Eh? Sting, the master of mangled words

This is one chart that Sting probably wishes he didn't top.

The rock legend has come first  -  as well as seventh  -  on a list of the most commonly misheard pop lyrics.

Message in a Bottle, his 1979 hit with the Police has the line: 'A year has passed since I wrote my note'.

But fans regularly mishear it as: 'A year has passed since I broke my nose'.

His 1980 song When the World is Running Down, is meant to say: 'You make the best of what's still around'. To some, however, it sounds more like: 'You make the best homemade stew around'.

Sting, 56, beat the Beatles, the Bee Gees, Queen and David Bowie in the online poll of 2,000 music fans.

The Beatles also make two appearances in the top ten, with Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds and Michelle.

In the first song, the line: 'The girl with kaleidoscope eyes' is apparently misheard as... 'The girl with colitis goes by'.

And 'Michelle, ma belle, sont les mots qui vont tres bien ensemble, tres bien ensemble, sounds to some like: 'Michelle ma belle, some say monkeys play piano well, play piano well'.

The Bee Gees came in at number two with Stayin' Alive. 'It's all right,

it's okay, you may look the other way' is mistaken for: 'It's all right, it's okay, you make love the other way'.

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Such misunderstandings, or mishearings, are called mondegreens. The term is a reference to the 17th century ballad The Bonnie Earl O' Murray, in which the final line 'and laid him on the green', can be heard as 'and Lady Mondegreen'.

A spokesman for hearing aid retailer Amplifon, which commissioned the survey, said: 'We heard some brilliant misquotes during our research that had us in stitches.

'However, there's a serious side to the survey as it highlights the sad fact that in the UK alone there are an estimated nine million people classed as deaf or hard of hearing.' Interestingly, Sting was last year voted the worst lyricist in history, by readers of a U.S. music magazine, for 'mountainous pomposity and cloying spirituality' and his use of 'ham-handed metaphors''

He was singled out for rhyming the word 'cough' with 'Nabokov', and for De Do Do Do De Da Da Da.