5 Classic Rock Songs From 1975 With Famously Misheard Lyrics

Whether they're safely alone in their cars or surrounded by friends at a karaoke bar, for example, probably everyone has sung along at the tops of their lungs with the radio, a CD, or something pulled up on their phone, confidently belting out the words to a song they know so well because they've probably heard it a few hundred times. Along with this phenomenon came the emergence of the mondegreen: the expression of wrong lyrics because the would-be singer got them completely wrong at some point, mishearing or misunderstanding the words to a comical effect.

There are many commonly misunderstood classic rock lyrics you may have been singing wrong for years, and it's likely some of them are from 1975. That was one of the biggest years in rock history, with numerous eventual radio and arena standards first hitting the airwaves and vinyl. Despite their consistent playing in private and public for the last 50 years, perhaps because rock lyrics tend to get a little garbled and tough to get right through all that guitar noise and feedback, these songs are some of the most commonly and hilariously misunderstood. Here are five memorable songs from 1975 that tons of people didn't memorize correctly, sending some very funny misinterpretations into the musical ether.

An extremely ambitious and engrossing song from one of classic rock's most innovative and beloved bands, Queen's epic, multi-part "Bohemian Rhapsody" from 1975 is untouchable in terms of the sheer volume of its lyrics. Front man and songwriter Freddie Mercury made use of more words than the average rock song at the time on account of the extended running time of "Bohemian Rhapsody," as well as the operatic structure that dispenses much character and plot-building information. Furthermore, the lyrics are full of long words from numerous languages, which also weren't used much in '70s guitar rock — nobody but Queen was willing to use words like "Scaramouche" and "Bismillah."

All that creates a foundation of near-nonsense, as well as a fertile atmosphere for a wide variety of misinterpretation, and "Bohemian Rhapsody" hits a lot of people's ears inaccurately. Rather than "spare him his life from his monstrosity" as Mercury intended, numerous fans have thought that the line was the equally florid and baffling "saving his life from this warm sausage tea." And just before the guitar solo, when the vocals reach a crescendo, Mercury and the rest of Queen sing, "Beelzebub has a devil put aside for me." Plenty of folks assumed they said, "The algebra has a devil for a sidekick, eee!"

Aerosmith broke through artistically and commercially with its third album, "Toys in the Attic," released in 1975. A standout track: the second hit single "Walk This Way." It's such a word salad, delivered by notable motor-mouth Steven Tyler, that it didn't take much work for the lyrically deft MCs of Run-DMC to turn it into a full-on rap song 11 years later. In its original state, "Walk This Way" helped put Aerosmith on the musical map as one of the biggest rock acts of the 1970s.

The lyrics go by very quickly, however, and they're not outwardly sensical, meaning it's up to listeners to try to figure out exactly what Tyler meant when the wrote the lyrics that he spits and growls. It's one of the most wrongly interpreted songs of the decade. The title lyric isn't, unfortunately, "corn display," "horse display, "born to sway," "horse and sleigh," "Dr. Suede," "Marcus Wade," or "gorgeous Wayne."And while the narrator indeed "took a big chance at the high school dance," he didn't remove "her pants at the high school dance."

A going concern as a band for about a decade, Fleetwood Mac utterly transformed itself and its sound in 1975. Previously a British blues band that strove for an authentically gritty sound, Fleetwood Mac adopted a soft rock sound and a more radio-friendly approach when it hired singer-songwriters Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham. The first album to feature the new musicians was 1975's self-titled LP, which delivered Fleetwood Mac's first-ever American hit songs, notably "Say You Love Me," featuring long-standing member Christie McVie on lead vocals.

McVie takes on the character of someone gently asking for a little more outward affection from her partner to match that of what they show when "there's not another living soul around." In one verse, McVie straight up pleads with the supposed lover, intoning "I'm begging you for a little sympathy." Perhaps because McVie is such a crisp and polished vocalist, or maybe due to Fleetwood Mac's British roots and personnel, many fans over the years thought that "Say You Love Me" invoked the drinking of tea. "I'm begging you for a little sip of tea," McVie sings — but doesn't really.

One of Kiss's earliest singles, "Rock and Roll All Nite" became the painted-faced hard rock group's first big hit after it was first released in 1975. It quickly became the band's signature song, and not only has the foursome virtually never not played it, it was almost always the tune it used to close out its bombastic concerts until Kiss decided to retire. "Rock and Roll All Nite" is the proverbial cherry on a sundae of a set list filled with songs about the glories of rock music and the joys of partying, and so it's really a thesis statement about what the members of Kiss hold dear in life and wish to celebrate with their art.

That being said, plenty of Kiss listeners seemed to completely miss the point of the band itself and "Rock and Roll All Nite" in particular. According to the lyrics, this is a band that's about rocking out well into the night, perhaps into the morning of the next day, at which point they switch into party-hard mode. But that titular line, and the one that sets off the chorus of "Rock and Roll All Nite," has been repeatedly and routinely misheard as "I wanna rock and roll all night / and part of every day." That's the complete opposite of the meaning by songwriters Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley, who just wanted to let us know that they wanted to "party every day."

Certainly one of the best supergroups in history, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame eventually inducted Bad Company, which brought together members of Mott the Hoople, Free, and King Crimson. The band enjoyed a prolific run of chart hits in the latter half of the 1970s, resonating especially in 1975 with three Top 40 smashes, the biggest of which was "Feel Like Makin' Love." That song is certainly a "Straight Shooter," like the name of the album that spawned it suggests, as "Feel Like Makin' Love" is a five-minute aggressive come-on where the narrator tries to persuade another to head to the bedroom with him for adult activities.

Nevertheless, that song's title, the oft-repeated lyric, and pretty much the only phrase in the chorus, mystified casual listeners for decades. That one line has been commonly misinterpreted to be about everything from over-the-counter medicine to clothing accessories to food. Listeners have reported hearing the lyric "feel like makin' love" as "feel like Vapo Rub," referring to the aromatic paste once commonly rubbed on the chest as a treatment for a cold. They also thought that "feel like making gloves" was what lead singer Paul Rodgers was really interested in. Others assumed the song was about hunger, as in "feel like makin' lunch" in general, or "feel like bacon love" more specifically.