If you have ever loved a song, but always felt confused about some of the lyrics, you probably went ahead and made up your own words. This is great as long as you are alone, or it is a song that everyone else does too. But if you have been called out on singing the wrong words, you know how embarrassing it can be.

I have definitely made a lot of musical guffaws. I heard “Shoot the children, with no shoes on their feet. How’s the people…?” While Steve Miller Band actually sings, “Shoe the children with no shoes on their feet. House the people…” The best one, though, is probably when I was a kid singing, “We’re going to the Jack-o-lantern, gonna get married!” The actual line is: “We’re going to the chapel and we’re gonna get married.”

Being able to read the lyrics you aren’t sure about can help you avoid these mistakes. Even if you don’t make musical mishaps, you might want to see all of the lyrics. Your best bet is to find the lyrics you want online. There are a lot of websites that offer song lyrics, but some are better than others. You can find free sites, but some charge. Some sites offer the lyrics, but aren’t easy to navigate. Here is a break down of the best lyrics sites.

Metrolyrics.com includes over 450,000 songs from over 13,000 artists. The site offers free membership, which allows you to access all of the site’s features. You can create lists of your favorite lyrics, receive a free newsletter, and request new lyrics to be added. The site lets you print the lyrics out without frames, so they are easy to read. The site’s lyrics come from contributions from members, so you can add them too. Another bonus of the site is that it offers a forum for its members to use.

Lyrics Depot

Lyricsdepot.com offers over 300,000 free song lyrics. The site offers a search box, but you can also browse alphabetically by artist and album. The site provides the lyrics of over 12,000 artists from over 30,000 albums. If you don’t find what you are looking for now, chances are that it will be added soon as the site is constantly growing and being updated.

A to Z Lyrics

The AZlyrics.com site advertises that it is the “place where all searches end.” Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to find Steve Miller Band lyrics in their collection, so my search continued. However, this is another site that allows users to add and edit lyrics, so it is constantly growing. If you don’t find what you want today, chances are it will show up at some point, or you can even make a request for the lyrics.

Lyrics.com

Lyrics.com provides free membership to music lovers. The site is easy to search, and has a good compilation of lyrics. Membership allows you to flag favorites, make dedications to people, and access to their forum. The only problem I had with the site was the obnoxious ads—some were flashy and annoying, while others were hard to recognize as ads because they looked like they were part of the site. If you use this site, you will have to be careful what you click on to avoid opening a new page.

Smart Lyrics

SmartLyrics.com is an ever-growing database of lyrics. They currently offer the lyrics of over 630,000 songs, in many different languages. This is another user site, so you can offer lyrics that aren’t already provided on the site. The site doesn’t only provide lyrics, but videos as well. Their tagline is amusing: SmartLyrics.com…because you’re not stupid.