Music Origins

Mondegreen Mondays – Sugar, Sugar

randydafoe19 Comments
“Sugar Sugar” by The Archies from 1969.

“Sugar, Sugar” performed by the ‘Archies’ and written by Andy Kim and Jeff Barry. The original ‘Archies’ are of course an American fictional band consisting of Archie Andrews, Reggie Mantle, Jughead Jones, Veronica Lodge, and Betty Cooper from the ‘Archie’ comics TV series. The people who actually sang the song where; the lead who does not get enough credit is Ron Dante (of the Cuff-Links) with main backing from Toni Wine. Additional backing vocals from; Jeff Barry, Andy Kim, Ellie Greenwich, Susan Morse, Ritchie Adams, Maeretha Stewart, Bobby Bloom and Lesley Miller.

As for misheard words how about this one; “I’m gonna make your life so sweet, yeah, yeah, yeah!” Misheard as: “I’m gonna make love to your feet, hey, hey, hey!”

Please don’t shoot the Messenger!

Another sweet song is “Sugar Town” by Nancy Sinatra, released in 1966

The chorus with “shoo-shoo-shoo” perhaps led people off script. The correct lyrics are “I got some troubles, but they won’t last I’m gonna lay right down here in the grass And pretty soon all my troubles will pass ‘Cause I’m in shoo-shoo-shoo, shoo-shoo-shoo Shoo-shoo, shoo-shoo, shoo-shoo, Sugar Town”

One take I read was “I got some bubbles, but they won’t last I’m gonna lay right down here in the grass And pretty soon all my bubbles will pass ‘Cause I’m in shoe-shoe-shoe, shoe-shoe-shoe Shoe-shoe, shoe-shoe, shoe-shoe, Sugar Town”. I don’t know but the ‘feet’ from “Sugar, Sugar” might be better placed in the grass than your shoe-shoe.

“Brown Sugar” by The Rolling Stones from 1971

Right off the start the song lyrics are “Gold coast slave ship bound for cotton fields, Sold in a market down in New Orleans.” Some have interpreted it as:

“Old cold slave ship bound for cotton fields, Sold in the market down in New Orleans.”

Next we have “You should have heard him just around midnight.” it has been heard as “You should have heard me just around midnight.”

I know you have been waiting for this one “Pour Some Sugar on Me” by Def Leppard (1981)

A rock anthem that’s one of the best of the Classics. The title line itself gets a couple ‘mondeys’ if you will, “Pour some sugar on me”. This one is a recent construct but apparently some have “Pour some shook up ramen.” That’s a stretch for me longer than any noodle! The one I have read about before is simply “Pour some sugar on May“. If it’s all done with consenting adults is ok by me.

Since the device did not exist when the song came out not sure how “Living like a lover with a radar phone,” can be misheard as: “Living like a lover with a red iPhone.” Kids these days…

Here is one that is a personal mondegreen, or is it just a way for me to sneak in a song by Rockpile?

“If Sugar Was As Sweet As You” by Rockpile from 1980. Originally by Joe Tex who wrote and recorded it in 1966.

At the 55 second mark in the song there is an ab-lib line snuck in there that says “Stick your finger in my coffee”. The verse from Genius Lyrics is:

If sugar was as sweet as you honey
Sugar just couldn’t be bought
(Stick your finger in my coffee)
If sugar was as sweet as you honey
Sugar just couldn’t be bought
Because you’re so sweet you make sugar taste just like salt

What I was hearing was “stick your figure in my coffee”, which in hindsight would cause a lot of spillage. But just like the pouring of sugar on May, if the coffee is not prohibitively hot…

For more on music you can check out Lines by Leon.

19 thoughts on “Mondegreen Mondays – Sugar, Sugar”

  1. Another great installment, Randy. It’s pretty amazing what folks can hear in lyrics. While I can’t hear it, “I’m gonna make love to your feet, hey, hey, hey!” cracked me up. But I have another mondegreen when it comes to this song. When I heard it for the first time, I thought the line “You are my candy girl” was “You are my kind of girl” – well, I guess at least it’s plausible! 🙂

    Another mondegreen that made me laugh is “Living like a lover with a red iPhone.” 🙂

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  2. ‘Suweet’ post, Randy. I got “make sweet love” from the Archies. My sweety started singing along with Nancy’s “shoo shoo shoo… etc.” (of course she did, right?). I’m with the mis-hearers on the Stones and Def, and yeah, that’s someone’s finger in your coffee.

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  3. My dad loved “Sugar Town,” but swore it was “Sugar Fly.” Unfortunately he didn’t live long enough to get it right. It’s a pretty good song and Nancy Sinatra makes it exquisite.

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  4. I like the hook in that that Nancy so-soh soh soh soh soh soh soh soh soh soh soh song.

    Another non-mondegreen song but one in the sweet-if-icky category is Neil Diamond’s ‘You’re So Sweet (Horseflies Keep Hanging Round Your Face.)

    Those grandkids are perpetual motion machines ain’t they?

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  8. On Brown Sugar…I thought and I did sing the wrong words…when you perform Stones songs you do it by how it sounds…knowing the real words will mess you up.

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  9. Who knew there were that many songs about sugar? I quite like the Nancy Sinatra one which I had long forgotten about.
    Hope your time with the grandkiddy and kids is great!

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