Male singers you thought were Female or vice-versa

There have been a number of times I was completely wrong in thinking I was listening to either a Man or a Woman singing. A few examples that come to mind include:

Nick Gilder - Hot Child in the City. I clued in on this pretty quickly after hearing a DJ annonce "That Was Nick Gilder". Huh? Nick can also be a girl's name?

Ozark Mountain Davedevelis - Jackie Blue. I still don't know who sang lead on this song, but by judging from the album credits, I'm pretty sure it was a guy.

The Shocking Blue - Venus. For 20 years I was familiar w/ this album cover featuring the late Mariska Veres (although I didn't know her name), but I always figured she sang the harmony vocals. If I would've once thought about it, I would've figured that a guy likely wouldn't sing "I'm your Venus", but often when a song is as old as I am, I often never bother paying attention to when the lyrics mean.

Other examples?

 

Michael Jackson singing She's Out Of My Life. I thought it was Diana Ross!

 

Yeah or Michael Jackson singing Ben...

 

When Rumours came out, I was 11 years old and thought Stevie Nicks was the guy and Lindsey Buckingham was the girl.....

 

And I still don't know what is Tracy Chapman or Boy George.....

 

Jimmy Sommerville.
Andy Bell of Erasure.

 

Who's the lead singer for Simply Red? For the longest time I thought he was a she.

 

Mick Hucknall

 

Back in '74, when I heard Neil Sedaka's comeback hit "Walking in the Rain," I assumed it was a woman singer--not too far from Karen Carpenter, vocally.

I recall that, in 1982, many people mistook Alison Moyet's vocals on the first Yaz album for a man, but I could never fathom that myself.

 

When I was a kid I thought Nazareth's cover of "Love Hurts" was sung by a woman.

 

Yeah, I thought Laughter in the Rain was Carole King. Come to think of it, I also thought Todd Rundgren singing I Saw the Light was also Carole King.

 

I never thought of that before, but I can see that. I'll never view the song the same away again.

 

Before I was familiar with either Carole King or Todd Rundgren, I thought the same thing.

 

Jon Anderson (Yes - Your Move) - I thought they sounded like a trippy British electric folk-rock group with a female lead singer.

Tracey Thorne (Massive Attack - Protection) - the line "I'm a boy and you're a girl" threw me. I was excited that trip hop was starting to use male tenor voices. I was wrong.

Klaatu (Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft) - I was convinced the lead vocal was female, until I got the album several years later.

 

Smokey Robinson fooled me when I was a kid.

 

I thought Kim Carnes singing "Betty Davis Eyes" was Rod Stewart.

 

Thanks for the info Green Tea.

 

I only learned recently that "More Today Than Yesterday" by Spiral Staircase was sung by a male. Further confusing me was the lead singer's name: Pat Upton. I guess you can still learn beyond 40 years of age.

Jon O.

 

Russell Thompkins, Jr.(The Stylistics)
Eddie Holman
Green Gartside(Scritti Politti)
Limahl(Kajagoogoo)
Anita Pointer(Pointer Sisters)(On "Automatic" you'd swear it was a male voice singing the lead on that one.)

 

"Venus" by Shocking Blue...when I was growing up, I think the disc jockeys were even afraid to tell us it was a female, for fear they'd be caught wrong.

 

NEIL SEDAKA's "Laughter in The Rain" and most everything else

 

"I Can See Clearly Now" - Johnny Nash.

Always thought that was a woman...

 

Wow, great choice!

I was a 70's kid, addicted his handheld AM transistor radio. When I listened to music as a child, I would visualize performances in my head. Russell Thompkins, Jr. and company were looking mighty hot in their silver-blue sequined gowns and long white gloves

Because of the Stylistics (and Nick Gilder) it took me many extra years to develop my then-stunted gender identification skills.

Just when I thought I had it down, Supertramp's Logical Song hit the radio, and later Boy George emerged on the scene... I was one confused puppy.

 

I'm sure I thought Air Supply's "Lost in Love" was a duet between a man and a woman.

 

Anybody else remember the "Celebrity Blow-Up" where Big Jim and Billy Sol pestered Neil - as played by Eugene Levy - to make his voice "real high" before he blew up?