I was working in a record store when Madonna’s first single came out. It was a DJ hit in the local gay bars while it was still a white label promo, long before the album came out. We sold hundreds of copies before anything with any cover art was released; all with nothing more than white 12" sleeves. When the album came out, most of our customers refused to believe that this New Wave-looking white chick was the girl singing Lucky Star.
I first got a copy of Fiona Apple’s first album as a white-label promo; no art at all, no bio info. I thought she was a 45-yr-old black woman.
I was surprised when I learned that Tom Waits isn’t black.
I wasn’t quite as surprised with the others:
Antony of Antony and the Johnstons
The singer from the Electric Six
Todd Rundgren on some songs I heard when I was younger and later found out were by him
Robert Del Naja from Massive Attack
I was sitting in a restaurant the first time I heard Matisyahu’s music. I thought he was a black man singing reggae. He so isn’t.
My boyfriend thought Mitch Hedberg was black just from hearing his stuff on the radio. Again, not even close. I had to Google him and show Mike a picture before he would believe me that Hedberg was a surfer-looking white dude. But I don’t even think he sounds particularly black, myself.
When I first heard Ali Campbell from UB40 I refused to believe he was White.
I also agree with the Joe Cocker, Rick Astley, and Michael McDonald call-outs. On the other side, I knew both Darius Rucker from Hootie and Seal were Black instantly.
re: Askia’s mention of George Michael: listening to the early Wham! stuff, it was so grounded in R&B. But then they did possibly the Whitest song ever, “Wake Me Up Before You Go Go” (possibly only topped by the Violent Femmes’ “Blister in the Sun”). And then GM goes back to do the R&B stuff on Faith…
Darryl Hall in the early days, before Hall & Oates became the big 80s hitmaking machine, sounded really Black.
Young Black Teenagers (who had the best name in hip-hop back in the day) sounded like… young Black teenagers. (Kid’s White roommate in the House Party movie (3?) where he went to college, Jamal, was in YBT.) I also thought that Pete Nice from 3rd Bass sounded Black. MC Serch sounded a little less so.
Vanilla Ice fooled me when “Ice Ice Baby” broke. Hell, while I’m at it, I’ll admit to being bamboozled by Snow as well (hangs head in shame).
They ( people of India ) belong to the grouping called “Indo-European”, as do their languages; what used to be called Aryan. Their ancestors settled India, some of their relatives settled Europe, and here we are.
Katey Sagal ( Peggy Bundy, voice of Leela ) tried to be a singer, but sounded too black when she sang for the record companies. I heard a recording; she does sound like a stereotype of a black gospel singer.
> They ( people of India ) belong to the grouping called “Indo-European”, as do
> their languages; what used to be called Aryan. Their ancestors settled India,
> some of their relatives settled Europe, and here we are.
Indo-European is a language family. It’s not a ethnic or racial grouping. It’s hard to determine what the speakers of Proto-Indo-European (the language from which all present-day Indo-European languages are descended) were like genetically 6000 years ago. Indo-European languages didn’t spread out by the speakers killing everybody in the region and talking over. They spread out by intermarriage and probably by conquest. In each region where their language triumphed, they were probably a minority of the inhabitants. Present-day speakers of Indo-European languages mostly have only a tiny proportion of ancestry from the original speakers of Proto-Indo-European. Only the languages of northern India are Indo-European. The languages of southern India are Dravidian, which is not related. You can tell this by looking at northern and southern Indians. Northern Indians are only very slightly more European-looking than southern Indians. Nearly all of their ancestry comes from native Indian stock, not from the Indo-European invaders.
I was surprised that Johnny Nash of “I can see clearly now the rain has gone” fame is black.
And here’s another vote for Dusty Springfield. White and British? You got to be kidding me. FWIW, wiki has a page of British blue-eyed soul singers, most of them have been already mentioned.
When I heard the score for Apollo 13, I thought the woman singing on it was black. I didn’t know who Annie Lennox was until my dad pointed out it was the same woman who used to have short red hair and was part of The Eurythmics (hey, I was a little kid when “Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)” came out).
Heck, I was surprised when I found out that the singer of that song was a man. And I was surpeised to learn (years ago) that the songs sung by Christine McVie of Fleetwood Mac were sung by a woman . But that’s a different thread.
At the risk of further hijacking, I thought that the song More Today Than Yesterday by The Spiral Starecase was sung by a woman. Not so, of course; Pat Upton is a man.
