Like no porpoise could ever do

Sometimes when you hear a song for the first time, there’s something in the lyrics that doesn’t make sense. When you find out later what the real lyrics are, and you realize your original thought was way off. (A mishearing of a phrase is called a mondegreen”. Wikipedia has a good definition, with examples.)

When I first heard Stevie Wonder’s I Just Called To Say I Love You more than 20 years ago, I thought I heard one very–odd sounding line: “To fill your heart like no porpoise could ever do.”

I knew he wasn’t singing about sea mammals. The next time I heard the song, I figured out what he was really saying: “To fill your heart like no three words could ever do.”

It just goes to show you; one’s brain can come up with really silly things.