to it incorrectly for a long time? Nothing to be ashamed of! It has happened to the best of us.
The American writer, Sylvia Wright, in an essay entitled “The Death of Lady Mondegreen” published in Harper’s Magazine in November 1954, wrote:
“When I was a child, my mother used to read aloud to me from Percy’s Reliques, and one of my favorite poems began, as I remember:
Ye Highlands and ye Lowslands,
Oh, where hae ye been?
They hae slain the Earl Amurray,
And Lady Mondegreen.”
The last verse is actually “And laid him on the green” which was misheard by Ms. Wright as a child. She coined the term Mondegreen for this phenomenon.
Here are some examples of the dear Lady Mondegreen:
“I’ll alter him” vs. “Aisle, Altar, Hymn”
“There’s a bathroom on the right” vs. “There’s a bad moon on the rise”
“Cry Me a River” vs.”Crimean River”
“Grand parade” vs.”Grandpa Raid”
“It is hard to wreck a nice beach” vs. “It’s hard to recognize speech”
“It’s a hard egg” vs. “It’s a Heartache”
“Gladly, the cross-eyed bear” vs. “Gladly, the cross I’d bear”
“Excuse me while I kiss this guy” vs. “Excuse me while I kiss the sky”
“Got a lot of lucky peanuts” vs. “Got a lot of love between us”
And finally thanks to Ms. Spears. In the song “if you seek Amy”, She sings “But all of the boys and all of the girls are begging to if you seek Amy”; that many people mishear the last part as “F.U.C.K me”.
For more details and examples just google the term.
And besides, neologism and coinage are the terms used for the new words and phrases that are “made” or “invented” in a language. They are also used to refer to the action itself.
Vocabulary Guide for UT English Literature Students School 1388 
It has happened to me lots of times! but the point is that I didn’t know that native speakers have this problem too! I used to hear “Are you ok Annie?” in Micheal Jackson’s song as “Are you walkin any?” till I checked it with the original lyrics…=))
That thing you mentioned about brithney’s song was also funny…liked it!
surely native speakers have the same problem, sometimes I misunderstand even Persian songs and sing along and my friends make fun of me =))
o0o0ops! I made a mistake in the previous comment!! I should’ve said “mentioned to”!! now I correct myself!!:D
Shahin you’ve mentioned a really cool point,this has happened to me a lot.I liked the song”Hypnotize” from System of a down when I was 15 a lot and I used to sing it all the time,but the day I found the lyric,it was a disaster!I used to sing: “I’m just singing in my garden waiting for my girl” and this was the sentence”I’m just sitting in my car and waiting for my girl”
=))
such a lovely post!! 😉
“It is hard to wreck a nice beach” vs. “It’s hard to recognize speech” !!!!
it really is some times!!!!
It was fantastic :)) 🙂 yeah it happens all the time even to native speakers.i’ve made such mistake recently about a Persian song by Saeid Modares and when one of my friends corrected me i was like this emoticon >> =))
😀 😀 😀
Hi,
I put your blog’s link in my blog…
Thanks! I like the theme too! Of course many of my freinds say I change them sooner than necessary but…
I uploaded anyway!(was it right? I mean “uploaded”!)
why don’t you publish anything anymore?