Dumbed Down Ditties

December 22, 2006 7:53 AM

I was fascinated by this post about the changes made to the lyric of "Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas" between the original and Sinatra's saccharine version. What are some other popular songs which started out with morbid or otherwise dark lyrics only to be "happied up" before hitting it big? (Not necessarily limited to Christmas Carols.)
posted by murphy slaw to media & arts (29 comments total)

"Hurt" in the original version recorded by Nine Inch Nails--"I wear this crown of shit..."

"Hurt" in the cover version recorded by Johnny Cash--"I wear this crown of thorns..."

(though that change is for the better, I think)
posted by Prospero at 8:35 AM on December 22, 2006

Though it's been retreaded as a warmy-fuzzy children's song, "You Are My Sunshine" is in its traditional form a song of heartbreak, betrayal, and despair, viz, approximately:

You told me once dear
You really loved me
And no one else could come between
But now you've left me
To love another
You have shattered all of my dreams
posted by cortex at 8:59 AM on December 22, 2006

The Red Hot Chili Peppers were asked to change 'what i got you gotta get it, put it in you' to 'what i want is i want to hug and kiss you' on the Krusty The Klown Reunion Special (Simpsons reference)

(both Flea and I agreed the change was for the better)
posted by ZackTM at 9:08 AM on December 22, 2006

Big Rock Candy Mountain may apply: it apparantly had a last verse that was removed up when it was recorded. From the link:

"In proof of his authorship of the song, McClintock published the original words, the last verse of which was:

The punk rolled up his big blue eyes
And said to the jocker, "Sandy,
I've hiked and hiked and wandered too,
But I ain't seen any candy.
I've hiked and hiked till my feet are sore
And I'll be damned if I hike any more
To be buggered sore like a hobo's whore
In the Big Rock Candy Mountains. "
posted by muddgirl at 9:15 AM on December 22, 2006

cortex, i was also going to go with "you are my sunshine." a boyfriend of mine sang that song around me all the time, and when i finally downloaded it and heard the rest of the song... yikes!!

this one may or may not count for your purposes, but "99 luftballoons" always seemed dimmer to me than "99 red balloons." (see here)
posted by n y my at 9:15 AM on December 22, 2006

The Rodgers and Hart song "Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered," originally from the musical Pal Joey, has been watered down quite a bit for various jazz covers. The original's about a thorny, complicated sexual relationship; the anodyne version is much drippier.

Original; watered-down version.
posted by Pallas Athena at 9:16 AM on December 22, 2006

"Daydream Believer" was written by John Stewart. The original lyrics are slightly different from what Davy Jones sang in 1967.

Cheer up sleepy Jean
ah what can it mean
to a daydream deceiver
and an old closet queen
posted by infinitewindow at 9:30 AM on December 22, 2006 [1 favorite has favorites]

"Hurt" in the original version recorded by Nine Inch Nails--"I wear this crown of shit..."

"Hurt" in the cover version recorded by Johnny Cash--"I wear this crown of thorns..."

(though that change is for the better, I think)

Yes, I hardly think, as some people have said, that Johnny Cash had a phobia of saying the word "shit." He certainly said it enough in past recordings. More likely, he recognized the laugh-out-loud badness of Reznor's lyric-- how on earth do you write what's supposed to be a serious song about drugs and death, only to make the listener picture someone putting poop on his own head halfway through??

Anyway, the most famous example is probably the Rolling Stones changing "lets spend the night together" to "lets spend some time together" on the Ed Sullivan Show.
posted by drjimmy11 at 9:47 AM on December 22, 2006

It's so slow today that I translated the lyrics to "99 Luftballoon."

If you have some time for me
Then I will sing a song for you
Of 99 balloons
On their way to the horizon
Maybe you'll think [grad' - ?] of me
Then I will sing a song for you
Of 99 balloons
And that comes from that

99 balloons
On their way to the horizon
One resisted UFOs from the universe
Therefore a general sent
A fighter squadron after it
To give alarm, if it was like that [?]
There was on the horizon
Just 99 balloons

99 military jets
Everyone was a bigger fighter
Thought they were Captain Kirk
That gave large fireworks
The neighbors didn't [geraft - ?]
And felt equally put on
One shot on the horizon
On 99 balloons

99 war ministers
Match and gasoline can
Held themselves for smart people
Witterten already greases booty [!]
Scoring: war and wanted power
Man, who would have thought
That it comes once again
Because of 99 balloons

99-year war
Left no place for winners
There aren't war ministers any more
And also no fighter pilots
Today while I was doing my rounds
I saw the world lying in rubble
I found a balloon
Thought of you and let it go

posted by kirkaracha at 10:07 AM on December 22, 2006 [1 favorite has favorites]

There are some great answers coming in, but I just wanted to clarify that I'm less interested in covers or versions toned down for television. I'm really thinking of songs where the version that everyone knows is the dumbed-down version.

But keep the answers coming!
posted by murphy slaw at 10:43 AM on December 22, 2006

I have no citations handy, but you may want to explore the lyrical history of "In The Pines", which has in popular conceptions a sort of reversed case: the lyrics of Nirvana's version (from Live in New York) are considerably edgier than those of the previous mainstream version by Bill Monroe (et al).

But the song itself stretches back by some reports to the Civil War, and it's possible that Monroe's lonesome-but-clean rendering is the gentlest version out there. And before Nirvana covered the song, that bluegrass-revival rendition was definitely the public face of the song.
posted by cortex at 10:49 AM on December 22, 2006

My Old Kentucky Home has undergone a few revisions as the state song of Kentucky.

I've heard that the original lyrics to "Mr. Lee" were an unflattering portrayal of one of the Bobbettes' school teachers, and they were asked by their record label to make the song more positive before it was recorded and eventually became wildly popular.
posted by Buzz at 10:54 AM on December 22, 2006

ZackTM: Yeah, everyone can enjoy that!
posted by gazole at 11:27 AM on December 22, 2006

The tune that, in English, has the words, "Those were the days, my friend" (fond nostagia for wild youth), originally had a significantly more melancholy set of Russian lyrics ("you left me in your troika, but will you come back to bury me?")
posted by nonane at 11:38 AM on December 22, 2006

Self-link warning! I blogged about Cole Porter songs that had altered lyrics and/or ambiguous original meanings here. I was mainly talking about his song "Let's Do It", but the comments section had people talking about a lot of his other songs that also got watered-down.
posted by Asparagirl at 12:05 PM on December 22, 2006

The song "Maniac" from the film Flashdance was originally about a psycho killer.

"He's a maniac, maniac that's for sure.
He will kill your cat and nail him to the door"

became

"She's a maniac, maniac on the floor.
And she dances like she's never danced before"
posted by wsg at 12:27 PM on December 22, 2006

Apparently, the song Pretty Baby, which, even the bland Dean Martin rendition has (what seem to me) pretty creepy lyrics, originated in a more salacious tune entitled Jelly Roll Blues by New Orleans-born pianist Tony Jackson. It's claimed that Jackson's original lyrics were about his (male) lover. There's more background here.
posted by misteraitch at 12:28 PM on December 22, 2006

I'm mentioning Big Rock Candy Mountain again because it is most well-known, I think, in the children's version with "the peppermint trees" rather than the original hobo version with the cigarette trees, the lake of whisky, the cops with wooden legs, and so on--not just wrt the final left-off verse mentioned above.
posted by not that girl at 12:29 PM on December 22, 2006

'This Land is Your Land' by Woody Guthrie has a couple verses that rarely appear in collections of stirring patriotic anthems.
posted by ardgedee at 12:45 PM on December 22, 2006

Van Morrison's "Brown Eyed Girl" was originally "Brown Skinned Girl"...but that was changed by Morrison himself, rather than a case of outside censorship.
posted by rocket88 at 1:12 PM on December 22, 2006

The Kinks had to change "Coca-Cola" to "Cherry Cola" for the single version of Lola.

Cole Porter's I Get A Kick Out Of You has a rather tame verse about cocaine that's often dropped:

Some get a kick from cocaine
I'm sure that if
I took even one sniff
That would bore me terrifically, too
Yet, I get a kick out of you

posted by timeistight at 2:19 PM on December 22, 2006

"For You" as written and performed by Bruce Springsteen:
I've rammed through all your doors
And who am I to ask you to lick my sores?
And you should know that's true

"For You" as performed by Manfred Mann:
And I've rammed through all your doors
Who am I to ask you to fight my wars
And you should know that's true
posted by donpardo at 2:43 PM on December 22, 2006

The Rodgers and Hart song "Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered," originally from the musical Pal Joey, has been watered down quite a bit for various jazz covers.

Holy cow, I had no idea what the original was like. Thanks! I intend to sing it that way from now on!
posted by Savannah at 3:43 PM on December 22, 2006

Battle Hymn of the Republic? Originally stated "let us die to make men free" and changed to "let us live to make men free" in 1960.
posted by birdie birdington at 5:03 PM on December 22, 2006

Vice versa - Johnny Mercer's One For My Baby (and One More for the Road) was whole lot peppier when Fred Astaire did it in The Sky's The Limit than when Sinatra got ahold of it.

To my mind, anyway.
posted by IndigoJones at 6:00 PM on December 22, 2006

NB- it was presentation, not lyric change.
posted by IndigoJones at 6:01 PM on December 22, 2006

The third stanza of "Gloomy Sunday" was added by Billie Holiday to make the song less deadly (the urban legend at the time was that the song in its original form caused mass-suicides).

see wikipedia
posted by stray at 6:31 PM on December 22, 2006

The original lyrics for Shine by Vanessa Amorosi:

"Everyone you see, everyone you know is going to shine" was originally "Everyone you see, everyone you know is going to die"

I must say the latter makes more sense, though perhaps harder to sell as a pop song.
posted by kjs4 at 7:34 PM on December 22, 2006

I can't believe I forgot...

"Pass The Dutchie" by Musical Youth. In its original version, the song was "Pass The Kutchie;" I first heard this on a tape of a Doctor Demento broadcast in which he explained that the song tile meant, "roughly translated, 'Pass The Joint.'"
posted by Clay201 at 3:37 AM on December 24, 2006