The 2012 VW Passat commercial “That What He Says?”  uses Elton John’s “Rocket Man” and has been playing a lot lately. The commercial focuses on the Passat’s new crystal-clear Fender audio system. It shows a montage of people singing their interpretation of the lyrics “burning out his fuse up here alone.”

Misheard lyrics heard in the commercial include “burning out this useless telephone”, “burning up the room with cheap cologne”, “musty motor home”, and “all alone”.  I’m not sure if these are real or made-up misheard lyrics, but I’m going to say the misheard lyrics were made up for the commercial. I checked two popular websites that list misheard lyrics, kissthisguy.com and amiright.com, and neither site includes any of the so-called mondegreens from the commercial.

There are plenty of misheard lyrics for “Burning out his fuse up here alone” listed on the sites that make more sense than any of the made up mondegreens in the commercial.  I’ll admit that for years, I thought the line was “burning up the shores of Avalon”. I’ve also heard the lyrics as “Rocket man, running out of fuel and heading home.”

While “burning out his fuse up here alone” is the most common misheard line in “Rocket Man”, there are a couple more lines of lyrics that are often  misheard. “Mars ain’t the kind of place to raise your kids” has been heard as “Bars ain’t the kid of place to raise your kids”, and “I’m not the man they think I am at home” has been mistaken as “Not that many think I am at home” and “a muscle man let me die in my home”. That last line makes no sense to me, but it must have made sense to someone.