What song you can't believe you were singing as a kid and nobody stopped you?
In my case I'll say either Bloodhound Gang's The Bad touch or Aqua's Barbie Girl.
I mean.. what the hell is "hanky panky".
But for bonus points, I did also sing "take a walk on the wild side~" with no flying clue what "giving head" was supposed to be.
My stepson was always singing I Will Survive. Mentioned that was sorta the gay anthem. He was horrified. So he started singing YMCA instead.
That punchline got me real good.
Call me crazy, but him being horrified by that sounds like bad parenting...
Back when I took singing lessons my teacher (who mostly taught kids but I was an adult learner) shared that she often had to veto the songs kids wanted to sing. One in particular that stuck with me was a less than 10 year old who wanted to sing Lady Gaga’s Love Game. Which has the lyric “I wanna take a ride on your disco stick” among other very adult lyrics.
Those lyrics are more spoken than sung, so for music lessons, that makes sense.
For some reason I Don't Like Mondays was popular with my parents when I was a kid and I remember singing it sometimes. Turns out it's about an actual school shooting and not just disliking Mondays.
Like "pump up kicks" though that's more obvious.
I think "I want to shoot the whole school down" isn't terribly subtle, but Pumped Up Kicks definitely spells it out for you.
It did have a pretty catchy chorus.
Back when a school shooting was actually something to write a song about.
All the Linkin Park songs.
After he hung himself, it all makes sense.
Yeah that one was weird. Like the dude was always singing about being horrifically depressed, and then when he hung himself it was like surprised Pikachu face
In The End, Numb, Crawling, One Step Closer, Runaway, Place for My Head… motherfucker I hadn’t really thought to much about it before
OPP. - Naughty By Nature
I had no idea what 'OPP' stood for as a kid, which is funny, because it's right in the lyrics, but I was too young to understand what that meant. So I, too, would just belt that song out whenever it came on. Nobody stopped me, either.
Oh wow, I'm today years old when I found out what that means.
I'm pretty sure there's never been an official definition for what it meant. I believe they claimed it stood for "other people's problems" back in the day while other people said "other people's pussy."
The lyrics aren't too ambiguous, I don't think...
[...]
Now go back and watch Hilary Clinton's Between Two Ferns interview, and let the layers of that joke unfold
Yeah you know me!
Ring Around the Rosie
Cigaro - System of a Down
Mezmerize was one of the first albums I ever owned around age 9. I knew almost every song by heart and would constantly sing along to them in the car. I have a vivid memory of singing this song in particular in the parking lot of the local mall when my dad finally decided to tell me what "cock" meant.
You're telling me Serj wasn't singing about a rooster??!
Edit meant to reply to the thread not your comment.
Sweet Transvestite from RHPS lol. My mom played magenta for many years
My sister loved that movie as a kid.
Independence Day by Martina McBride is about murdering an abusive husband by setting the house on fire.
The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia is about murder
Two.
*And his cheating wife had never left town
And that's one body that'll never be found*
Hungry Like the Wolf - Duran Duran
Cum on Feel the Noize
Bobby Brown - Humpin Around
Clarence Carter - Strokin
Afternoon Delight - Starland Vocal Band
I was 5 when it came out.
My Dingaling by Chuck Berry
Next - Too Close
I recall my friends and I singing some of these lyrics when we were 11-12 with zero idea that it's blatantly about a hard dick. The radio channel that played it didn't come in too well where I lived, so we didn't know 99% of the song, only the melody.
Wild Thing by Tone Loc
Barbie Girl is cool though
When I was a kid, Strokin’ by Clarence Carter was a super popular wedding song (at least where I grew up) and it had a fun line dance so we all knew every word and had no idea what it was about.
My dad was very irresponsible and taught me "Blind Man's Penis" when I was a kid. Cue the looks of horror on everyone's faces when I sang it out loud... not that I was totally unaware of why!
Dance Ten, Looks Three from A Chorus Line.
I'll let you look it up. My relatives thought it was hilarious.
It's pretty straightforward but I had to look it up: https://oldtimemusic.com/the-meaning-behind-the-song-dance-ten-looks-three-by-audrey-landers/
It's amusing to me that overview never mentions the rather catchy hook (which was cause to clutch pearls in the era).
The version I grew up with on Youtube. Later versions softened the delivery a bit, but... yeah.
The only artist I can think of where I did this is Dr. Bombay.
A Swede/Dane pretending to be Indian doing a lot of crazy stuff.
What is probably his most well known song is Taxi, taxi, taxi! Where he sings about being a blind taxi driver in Calcutta, the music video was recorded in Malaysia:
https://youtu.be/dBwrW9-QgPM
Then there is this song about him taking over a relative's restaurant, notice the frogs os in the soundtrack....
https://youtu.be/fKtNawQ3cxM
Then he made this sexist song about how he want a wife who cleans, cooks and washes laundry for him, it is made with humor, so how serious it is I can't say:
https://youtu.be/_BRVbZUe0WA
There are more songs by this character, but the guy behind him then invented the same character to Dr. Mcadoo a crazy scotsman...
This time the songs where more focused on partying:
https://youtu.be/glCK7W0hmhg
So a bit more generic...
https://youtu.be/xeJgdUWZzKg
Then he reinvented himself again into a carzy Mexican called Carlito.
I have not found any live action music videos by that character.
Here is his most well known song as far as I can tell:
https://youtu.be/pSIkcDwxwbw
I was wrong, there is one live action music video by Carlito:
https://youtu.be/4gY1AHjq1y8
Then he went away, only to resurrect Dr. Bombay a few years ago...
https://youtu.be/2lsojtENpQ0
Dr. Bombay would never have got off the ground these days, the idea that a Swede/Dane could pretend to be Indian would just not be acceptable.
He still performes live and does ok from what I can tell, I am happy for him, but starting this kind of act these days would not work.
Kudos for adding the links. Thanks!