Do You Hear What I Hear?

[Bird Lives]

I’m sure we’re all familiar with seventeenth-century ballad "The Bonnie Earl O' Moray” — you know, the one with this stanza.

Ye Highlands and ye Lowlands,
Oh, where hae ye been?
They hae slain the Earl o' Moray,
And laid him on the green.

But that last line was misheard — the sound quality of AM radio in the 1600s not being what it is today — as “They hae slain the Earl o’ Moray and Lady Mondegreen.” The newly created Lady Mondegreen thus became the eponym for misheard lyrics of all sorts, including the answer to this week’s puzzle. You might even find mondegreens in the puzzle itself.

This construction was not intended to make things difficult, though depending your familiarity with the material, you may need Internet help. The goal was to bring about a — what’s the term I’m looking for? — ah yes, a Monday grin.

If you are inspired to add one of your own, either by PM or in the Crosshare comments, maybe we should try to limit these to your own personal mishearings, not ones you’ve heard of or found at amiright.com or other Internet sources, unless they’re really, really good.

Thanks to test solvers @Abide and @Al Sisti for help and advice and to @Joe Ross for copy editing and technical assistance.

The answer is the five-word completion of a well-known mondegreen.

Do You Hear What I Hear crosshare

Do You Hear What I Hear PUZ

Do You Hear What I Hear PDF

Do You Hear What I Hear spreadsheet

[DCBilly]

Grinning. Definitely familiar with all the material.

[ChrisKochmanski]

Awful duck ouch!

LOVED this one. Thanks, Jay!

[ajk]

Got it, though a slight stumble on one part. Very fun, thanks.

[MatthewL]

Off the couch. Definitely brought a few chuckles. Thanks Jay!

[Bird Lives]

Here is a "clarification" that does not quite reach the level of being a nudge or spoiler:

At least one solver (and perhaps many more) was stalled by 36A. The item in question is a cover and not the more famous version. My apologies.

[boharr]

Off the couch. Clever and fun. Thank, Jay. Sent my personal mondegreens via PM as you requested.

[ajk]

At least one solver (and perhaps many more) was stalled by 36A. The item in question is a cover and not the more famous version. My apologies.

Yeah, that was the aforementioned stumble. But it didn't take long to unravel, given that I knew what I was looking for.

[sharkicicles]

Funny enough, I'm reading a book called The Hidden History of Coined Words and just read about this ballad and the origin of "mondegreen."

[MikeyG]

My grandfather always sang it as 22-A, haha. Off the couch!

Mine, which I only found out about a couple of years ago, happened to possess one of the most intricately poignant and poetic titles known to man: "Do Wah Diddy Diddy":

I'm hers, she's mine
Wedding bells are gonna chime

Of course, I heard it as:

I'm hurt, she's mad
Wedding bells are gonna chime

I figured that really didn't make sense, but maybe it was good preparation for marriage!

Tanks fort up uhs sill!

My Key Gee

[MMe]

The item in question is a cover and not the more famous version. My apologies.

Which was also a cover, although far better than both the original and the more recent cover, which violates the cardinal rule of covers by bringing nothing new to the table.

[rjy]

Off the couch... enjoyed the challenge and the accompanying journey into mondegreens. Such fun, thanks Jay!

[Bob cruise director]

A well known mondegreen - done by Yma Sumac?

[Meg]

Well, I got thrown off the couch eventually with the help of a friendly Muggle.

[whimsy]

It's a puzzle and a singalong! (and it's got a good beat you can dance to.)

Thanks, Jay!

[CPJohnson]

Well, I'm stumped. Can do the grid and identify the mondegreens, but still searching for the metanism.

[LesY]

Off the couch. Very enjoyable!

[ReB]

Ah yes, untold millions searched for years for that 22A, without success, myself included.

[sharkicicles]

It's a puzzle and a singalong! (and it's got a good beat you can dance to.)

Untitledcouchleap.png

Thanks, Jay!

Now I really want a Keith Haring neon for the condo.

[HeadinHome]

I like this puzzle already and haven’t even started.

update: got the grid (fun puzzle!) but no idea how to get to the meta answer.