Champeen
Evie’s very first visitor was my sister, her Aunt Niki. Niki brought up a great little onesie that she’d had custom printed from a website. The front of the onesie says “I am the champion”
… and the back says “of nothing in particular.”
“Get it?” Niki said. “Like the Smiths song.”
The back sounded incredibly familiar, but the front had me confused.
“I love it,” I said, “but you know what? I think I’ve had that lyric wrong for about twenty years. I thought it was ‘I am the son and heir of nothing in particular.’”
Niki looked a little panicked. “I’m pretty sure it’s champion,” she said. “Almost positive.”
We did a quick Google search. It was “son and heir.”
“Oh no!” she said. “But ’son and heir’ doesn’t work for Evie, anyway, and ‘I am the champion of nothing in particular’ is a much better lyric, right?”
Whether it makes a better lyric or not, I don’t know, but I like it about 1000x better on the onesie. It cracks me up every time I see it.
As a side note, I once spent a good hour or so on KissThisGuy.com, the archive of misheard lyrics (named after the mishearing of “kiss the sky” in Hendrix’s “Purple Haze.”) By far my favorite entry, which I’ve remembered for years, was from someone who once thought “I’ll never be your beast of burden” was “I’ll never be obese, Roberta.”
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February 19th, 2008 at 10:25 pm
I love that little bean! You guys are okay, too, I guess.
February 20th, 2008 at 10:04 pm
And what was that Stones song interpretation I did as a kid? Instead of “You make a grown man cry…” I sang something about a crimson crime?
March 1st, 2008 at 11:52 am
this story made me laugh. we’ve all had songs we’ve sung the wrong words to, but to have it in print makes it even funnier! you must laugh every time you see her in the outfit.
March 22nd, 2008 at 12:20 am
oh man…i’m crying. sincerly…honestly…crying with uncontrollable laughter after reading this. funniest thing i’ve read in a long, long time. where do i get one?
April 23rd, 2008 at 3:08 pm
It was about 5 years ago that I learned the lyric from Madonna’s “Isla Bonita” is not, “Young girls with eyes like potatoes…” (It is actually “Young girls with eyes like the desert…” which definitely is not how it sounds and definitely makes far less sense.) Anyway, Evie is the Champion.