Chart hits that you never really listened to the lyrics at the time ...

[BlackAmericanoNoSugar]

but completely change the whole tone of the song once you do listen to them.

I had no idea that Goodbye Yellow Brick Road was so dark, "I'm not a present for your friends to open" is a very bleak image. Not that I would have understood the darkness at the time even if I knew the lyrics as I was barely in primary school.

Jessie’s Girl an up beat song that drips misogyny. The woman is a object the singer is sad she is owned by his friend and wants his own version. "How do I get a woman like that", she isn't even enough of a person to deserve a name, she is just known by her relationship to a man.

Pumped up kicks by Foster the People ( if you listen to the lyrics it’s about a school shooting) -“ all the other kids with the pumped up kicks. You better run,better run, outrun my gun”. Dark as hell.

Waterfalls by TLC

I was about 11/12 when it came out and it was just a cool song.

Years later I realise it's about drugs, death and HIV/AIDS and quite dark!

I think even if you know the lyrics to Waterfalls you wouldn't necessarily get the reference to AIDS, there's nothing direct except for "three letters took him to his final resting place" and even that is still fairly obscure.

Another one that I found very sad as an adult was Street Life which was a lovely bouncy tune when I was a child but is also extremely dark, "There's always love for sale a grown-up fairytale,
Prince Charming always smiles behind a silver spoon". Although, again, I wouldn't have understood the prostitution and drugs reference when I was a child.