Speaking of misheard lyrics, recently I sought to buy some popular music for an 11-year-old girl, and not knowing who would be good, I polled JLF interns. Specifically, I was looking for female pop vocalists who met the criterion of “non-slutty.” This was a decidedly limiting criterion, and in fact it proved to be somewhat of a puzzler to the interns, although they finally thought of a couple.
Imagine my surprise, however, upon hearing the first track of one selection, Mandy Moore, and thinking that what she was singing was “Got my panties in my pocket.” Chagrined, I hastily consulted the lyrics and found out that what she was actually saying was “Nothing but pennies in my pocket.” I also learned I wasn’t the only one who’d misheard the lyrics the way I did.
