Come On, _____

Around town an on the internets a lot of people are saying, “Come on Irene.” This is a mondegreen of the 1982 song by Dexy’s Midnight Runners “Come on Eileen.” A mondegreen is a misheard lyric. I just wanted to point this out because as a fan of 1980’s music, I feel that a classic is being inartfully appropriated. Although “Eileen” and “Irene” are assonant (they resemble each others’ vowel sounds,) the two are not the same. That said, I’m hard pressed to come up with memorable songs with the word “Irene” in the title. So come on, Eileen; and America, get it right.

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