[Ads-l] A "kiss-this-guy" kind of mishearing (UNCLASSIFIED)

[Mullins, Bill CIV (US)]

Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
Caveats: NONE

I wish you hadn't posted this, Wilson.  The opening bars of "Searchin'" remind me of the Oak Ridge Boys hit "Elvira", and I can't get that song out of my head.  Classic Earworm.

> -----Original Message-----
> From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On
> Behalf Of Wilson Gray
> Sent: Sunday, May 10, 2015 5:58 PM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject: A "kiss-this-guy" kind of mishearing
> 
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header ---------------
> --------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      A "kiss-this-guy" kind of mishearing
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
> --------
> 
> Those old enough and hip enough may recall an R&B tune from 1957 titled
> "Searchin'," by The Coasters. It was in the ordinary call-and-response
> style of black singing, the call being
> 
> "I'm searchin' "
> 
> and the response being
> 
> "Gonna find her."
> 
> A friend claims, for years, she heard the response as,
> 
> "Call a panda,"
> 
> causing her to expend mind-hours trying to make the connection between
> searching for one's lost love and calling a panda to help one do it.
> 
> --
> -Wilson
> -----
> All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"---a strange complaint to
> come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
> -Mark Twain
> 
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
Caveats: NONE

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org