Thursday, August 23, 2007

It's Hard for Me to Say I'm Sorry for Screwing Up These Lyrics for Over 20 Years


I bought a MacBook Pro a few months ago, and today I started the process of loading songs into iTunes that I didn't have on my iPod yet. I foresee MANY posts about some of the tunes I've been delighted to rediscover during this project, but for now I need to share my embarrassment... or rather, defend my misunderstanding of the lyrics to the song "It's Hard for Me to Say I'm Sorry" by Chicago. Believe it or not, "Chicago's Greatest Hits (1982-1989)" was one of the CDs that hadn't been gracing my iPod to date.

Just in case you can't immediately place this song (for I know you know it!)... it starts out:
Everybody needs a little time away,
I heard her say,
from each uuuu-ther

You're starting to sing the rest of it right now, aren't you! Ha HA! You DO know it.

So here's the part where it gets ridiculous. I fully realize this makes no sense whatsoever, but for over two decades now, I have thought part of the chorus went as follows:

After all the hool you've been through, I will make it up to you!
I promise to!

Yeah, that's right, "the hool."

Quite honestly, I was never sure if it was spelled hool or houl, but I was sure that's what Mr. Peter Cetera was singing, and I just figured it was a word I didn't know yet. Cut me some slack, it was released when I was in second grade! What was I to know of hool? And as time went on, how much could I really expect from the guy who sang "Glory of Love" for The Karate Kid II soundtrack (though that movie rocked!)?

So just NOW... as in, less than an hour ago in the year 2007, a full 25 years after the song came out, I was singing along to the CD and I cut myself off right after "hool."

You know, I thought, I bet he's not really saying hool.

Therefore, I turned to Google for the lyrics. Imagine my surprise when the lyrics read:

After all that we've been through, I will make it up to you!
I promise to!

What? There is no way he was saying something that normal. I refused to believe it. I played that part of the song over and over and over, with my eyes shut and my ear crammed down to the speaker on my laptop, concentrating like my life depended on it. Hmmmm.... he was indeed saying "that we've" instead of "the hool you've," there was no denying it. But he didn't sing "we've" like a normal person would, he made a big WHA sound at the beginning of the word and then somehow made it into two syllables. Quite frankly, I prefer my version with the made-up word and I'm going to keep singing it that way! Perhaps I've converted some of you to my lyrics as well?

- e

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I always thought he was saying, "all that you've been through..."! How funny!

BTW...I love, love, love your blog! I started out reading longlivelocke.com and enjoyed your writing style so much that I thought I'd check this blog out. Thanks for the daily entertainment, especially through while Lost is in hiatus. Keep up the good writing!

Lani in Kalamazoo, MI

Anonymous said...

That's alright a good friend of mine always thought the chorus of the Chicago song, "You're the Inspiration"... was "Dorthy is a raisen". She sang it that way until college!
You know you're trying it to see if it works... Go ahead... "You bring meaning to my life.... Dorthy is a raaaaaaisen!"

I really can't make fun of either of you b/c I always thought the 80s song "Voices Carry" went a little something like this... "us, us eep it ah ah voices carry uh uh"
I sang it that way (even though I knew it made NO sense) for years b/c it sounded good to me. I would belt it out. When I finally figured out it's "Hush, hush, keep it down now, voices carry, hush hush"... I a was almost disappointed. I still kinda like my gibberish version better. How about you?

Wanders said...

"Can I just have one Mormon dance
With you, my love?" - Not Van Morrison

Erika (aka "e") said...

DFP - It is funny that you mentioned Voices Carry, because that is one of the songs that I was missing from my iTunes that I just transferred over! I *do* like your version!

Wanders - I have heard many, many mistaken lyrics to popular songs, but never that one. That is a good one!

Anonymous said...

I loved reading this post, I was laughing out loud. I used to think the chorus to the Flashdance song 'What a feeling' was "Take your pants off, and make it happen" and was disappointed to hear it was actually "Take your passion, and make it happen"!