Metallica's timeless 1991 classic 'Enter Sandman' topped the charts upon release, but it has now topped a different kind of chart.

The opening track for their self-titled 1991 album (also known as 'The Black Album') had misheard lyrics among a sizeable majority of listeners in a survey carried out by WordFinder.

74% of Gen Z listeners and 70% of Millennial listeners thought the chorus for the hit track went "Eggs and light/ End all nights" — somewhat different to the actual lyrics, "Exit light/ Enter night." 

According to the data, it was millennial and Gen Z participants who were most likely to mishear the lyrics, but Gen X listeners were the most likely to get the track right, with 68% mishearing the lyrics.

Tracks from all genres were represented in the survey, with tracks by Ariana Grande, Drake, Doja Cat, Lizzo and Billy Joel also featuring in the survey.

The survey found that a person's age might affect how they relate to or understand music, with "each generation had its own unique tendencies when it came to mishearing hit song lyrics."

The findings read "for example, with the advent of the vocal mixing software known as auto-tune in 1996 and its popularisation in modern hip-hop and pop music, older listeners may not be used to interpreting the heavily-modified vocals of songs like Far East Movement’s 'Like a G6."

'Like A G6's' chorus goes "Now I'm feelin' so fly like a G6" but listeners misheard it as "Now I'm feelin' so fly like a cheese stick," and the track 65% of Generation X participants.

The 2010 track ranked among the top five songs misheard by Gen X, the oldest generation we surveyed, while the same applied to Gen Z for their misinterpretation of 'Little Talks' by Of Monsters and Men (ranked fourth) and 'Fancy' by Iggy Azalea (ranked second). 

The full findings can be found on their website, along with a list of commonly misheard lyrics and their real lyrics.

As for Metallica, the band has found themselves back in the charts after having their 1986 track 'Master Of Puppets' featured in an episode of 'Stranger Things', with the band said to be in the early stages of recording a new album.