Funny: Misheard hymns?

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Does anyone have a hymn that they mis-heard the words to, or didn’t understand the words to as a child?

I’ll start.

I didn’t understand the hymn “All Glory, Laud, and Honor” when I was a kid. I’m sure the Breaking Bread hymnal had the right words, but I can distinctly remember being utterly puzzled by the refrain: “All glory, laud, and honor / to you, Redeemer King / to whom the lips of children / made sweet Hosannas ring.”

In my head, that was always “who from the lips of children made sweet Hosanna’s ring”. And I could not figure out who this sweet “Hosanna” was and why we’re praising someone who made a ring for her out of children’s lips. It seemed a bit grotesque, you see.
 
I ran across this one a few years ago, and you inspired me to look it up again. I think it’s hilarious (what does that say about me? :))

youtube.com/watch?v=7-ZnPE3G_YY

EDIT: OK, it’s a bit off-color in one or two spots. Be warned.
 
I remember the first time I heard the hymn, “O Mary! We Crown Thee”. The refrain goes:

“O Mary! we crown thee with blossoms today, Queen of the Angels, Queen of the May.”

I couldn’t understand the choir, and it wasn’t in the hymnbook, and I thought I heard:

“O Mary! we crown thee with blossoms today, Queen of the Angels, Queen of Torbay.”

I asked my dad about it, he laughed so hard he nearly peed.
 
Ghoti said:
“O Mary! we crown thee with blossoms today, Queen of the Angels, Queen of Torbay.”

I asked my dad about it, he laughed so hard he nearly peed.
Click to expand...
Torbay as in Torbay in Newfoundland, Canada?
 
My favorite wasn’t so much a misheard as a missung lyric. One Polish Padre we had was very fond of the hymn “This Day God Gives Me” but each time he sang it the line “Angels of heaven, drive from me always, all that would harm me, stand by me still” was rendered “Angels of heaven, drive from me always, all that would harm me, stand by my still.”

I always had visions of the angels standing there with shotguns, keeping the Revenuers at bay.
 
I always wondered why God was Lord of the Dance-a-dee.

But then again, I was the kind of kid who would have wondered why everyone called the priest “peedygod”. “The Mass is ended, go in peace/Thanks, peedygod!”
 
This isn’t a hymn, but I remember from second grade a kid reciting the Our Father: “Our Father who art in heaven, Halloween thy name…” (at that age, who knew?)

Long ago, one of my then very young daughters asked me why, every time she sneezed in her grandmother’s presence, her grandmother said “kebesser”. (“God bless her”, in reality.)

And, of course, one of my children was noticed saying, with the grace before meals. “…which we are about to receive from a bunny, through Christ Our Lord. Amen.” I guess it made sense to her in some way. Maybe she figured the Easter Bunny’s jurisdiction extended to more than boiled eggs.
 
Did not grow up Catholic, any converts remember “Bringing in the Sheeps” 😃
 
kage_ar said:
Did not grow up Catholic, any converts remember “Bringing in the Sheeps” 😃
Click to expand...
Even as a Catholic I knew that hymn as a child, most likely from television, and also understood it as ‘sheeps’ and it made perfect sense since Jesus is the Good Shepherd.
 
I’ve heard the line in “The Angel Gabriel from Heaven Came” change from:

Most highly favoured lady
to
Most highly flavoured lady 😛

I’ve also heard the words of “Bread of Life” get mixed up to go from:

Feed us now, give us life, lead us to one another
to
Lead us now, give us life, feed us to one another :confused:

For the record, I like the first hymn much better than the second, even when it’s mixed up.
 
My niece use to say “Hosanna on the highway” instead of Hosanna in the highest.
 
My daughter learned to sing “Silent Night” thusly: “. . . .round divergency.” 🙂
 
I always though “Hark! The Hearld Angels Sing” was about an angel named Harold and wondered why we didn’t hear about him in stories. We just had that one song about him and nothing else!
 
Not hymns, but interesting takes on the theme.

As shepherds washed their sox by night…

Our Father, Who art in heaven, Harold be Thy Name…
 
My late brother-in-law became an Episcopal priest in his retirement years. As he was leading his congregation in that mighty hymn “I sing a song of the saints of God”, in verse 2 he mixed up a line with the result that instead of singing,

“And one was a soldier and one was a priest
And one was eaten by a fierce wild beast”

he was singing,
“And one was a soldier and one was a beast
And one was eaten by a fierce wild priest”.
 
Instead of “with angelic hosts proclaim”, I used to sing “with and jelly toast proclaim”

I always think of this hymn as I jelly my toast for breakfast!
 
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