Songs You Love That Contain Unexpected Meanings

By Editorial Staff in Entertainment On 31st October 2016

When a songwriter puts his feelings into words it sometimes doesn't come across they way they thought it would when they wrote it. We all have certain songs we just love, maybe because we connect to the lyrics, or just feel the beat and want to sing along or dance. But how many times have you listened to a song and thought it was about one thing when it was actually about something totally different, usually something personal to the composer? Your favorite song may not mean what you think it does.

#1 Tutti Frutti - Little Richard

You've probably heard this rockin' song before and just love the upbeat and danceable tune. But it is actually not that sweet and innocent. It's about a man who has sex with multiple women at the same time. Also, the repeated hook of "Tutti frutti, aw rooty" was not the original lyrics of the song, before it got picked up to be recorded. When performing live, Little Richard sang the following: Tutti Frutti, good booty / If it don't fit, don't force it / You can grease it, make it easy. After the homosexual lyrics were changed to "Aw rooty" it didn't make much sense, but kids loved it and everybody bought the record.

#2 Hotel California – Eagles

It's been a sing-along song for years, but nobody really knows what this song is about. Chock-full of symbolism and deceptive lyrics, the song is very confusing but melodic. According to the band members, however, this song refers to the dark, evil reality of fame and fortune, focusing specifically on the greed, corruption, and self-destructive behaviors among celebrities.

#3 Total Eclipse Of The Heart - Bonnie Tyler

It's not about marriage or love, or anything you might think it's about. It's about Vampires! The actual title was "Vampires In Love" before producers tweaked the melodic tune a little bit in the studio. After a little rewrite, the song was Tyler's biggest hit and still played in clubs today.

#4 Do You Hear What I Hear? – Noël Regney & Gloria Shayne

It wasn't supposed to be a loving Christmas song, but it has since been identified as one of the top holiday songs ever by Billboard. In reality, "Do You Hear What I Hear" was a musical response to the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962 and global cry for peace in the face of nuclear war between the United States and the Soviet Union. The original title was "Cold War".

#5 99 Luftballons – Nena

The original version of the popular song "99 Red Balloons" was written in German and is a little more sinister than its English counterpart. The lyrics tell a story of war and avoidable destruction. Many fans who just liked it for its upbeat rhythm and funky bassline never knew the meaning but danced to it anyway. This secretly dark song actually tells a story of 99 balloons that are confused for missiles, being shot down over Germany, throwing the world into a 99 year-long global war that ends in the destruction of humanity.

#6 Gangnam Style - PSY

PSY's viral hit "Gangnam Style" is all in Korean, so English-speaking listeners just hear a fun, upbeat song and sing along. The translation isn't quite as positive as the melody implies. PSY is essentially bashing the upper echelon of South Korea who live in Gangnam, saying they are "good-looking because of plastic surgery, stylish because they can splurge on luxury goods, and slim thanks to yoga and personal trainers. This song is actually poking fun at those kinds of people who are trying so hard to be something that they're not."

#7 Like A Virgin - Madonna

"Like a Virgin" isn't about a sensitive girl, and is, in fact, not about a girl at all. Lyricist Billy Steinberg said that he did not intend for a woman to sing the song, and that the song was about his personal experiences of going through the emotional ringer in the past, and how he felt new and unhurt the next time he fell in love, as if he had never been hurt before. Like a virgin.

#8 Harder to Breathe – Maroon 5

Often thought to be referring to an ex-girlfriend of band singer Adam Levine, this song is actually about the pressure from the band's record label to produce more music and smothering their creativity.

#9 Closing Time - Semisonic

This memorable '90s track is about a bar at closing time, right? RIGHT? No. No, it's about something else entirely. According to Dan Wilson, Semisonic lead singer, it's about being "bounced from the womb." As in, your mama's belly. In the above video he points out a lot of lyrics that make you go, "oh, yeah, I guess it is about the birth of a baby." For instance: "This room won't be open till your brothers and your sisters come." Weird.

#10 Born In The USA - Bruce Springsteen

Only The Boss could make an anti-war song sound like a jingoistic rock anthem that most people use as a pro-America anthem. The song narrative follows a working class American who gets into some trouble at home, so he goes to Vietnam to fight in the war. When he returns, he is unable to find work and is shunned by the community at large, kind of like in real life.

#11 Imagine – John Lennon

It's hard to 'imagine' that the song that has come to be known as the anthem for peace and love was actually written to be a political message. John Lennon never admitted his interest in communism, but told reporters years after the songs release that the song was "virtually a communist manifesto" and that the only reason it was accepted was because it was so sugar coated.

#12 Semi-Charmed Life – Third Eye Blind

This huge 1990's hit song may sound like fun, but a few readthroughs of the lyrics reveal that the song is actually about a man who is so unhappy with life that he turns to hard drugs to keep him going. Though upbeat and adored, the song is pretty dark. The entire song is told through the perspective of the man and his girlfriend, who spend an entire night binging on crystal meth and heroin.

#13 Every Breath You Take – The Police

It's a love song, even played at weddings. But not really. Sting wrote this very popular song about a man in a possessive relationship that finds it hard to let go and continues to stalk her obsessively. Police front man and songwriter Sting stated that he originally intended for it to be a love song but as he wrote it the song got darker in tone.

#14 Electric Avenue – Eddy Grant

This popular reggae infused electro-pop song often misleads with its upbeat rhythm and catchy chorus; however, it refers to the real very real Brixton Riots of 1981 and the high poverty and crime rates of Electric Avenue at the time.

#15 Good Riddance (Time of Your Life) – Green Day

Often thought to describe moving on in life and commonly used as the theme of high school or college graduations, this acoustic ballad actually stands as a sarcastic expression of a bitter and angry breakup that in the end turned out to be for the best.

#16 Ben - Michael Jackson

It was actually supposed to be sung by Donny Osmond, but he backed out when his parents found out that it was not a sappy love song, but instead the theme to a horror movie. Although it is a song about unconditional love and friendship, as can be expected with lyrics like "You've got a friend in me" and "I used to say 'I' and 'me'/Now it's 'us' now it's 'we'." But what you may not know is that the friendship in question is between a boy and (wait for it) a rat named Ben. The song was the theme to the sequel to the movie "Willard". However, it stands on its own as a sweet love song if you don't know it's about a rodent.

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