My favourite personal instance of this:
I went to the danger zone.
Definitely better than “Highway to” IMO. Only made this discovery about a year ago and was incredulous, then shocked after a quick search. I’m never changing the way I sing it.
Highway implys a high speed trip to the danger zone whereas i went to the daner zone could be a much more leisurely pace. Most of the song is in the present tense of going to the danger zone whereas i went to the danger zone is past tense. The rest of the song is also riddled with engine, speed, and other driving influences which helps ground the highway lyrics into the theme of the rest of the song.
Booo! I bet you think “Rev up like a deuce” is better than “Roll up like a douche” as well, you insufferable pedant ^/s
I remember discovering that song late at night long ago and laughing out loud, incredulous the lyrics could be that. I listened carefully and heard “rolled up like a douche” each time. I had to find the lyrics specifically to refute it!
Well, this comment caused me to look up the lyrics again and realise I have another banger because I was sure it was “I took it right intoooo the danger zooooooone” and I was like…“wait, that’s past tense”.
Anyway, it turns out its “I’ll take you right into the danger zone”. Again, I’m definitely keeping my messed up version.
I wonder how my ears have been hearing both of those two things wrong from that one song for so many years. Probably because I was singing along. It’s a must sing along tune.
edit: Actually my first intro to the song was probably Top Gun on VHS so I was thinking flying instead of driving and the sound quality was probably rubbish.
edit edit: I’m going to have to listen to it now. “it” and “you” are just so far apart I may be gaslighting myself here.
We’ve all been guilty of it. I only really knew the differences because of how many times I’ve watched Archer where they use the lyrics and song sometimes.
Oh God. It just got worse - I’ve watched at least 4 seasons of Archer. HAHAHA.
That’s pretty good! I may use that from here on out.
The inverse of this is St Elmo’s Fire. My wife and I joked that the line was “I can be your man in motion, all I need is a pair of wheels.” thinking it was hilarious and a great replacement.
Well, a few years ago we looked the actual lyrics up and… that’s the actual line.
Turns out the song was written for a Canadian paralympian. “David Foster and John Parr wrote this song specifically for the movie St. Elmo’s Fire, but the song itself is about a Canadian athlete named Rick Hansen, who was paralyzed from the waist down after a car crash when he was 15.”.
Honestly, it made the song that much better.
I have a good friend who misheard “lose yourself to dance” in the song of the same name. Instead, he heard " lose your self respect". We love it though and that’s the version we still sing nearly a decade later.
You know… I posted this and am having a Music Store brainfart on ones that I got wrong. Stupid brain.
