"That was a guy singing?!" wrong calls on singers' genders thread

I don’t remember the song well enough to tell you if any of the male members of the band sing lead during any part of it, but lead singer Spanky McFarlane is a woman.

I put Jason Mraz’s “You and I Both” on a mix CD for my mom, and she thought it was a woman singing. I can definitely see that.

I saw Tom Brosseau perform live and was all like “huh, Tom is a really weird name for a woman.” I seriously couldn’t tell. Very, very androgynous. Lovely voice and great stage presence though.

Peter Bronski of Bronski Beat fooled me good with “Smalltown Boy”.
I swear he sounds like Annie Lennox.

He’s called Jimmy Somerville.

Music by the 70s band The Raspberries (Go all the Way) and/or their lead singer Eric Carmen (Never Gonna Fall in Love Again) fooled me for a long time.

:eek:
Ignorance has been fought.

I came in to mentin that one, how only in the last few years did I find out “The Logical Song” is sung by a guy.

Also, I would have sworn Lovin’ Touchin’ Squeezin’ was a gal, sine I didn’t know Journey too well and didn’t make the connection.

There’s also Jon Anderson. I hadn’t heard of the group Yes until later, I first heard him on a VangelisHeaven and Hell album and thought it was a woman singing. He actually sounds (to me) kinda like the singer on the above mentioned Supertramp’s The Logical Song.

Am I really the first to mention Christopher Cross?

I even watched the video of Karma Chameleon several times and wasn’t sure if Boy George was a chic or a dude.

I’m used to men that sing high, so I laugh at y’all.

Of course, I’m so used to it that I do remember hearing an early Melissa Etheridge song that sounded like a rock guy singing high. “I Want to Come Over,” maybe. But hey, that’s how she sings.

The one that actually surprised me: When I was getting into Cassandra Wilson, I was listening to one of her albums (New Moon Daughter, I think) & thought that some of the songs in the middle had a male singer accompanying her.

Looked at the booklet. Nope. She’s a baritone, more or less, & when she goes low, it just sounds too low to be a woman.

Geddy Lee. Weird, androgynous name. Weird, only slightly less androgynous voice. I just made the wrong choice. You know how it goes.

psst…his mail comes to Gary Lee Weinrib. No ambiguity there. I never thought he sounded like a girl, though. Just a guy with an obscenely high voice. You couldn’t mistake Brad Delp for a girl, either, but he could sing full on for notes only a dog could hear.

Queensryche did a concept album called Operation Mindcrime and there is a sort of duet in on one track that I swear to this day HAS to be a chick on vocals…no mention no one on the album not in the band, evidently Geoff Tate (who does have an amazing range) just altered his voice for that part and sounds 100% female.

Oh and “I can see clearly now” was a dude? dude, you have got to be kidding me?!?!?!?

Leo Sayer. “When I need love… I hold out my hand and I touch love…”

On the Pointer Sisters Automatic, that deep bass voice singing the word ‘automatic’ is June Pointer. I didn’t believe it until my husband made me watch a video of it.

I recall at the time that Kasey Kasem pointed out her voice had been altered to make her sound like that. Big novelty thing.

You mean Pamela Moore? Not a dude. Geoff Tate has an amazing range but does not sound like a woman.

The YouTube clip.

For years, I thought that Carol Channing did that awful, cheezy '70s hit, “Oh, Babe, What Would You Say?”

Turns out that it was a guy, Norman Smith, who once worked as a recording engineer on early Beatles albums.