10 Songs That Don't Mean What You Think

Epic choruses, killer hooks and catchy lyrics are the order of the day when it comes to music's most memorable hits. That's just a fact of life, and it has been ever since we were all nippers singing along to the latest nursery rhyme in unison. There's something special about harmonising with others and sharing the glory of a good melody; it's a feel good factor that's hard to replicate.

That addictive template has helped create the songs that have padded the bank accounts of pop's biggest stars, but people don't always have the subject matter for these tunes spot on.

Artists as varied as Green Day, Lady Gaga, The Boomtown Rats and Los Del Rio are all here, and every single one of them is responsible for penning words that music fans misinterpreted. Often, those misunderstood (or frankly made up) meanings became schoolyard or water cooler law, and that caused the original purpose to get lost in translation.

We've got songs about serial killers, cheating girlfriends, record label pressure, bisexuality and missing fathers to study. It's a tangled web of lyrical confusion...