The Mandela Effect in Music
Published on 13 January 2025
“Mandela effect, popularized phenomenon in which a group of people collectively misremember facts, events, or other details in a consistent manner. Paranormal researcher and author Fiona Broome conceptualized the effect after discovering that she and others possessed strong, yet false, memories about the death of South African anti-apartheid activist (and later president) Nelson Mandela while in prison during the 1980s. Research has found evidence for a specific Mandela effect concerning the misidentification of certain pop culture images; however, intense debate has occurred over potential causal mechanisms, many of which include pseudoscientific explanations.”
(Taken directly from Britannica.com)
The Mandela Effect
The Mandala Effect, this curiously pervasive sort of wrongly-remembered culture, seems to pop up everywhere. Why is this? Is it simply a repetition of wrong info, over and over until we forget the true facts? Is it paraphrased quotes and lines that get somehow ‘eroded’ over the years until they drift from the original words? I’m not sure, but it’s a fascinating subject to trawl through in one’s idle minutes.
To get us going today, and to prime you on the type of thing I’ll be talking about, here are a few interesting examples of Mandela Effects from culture at large:
- Snow White (which we’ll be coming back to): the famous line “Mirror, mirror, on the wall, who’s the fairest of them all?” is actually “MAGIC mirror on the wall, who’s the first of them all?”
- Shazam movie: lots of people remember a 1990s movie called Shazaam, starring the comedian Sinbad as a genie. Fine, but no such movie has EVER existed.
- Looney Toons: the cartoon series, right? Never existed. It’s Looney TUNES.
- C-3PO’s silver leg: that slightly annoying golden robot in Star Wars didn’t just all of a sudden earn himself a silver leg out of nowhere: he ALWAYS had it! I don’t remember the toys having a silver leg…
- “Beam me up, Scotty”: In the Star Trek universe, nobody has ever actually uttered those words.
- The Monopoly guy: that little rich old guy character on the front of the box? He has NEVER worn a MONOCLE! Whaaaat????
So, that’s largely what we’re dealing with: stuff that you think you know in culture, which is actually not the case at all. There are numerous examples of the Mandela Effect in music, so today I thought I’d share some of my favourites. A lot of these are just misheard lyrics - so you can decide if that even counts as an example of the Mandela Effect phenomenon - but even these can throw interesting new contexts over songs we think we know really quite well!
Are you ready to face the (sometimes) strange truth? Then follow me, as we enter the parallel world that contains the Mandela Effect…
The Musical Mandela Effects at a Glance
Bands with ‘The’ in Their Name
Alanis Morrissette Isn’t a Bitch
A Compendium of Misheard Lyrics
Snow White
I’ll start with Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, since I’ve mentioned it already. This 1937 animated feature is famous for a number of reasons, one of them being the song sung by the dwarfs. We all know the lyrics…or do we?
It’s actually NOT “Heigh-ho, heigh-ho, it’s off to work we go”, but in fact “Heigh-ho, heigh-ho, it’s HOME FROM work we go”. Mind blown! Well, singing about coming home from work makes a bit more sense, does it not?
Queen - Two Mandela Effects
Freddie and the boys have given us two separate Mandela Effects to get unsettled by. The first is well reported: the song We Are the Champions ends with Mercury triumphantly singing “We are the champions…of the world!”
Or does it?
Listen again, and you’ll hear only the first part of that phrase. Granted he always added the latter part when performing live, but most of us nowadays would know the studio recording best.
The second one is subtle but it really pulled the rug out from under my feet. It’s that song Who Wants to Live Forever from the Highlander soundtrack. Give it a listen first and check out Freddie’s vocal:
Great vocal, wasn’t it? Except it’s NOT Freddie! Not until verse two at least. No, that’s Brian May starting off the tune, taking ‘lead vox’ on the first verse and chorus.
Do NOT tell me you already knew that, because I will not believe you. Unless you've seen the official video, which entirely gives the game away...
The Mamas & The Papas
Get ready to feel all sorts of strange emotions coursing through your body when you hear this one. You definitely know this song of course, but here’s a curveball for you.
The lyric “I got down on my knees and I began to pray” is actually “I got down on my knees and I PRETEND to pray”! Wow! That changes the entire song!
Massive Attack
Do you live that timeless Massive Attack classic hit Unfinished Symphony?
No you don’t, because it has always been called Unfinished Sympathy. Yup. Did the string section on the tune lead you?
Bands with ‘The’ in Their Name
This one comes and goes a bit, but basically, they are not The Eagles, they are just Eagles. Similarly, The Bees Gees are in fact Bee Gees. The Pixies are just Pixies, too.
Okay, okay, but The Beatles did include their ‘the’, so you shouldn’t be asking ‘Do you like Beatles?’ and expecting anyone to understand you.
Blade Runner
Ridley Scott’s sci-fi epic is also the subject of two Mandela Effects! Firstly, fans of the soundtrack fondly remember stylish scenes throughout the movie, backed by the tune Rachel’s Song, a significant part of Vangelis’ score, and the theme of a major character.
That is, until they go back to the movie itself and listen out for the song, only to realise that it is not - and has never been - anywhere near the movie itself! No indeed, the Blade Runner soundtrack didn’t actually see a proper release until 8 or 9 years after the movie, by which point Vangelis had returned to the work and added in extra music. People were listening to the soundtrack and imagining the songs fitting into scenes they never actually belonged to.
The other Mandela Effect attached to this movie is the title itself: since when was it two words? It’s Bladerunner, surely? Well, apparently not. As much as I don’t remember it that way, the film has always been Blade Runner.
Alanis Morrissette Isn’t a Bitch
Remember that song Bitch? “I’m a bitch, I’m a lover, I’m a child, I’m a mother…” Yeah, you know that song. It was Alanis Morrissette, right?
Nope. Despite being often attributed to the Jagged Little Pill star (you’ll find YouTube videos directly crediting her as the artist), Bitch is and always was a song by Meredith Brooks.
A Compendium of Misheard Lyrics
Many musical Mandela Effects are simply misheard lyrics that enter the populace as false ‘facts’, if they can be described as such. Some are interesting, others profound, showing you how a song’s entire meaning can be upended by the swapping of a single word.
Here are some good ones I came across…
- Aqua - Barbie Girl: “I’m a Barbie girl, in A Barbie world”, actually: “I’m a Barbie girl, in THE Barbie world”
- Joan Jett - I Love Rock ‘n’ Roll: “I saw him standin’ there by the record machine”, actually: “I saw him DANCIN' there by the record machine”
- Eurythmics - Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This): “Sweet dreams are made of these”, actually: “Sweet Dreams are Made of THIS” (the clue’s in the title!)
- Jewel - Who Will Save Your Soul: “Who will save your soul?” actually: “Who will save your souls?” (the addition of an ‘s’ changes the entire context of the message!)
- The Who - Won’t Get Fooled Again: “And pray we won’t get fooled again”, actually “And pray we DON’T get fooled again” (the title is never sung at all!)
- Bee Gees (not THE Bee Gees, see?) - How Deep is Your Love: “How deep is your love? I really need to know”, actually “How deep is your love? I really need to LEARN”
- U2 - With Or Without You: “I can live with or without you”, actually: “I CAN’T live with or without you” (from optimism to despair in the space of a single word!)
It’s a Parallel Universe
So, there are some crazy examples of the Mandela Effect phenomenon. What did you think? Is it a parallel universe situation, with other-worldly variations of our normal cultural stuff slipping through the crack in reality? Or is it just the fact that people forget things, and then repeat loads of stuff said by others without checking the source?
Each person can be their own judge, but it’s an interesting modern sort of conundrum none the less. Do you have any Mandela Effects not listed above? Send them in, and maybe we’ll get a volume two going in the future!
