Think you know what these songs are about? Wrong

From abortion to vampires in love, here’s the real inspiration behind these hit tunes:

Slide by The Goo Good Dolls (1998):

They once performed the hit song on Sesame Street with Elmo, which is surprising given what the track is really about.

“It’s such a heavy song,” said frontman Johnny Rzeznik on VH1 Storytellers.

“If you really sit and listen to the lyrics, the song is actually about these two teenage kids and the girlfriend gets pregnant and they’re trying to decide … whether she should get an abortion or if they should get married.”

Some of the lyrics:

Don’t you love the life you killed?

The priest is on the phone

Your father hit the wall

Your ma disowned you

Heart-Shaped Box by Nirvana (1993):

Apparently Kurt Cobain claimed that he wrote the song after watching documentaries about kids with cancer, a claim that is somewhat backed up by music video director Anton Corbijn.

“Some idea about cancer in society, as well as proper cancer, but I never … It was not really clear to me, to be honest, what Kurt personally had in there,” said Corbijn.

But according to Courtney Love, the song is actually about her vagina … yes, her vagina.

In a couple of tweets she sent to singer Lana Del Ray after she performed the song in 2012, Love wrote:

“You do know the song is about my Vagina right? … On top of which some of the lyrics about my vagina I contributed. So umm next time you sing it, think about my vagina will you?”

Some of the lyrics:

Meat-eating orchids forgive no one just yet

Cut myself on angel’s hair and baby’s breath

Broken hymen of your highness I’m left back

Throw down your umbilical noose so I can climb right back

Fight For Your Right by Beastie Boys (1986):

If you’ve ever danced to For Your Right at a party, guess what … the Beastie Boys are actually taking the piss out of you.

The track, which they wrote in about five minutes, is a parody of other famous party songs.

“The only thing that upsets me is that we might have reinforced certain values of some people in our audience when our own values were actually totally different,” said Mike D in an interview.

“There were tons of guys singing along to [Fight for Your Right] who were oblivious to the fact it was a total goof on them. Irony is oft missed.”

I Don’t Like Mondays by The Boomtown Rats (1979):

Most of us agree that Mondays suck, but this tune isn’t about a general dislike about the start of the work week.

“It was about this event that I saw in America, this girl shooting her schoolmates and her teachers,” said frontman Bob Geldof.

The shooting he’s referring to is when 16-year-old Brenda Ann Spencer opened fire at her San Diego school in 1979, killing two men and injuring eight students.

When asked by a reporter why she did it, Spencer reportedly said, “I don’t like Mondays. This livens up the day.”

Some of the lyrics:

And daddy doesn’t understand it,

He always said she was as good as gold.

And he can see no reasons

‘Cause there are no reasons

What reason do you need to be shown?

Brick by Ben Folds Five (1997):

It came 12th in Triple J’s Hottest 100 in 1998, but we wonder how many people who voted for it knew it was actually about abortion?

“The song is about when I was in high school, me and my girlfriend had to get an abortion, and it was a very sad thing,” revealed Ben Folds.

“And, I didn’t really want to write this song from any kind of political standpoint, or make a statement. I just wanted to reflect what it feels like. So, anyone who’s gone through that before, then you’ll know what the song’s about.”

Some of the lyrics:

They call her name at 7:30

I pace around the parking lot

Then I walk down to buy her flowers

And sell some gifts that I got

Pumped Up Kicks by Foster the People (2010):

It was the number one song in Australia in 2011, but this catchy tune is actually about the growing number of school shootings in the US.

“I kind of wrote the song to bring awareness to the issue,” said Mark Foster.

“That sort of thing keeps happening more and more in our country; it’s kind of turning into an epidemic.

“To me the epidemic isn’t gun violence; the epidemic is lack of family, lack of love, and isolation — kids who don’t have anywhere to go or anyone to talk to and that’s what makes them snap.”

Some of the lyrics:

All the other kids with the pumped up kicks

You better run, better run, outrun my gun

All the other kids with the pumped up kicks

You better run, better run, faster than my bullet

Total Eclipse of the Heart by Bonnie Tyler (1983):

Westlife did a version, the Glee cast sang it and who can forget The Dan Band’s expletive-ridden performance of the song in Old School.

But guess what … it’s actually about vampires.

“I actually wrote that to be a vampire love song,” said songwriter Jim Steinman.

“Its original title was Vampires in Love … If anyone listens to the lyrics, they’re really like vampire lines. It’s all about the darkness, the power of darkness and love’s place in dark.”

Some of the lyrics:

Every now and then

I get a little bit nervous

That the best of all the years have gone by

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