From what I remember of the old 78s there was a load of hissing and clicking that distorted the words so your brain tricked you into hearing something recognisable.

Somewhere, long ago, I read an article about some of the famous misheard lyrics from more recent Rock and Pop songs like the Hendrix "'scuse me while I kiss this guy" line in "All along the watchtower".

Apparently some of them are now so widely accepted that even with a Karaoke machine showing them the correct words people still sing the wrong ones.