Singing and listening to music has been one of our favorite pastime activities, but did this ever happen to you that you suddenly realize that the song lyrics may be about something completely different than what you previously thought it would be? Don’t worry; you are not alone on this ship. We’ve all been there.

Have we really misinterpreted the songs?

It is, in fact, true that there are more than a handful of songs that were hit and had more meaning than what they seemed, and we’ve certainly missed them. For instance, it would be weird to find out about dancing to the song by Foster, “Pumped Up Kicks,” and then realize it is all about mental illness. There are many more songs like this in which we’ve all missed the song’s central idea. It could be real; we’ve somewhat ignored the idea of the song and tried to make it our version of it.

We have a list of 5 of them; let’s find out.

#1 Who Let The Dogs Out – Baha Men

The song is not about our four-legged friend, but this Caribbean classic is about men when they started to call women names and be disrespectful. So it is when the girls respond to them by calling the men’ dogs’.

The lyrics:

Well, the party was nice, the party was pumpin’

And everybody havin’ a ball

Until the fellas started name callin’

And the girls responded to the call

I heard a woman shout out

Who let the dogs out?’ 

The lyrics translate to the men who start calling the women names and being disrespectful, and this is when the girls respond by calling the men’ dogs.’

#2 Blackbird – The Beatles

In terms of symbolizing, “Blackbird” is one of the best metaphors by The Beatles. It is, in fact, true that it doesn’t have any aviary connection as per the fact they wrote this song “Blackbird” after hearing about Little Rock Nine, a group of students who fought to desegregate the school system in Little Rock, Arkansas. Paul McCartney told the story of the song “Blackbird” many times at his concerts. A clue says that in England, slang for a woman or girl used is “bird” in the song.

#3 Total Eclipse of the Heart – Bonnie Tyler

The ballad is about the breakup, unlike a typical boy meets girl scenario. The lyricist Jim Steinman wrote this song for Bonnie Tyler and said that the basis of this song is about the fantasy of vampires. So the song was initially named “Vampires in Love,” which also explains all its offensive lines.

#4 Semi-Charmed Life – Third Eye Blind

The song from the famous San Francisco rockers hit the billboards during the 90s. However, despite the upbeat sound and music, the lyrics have a much darker undertone to the song. In an interview in 1997 with Billboard frontman, he calls Semi-Charmed life “a filthy, dirty song about drugs, sex, and rock n’ roll.

#5 Waterfalls – TLC

Even though this song was one of the carpool-karaoke staples, this song was all about a different context. Of course, we all loved singing this song back in the 90s, and it was a significant hit by TLC, but this overlooked the song’s serious subject matter. What we forgot to notice about the song is that it is about the AIDS epidemic.

We even saw the reference in these lines –

His health is fading, and he doesn’t know why

Three letters took him to his final resting place.

The above list of these songs has been the hits, but because of their misunderstood lyrics, people didn’t try to get the exact meaning of the songs.