'Tutti Frutti' is a nice, innocent rock 'n roll song in which a man sings about all the different shapes and sizes of women he likes. Right? Not exactly. 'Fruity' in the fifties in America was slang for 'acting like a man who often sexually prefers other men. Like singer/songwriter Little Richard.
He was in a studio to produce some other song and while waiting he played the song he had played in bars hundreds of times.
"The original lyrics, according to Little Richard, went as follows: "A wop bop a loo mop a good goddam, Tutti Frutti, good booty, if it don't fit, don't force it, you can grease it, make it easy."" (source)
The producer who heard Little Richard play Tutti Frutti hired a different songwriter to rewrite some of the lyrics and it - as well as Little Richard - became an enormous hit.
If Little Richard hadn't agreed to a rewrite of Tutti Frutti, those nice, white, American 'christians' would have burned the record. And Richard with it.
There are more songs out there the don't exactly mean what you probably think they mean:
Hallelujah by Leonard Cohen is a nice and innocent song that's often played at funerals because it seems to praise God almighty? Nah. It's about a struggle between lust and love and - according to Jeff Buckley, the singer who made Hallelujah famous - the lyrics are an ode to the orgasm. 'She tied me to the kitchen chair' anyone? Just some sexual play or about a woman taking power over a man?
Every Breath You Take by The Police is not a love song but describes the crazy mind of a stalker. Which could be an ex lover or the government.
R.E.M. 'The one I Love' is an ode to the one the singer loves? Nah. It deals with hypocrisy: just saying you love someone does not make it a fact.
What are other songs that you now know mean something else than you once thought they did?
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