"I had no idea they were a man/woman!"

[JMW]

Similar to when you thought a singer was black when they were actually white, is there a singer or group you thought were women but was actually a man (or vice versa)?

The idea for this thread came from hearing Air Supply at #35 on this weekend's 1985 show, a group I thought consisted of two women until I saw them on TV in the summer of 1995 and found out how wrong I was.

[OnWithTheCountdown]

When Terri Gibbs charted in 1981 with "Somebody's Knockin'", I thought she was a he.

[johnnywest]

^Me too. And I thought Limahl was a woman for several years.

A few years ago, a friend was surprised when I told him that Felly of Technotronic was a woman.

[at40nut]

Here's an obvious one-"Hot Child In The City" from 1978 by Nick Gilder. Wonder How many people thought it was a follow up hit to Bonnie Tyler's "It's A Heartache"?

[80sat40fan]

The first time I heard Russell Tompkins of The Stylistics sing "You Are Everything", I thought it was a woman singing.

I think this was mentioned in the previous thread but when I first heard "Jackie Blue" by The Ozark Mountain Daredevils, I never even thought that the song was sung by a man (sorry, Larry Lee!).

[countdownmike]

I thought the first soloist on the Five Stairsteps' O-o-h Child" was a man. It was the sibling sister as seen on their performance on Soul Train, who sang in a low tone. She becomes back to repeat the first verse before the song closes.

[Hervard]

When I first heard "Sad Eyes", and the announcer said it was by Robert John, I thought, "That's a strange name for a woman."

[mkarns]

Before I heard them regularly, when I was a kid I initially thought Motley Crue were women (from their 1983-84 appearance, not their music.)

And then there's Justin (Justine?) Bieber before his voice had the pubescent drop. (I never thought he was a girl, but quite a few others evidently thought so, judging from the online memes and such.)

[doofus67]

Jun 11, 2016 18:45:58 GMT -5 at40nut said:

Here's an obvious one-"Hot Child In The City" from 1978 by Nick Gilder. Wonder How many people thought it was a follow up hit to Bonnie Tyler's "It's A Heartache"?

When I saw the subject line, I thought of him immediately.  He totally sounded like a she, until he got to the lyric line, "Come on down to my place, woman."

[doofus67]

Jun 11, 2016 19:09:25 GMT -5 80sat40fan said:

The first time I heard Russell Tompkins of The Stylistics sing "You Are Everything", I thought it was a woman singing.

I think this was mentioned in the previous thread but when I first heard "Jackie Blue" by The Ozark Mountain Daredevils, I never even thought that the song was sung by a man (sorry, Larry Lee!).

Holy crap!  The original OMD had only the male lead singer???  Nuh-uh!

[bigal]

the guy who sang LAY A LITTLE LOVE ON ME, Robin McNamara. thought he was a woman

[dukelightning]

Jun 11, 2016 22:48:56 GMT -5 Hervard said:

When I first heard "Sad Eyes", and the announcer said it was by Robert John, I thought, "That's a strange name for a woman."

Funny story to tell here. Sometimes at college radio, we would get several copies of a record as happened throughout the industry with the record company shipping multiples out to stations. Robert John's album that included this song was one such record. And the fact that he sounded like a woman caused the station to have a throwing the record against the brick wall party. And that's how we went from having 5 or 6 copies of his album to one IIRC. Lucky to have save that or if we did not, as music director I may have made sure "Sad Eyes" was recorded onto a cartridge. BTW, as with most songs that people disdain including almost every one from this quoted poster, I liked the song and really did not have the fun that others did throwing the record against the wall!

[MrGeno502]

In 1974 I was 11 years old and when I first heard "Rock Your Baby" I thought it was sung by a woman.Then I found out it was George McCrae and I didn't think there was any women named George.But I still thought that the song was about an infant.I was a very naive 11 year old

[80sat40fan]

Taking an artist from the 90s and doing the vice versa that JMW suggested... does anyone remember a singer named Billie Myers who sang the Top 20 hit, "Kiss The Rain" in early 1998? In the first verse when she sings, "Hello... can you hear me?"... I never thought for a second it could be a female singing the song. And when the DJ announces the song is sung by Billie Myers, I'm thinking Billy Myers. When I saw the song's video for the first time, that's when I realized, "Oops!"

[johnnywest]

The deep voice in the chorus to The Pointer Sisters' "Automatic." I had always thought that sounded just like a man. Perhaps their voices were electronically manipulated.