Hit song with misheard chorus

Question

Here's a music trivia puzzle for you all:

What big international hit song had a chorus that was a garbled, misheard rendition of a much older hit song. The original song was in English, the newer song was in a mixture of languages.

I do have an answer in mind, but I'll accept a different answer if it turns out to have been a bigger hit than the one I'm thinking of.

Spanish, English, Portuguese --although there were apparently different versions released in different countries. — Chris Sunami, Jul 01 '20 at 13:39

score 2 · Answer 1 · answered Jul 04 '20 at 21:49

2

This question immediately brings to mind The Ketchup Song (Aserejé) by Las Ketchup. Its chorus is a rendering, in Spanish-language nonsense syllables, of the English-language chorus of Rapper's Delight by the Sugarhill Gang.

answered Jul 04 '20 at 21:49

phoog

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This is indeed the song I was thinking of! Fun fact --within the song's narrative, the reason the chorus is garbled is because the person singing it is drunk, high, and doesn't speak English. :) I'll leave this open for a couple more days in the case anyone else comes up with an even better answer. I'd be curious if anyone else has ever had this concept. "Piano Man" has a similar narrative, but I don't think the song quoted in that one is a "real" one. – Chris Sunami Jul 06 '20 at 13:11
@ChrisSunamisupportsMonica I am sure that there is some other similar instance somwehere. There's a whole category of language mistake named after a version of this phenomenon in which one phrase is misheard for another, mondegreens, but I have some vague recollection of some other nonsense phrase that is actually supposed to mean something. Maybe I'm thinking of Mairzy Doats. – phoog Jul 06 '20 at 20:59
@phoog Maybe In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida? – Rich Jackson Jul 07 '20 at 18:18

Hit song with misheard chorus

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