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Misheard song lyrics: Lady Gaga and Ozzy Osbourne's words named hardest to understand

A number of Brits commonly misunderstood 'Poker Face' for 'Polk Her Face'

Daisy Wyatt
Saturday 19 April 2014 18:11 BST
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Polk Her Face: Lady Gaga has been named one of the hardest lyricists to understand
Polk Her Face: Lady Gaga has been named one of the hardest lyricists to understand (Rex Features)

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If you’ve ever been caught singing the wrong lyrics to a famous tune, you're not alone.

A new survey has revealed an alarming number of popular song lyrics misunderstood by the British public.

Almost a quarter of people think lyrics to Abba’s Dancing Queen “See that girl, watch that scene, diggin’ the dancing queen” are actually “See that girl, watch her scream, kicking the dancing queen.”

Queen’s “We Will Rock You” was the second most commonly misheard lyric, with 18 per cent of respondents hearing “Kicking your cat all over the place” in place of “Kicking your can all over the place”.

Ozzy Osbourne and Lady Gaga topped the Blinkbox poll of artists with the hardest lyrics to understand.

Many Brits believed the line in Gaga’s “Poker Face” was “Polk Her Face”, while Ozzy’s lyric “Off the rails on a crazy train” was misheard as “Off the rails on a gravy train.”

The top ten most commonly misheard music lyrics

1. ABBA – Dancing Queen

See that girl, watch her scream, kicking the dancing queen"

2. Queen – We Will Rock You

Kicking your cat all over the place

3. Bon Jovi – Living on a Prayer

It doesn’t make a difference if we’re naked or not

4. Madonna – Like a Virgin

Like a virgin, touched for the thirty-first time

5. The Monkees – I’m A Believer

Then I saw her face, now I’m gonna leave her”

6. Johnny Nash – I Can See Clearly Now

I can see clearly now Lorraine has gone

7. Rihanna – We Found Love

What it takes to form a line"

8. Jimi Hendrix – Purple Haze

Excuse me while I kiss this guy

9. Spice Girls – Wannabe

If you wanna be my lover, you gotta get rid of my friends

10. Starship – We Built This City

We built this city on logs and coal

What's the worst example of a misunderstood lyric you've heard? Answer below

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