# Your music group personnel misconceptions? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 21, 2017, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-music-group-personnel-misconceptions/791825 "2017-07-21T19:16:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Ponch8](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ponch8/32/9883_2.png) [@Ponch8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ponch8)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2017, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-music-group-personnel-misconceptions/791825/1 "2017-07-21T19:16:05Z")
For a while, I thought Joan Jett was one of the Jets (the late-1980s pop group). Even more incredibly, it was only about two years ago that I learned that Pat Benetar was never part of the Bangles. I don’t know how I came to believe this in the first place. I thought that she left the group sometime in the mid to late 1980s. I knew she had a solo career before that time, but I thought she still did some work with the Bangles (much like how Phil Collins did some solo stuff during his time as lead singer of Genesis). ---
**Author:** ![Soylent\_Juicy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/82dd89/32.png) [@Soylent\_Juicy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Soylent_Juicy)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2017, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-music-group-personnel-misconceptions/791825/2 "2017-07-21T19:39:18Z")
I used to think that Adam Sandler was one of the Beastie Boys. (Had him mixed up with Ad-Rock.) ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2017, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-music-group-personnel-misconceptions/791825/3 "2017-07-21T20:21:11Z")
I used to think [this song](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kUBSRM779oc) was from a music group called “The Band”. I formed that impression before I had listened to much pop or rock (I was a classical [del]geek[/del] snob as a kid and only started tuning into rock in high school) and it stayed lodged in my head for an embarrassingly long time, i.e., long after I had sufficient familiarity with the sound of The Who. ETA: that’s not really a _personnel_ misconception, sorry. ---
**Author:** ![Ponch8](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ponch8/32/9883_2.png) [@Ponch8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ponch8)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2017, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-music-group-personnel-misconceptions/791825/4 "2017-07-21T20:26:21Z")
> [@AHunter3](#): > > ETA: that’s not really a _personnel_ misconception, sorry. Close enough! I wouldn’t mind reading about other music-related misconceptions Dopers have had. ---
**Author:** ![ZonexandScout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zonexandscout/32/544_2.png) [@ZonexandScout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZonexandScout)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2017, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-music-group-personnel-misconceptions/791825/5 "2017-07-21T20:39:26Z")
> [@AHunter3](#): > > I used to think [this song](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kUBSRM779oc) was from a music group called “The Band”. I formed that impression before I had listened to much pop or rock (I was a classical [del]geek[/del] snob as a kid and only started tuning into rock in high school) and it stayed lodged in my head for an embarrassingly long time, i.e., long after I had sufficient familiarity with the sound of The Who. > > ETA: that’s not really a _personnel_ misconception, sorry. I’ll toss in another plea for posters to simply name something (like this song) rather than expect others to open a separate link and start streaming at least 30 seconds of a video in order to understand the post. ---
**Author:** ![campp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c5a1d2/32.png) [@campp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/campp)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2017, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-music-group-personnel-misconceptions/791825/6 "2017-07-21T20:43:29Z")
When I first heard Dire Straits’ _Sultans of Swing_, I honestly thought it was the new Bob Dylan album that was coming out at that same time. Took me awhile to figure that out. I still think it sounds kind of close to Dylan’s voice. ---
**Author:** ![drad\_dog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/aeb1de/32.png) [@drad\_dog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drad_dog)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2017, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-music-group-personnel-misconceptions/791825/7 "2017-07-21T20:47:32Z")
> [@AHunter3](#): > > I used to think [this song](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kUBSRM779oc) was from a music group called “The Band”. I formed that impression before I had listened to much pop or rock (I was a classical [del]geek[/del] snob as a kid and only started tuning into rock in high school) and it stayed lodged in my head for an embarrassingly long time, i.e., long after I had sufficient familiarity with the sound of The Who. > > ETA: that’s not really a _personnel_ misconception, sorry. I bought the single of this when it was out. Here’s the weird thing: The flip side is “Baby Don’t You Do It” by Holland Dozier Holland. It was also the Bands second of two top 40 singles. The same song, the same year. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2017, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-music-group-personnel-misconceptions/791825/8 "2017-07-21T20:50:02Z")
This thread wouldn’t be complete with **lno’s** confession that he though Jerry Lee Lewis and Jerry Lewis were the same person in one of the Dope’s classic threads. [My rage burns with the fire of a million suns.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=62082) > [@](#): > > **And finally, to Jerry Lewis, and Jerry Lee Lewis.** > You two both deserve to rot in the umpteeth circle of hell. Not because you directly affected my life in any way, but because for the love of God I lived twenty-four years without knowing you were two separate people. I went through life thinking that “Goodness gracious great balls of HEY LAAAAAAADY!” came from the same person. I thought that the performer whom the French strangely love was the same performer who married his underage cousin in Kentucky. You have no RIGHT to do this to me. You have no IDEA how aghast I was when this was explained to me. No, this was not explained to me in the privacy of my own home. No, this was not explained to me in the company of a few close friends, who would snicker momentarily and then forget about this. No, this was not even explained to me while giving a presentation to a board of directors. YOU TWO KEPT UP THIS CHARADE UNTIL MY GIRLFRIEND WONDERED WHAT THE HELL I WAS TALKING ABOUT. She’ll never let me forget about this. She now has the nuclear weapon of relationships. She can merely whisper “Jerry Lewis!” into my ear and I’ll curl into a mortified fetal position. She can win any argument, no matter how many cites I provide, or how many links to authoritative sources. > > Jerry Lewis, you go to hell. Jerry Lee Lewis, you lead the way. ---
**Author:** ![Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mean_mr.mustard/32/3865_2.png) [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mean_Mr.Mustard)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2017, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-music-group-personnel-misconceptions/791825/9 "2017-07-21T20:52:21Z")
I was shocked, _shocked_ I tells ya, when I learnt the lead singer of the song [Venus](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aPEhQugz-Ew) by the Shocking Blue was a female. And this was just withing the past year or so, meaning my assumption had been wrong for decades. mmm ---
**Author:** ![ChockFullOfHeadyGoodness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chockfullofheadygoodness/32/511_2.png) [@ChockFullOfHeadyGoodness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ChockFullOfHeadyGoodness)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2017, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-music-group-personnel-misconceptions/791825/10 "2017-07-21T21:04:51Z")
It was only within the past 5 years that I found out that Nick Gilder, of “[Hot Child in the City](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d02k10Bz6ro)” fame, is male. In those pre-MTV days when music was only on the radio, I would have sworn Nick was short for Nicole. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2017, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-music-group-personnel-misconceptions/791825/11 "2017-07-21T21:13:42Z")
Not exactly a personnel error, but there’s a fairly well known heavy metal guitarist named Bernie Torme. For years I thought he was the son of jazz singer Mel Torme. Nope- turns out Bernie is Irish, not American. ---
**Author:** ![ChockFullOfHeadyGoodness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chockfullofheadygoodness/32/511_2.png) [@ChockFullOfHeadyGoodness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ChockFullOfHeadyGoodness)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2017, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-music-group-personnel-misconceptions/791825/12 "2017-07-21T21:22:31Z")
I knew a girl in high school that could not get it through her skull that Blondie was the name of the band, not the singer. I lost count of the number of times I had to repeat " _She_ is Deborah Harry; _they_ are Blondie." ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2017, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-music-group-personnel-misconceptions/791825/13 "2017-07-21T21:28:30Z")
Back in the 60s, there was a lot of press about John Lennon’s album “Two Virgins,” mostly about how it was covered in white paper so the cover photo of John and Yoko naked was hidden. Then we got a few copies of an album with an all-inclusive cover, with only the words ”The Beatles" embossed on it… ---
**Author:** ![xizor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xizor/32/102_2.png) [@xizor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xizor)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2017, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-music-group-personnel-misconceptions/791825/14 "2017-07-21T21:37:00Z")
When I was a teenager one of my siblings told me that Thomas Dolby was the guy who invented all the Dolby audio technology like surround sound and noise reduction. And that he just made music as a hobby. I believed that until about 5 years ago when I finally looked it up on Wikipedia. ---
**Author:** ![GESancMan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gesancman/32/2923_2.png) [@GESancMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GESancMan)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2017, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-music-group-personnel-misconceptions/791825/15 "2017-07-22T00:08:18Z")
> [@Ponch8](#): > > Even more incredibly, it was only about two years ago that I learned that Pat Benetar was never part of the Bangles. I don’t know how I came to believe this in the first place. I thought that she left the group sometime in the mid to late 1980s. I knew she had a solo career before that time, but I thought she still did some work with the Bangles (much like how Phil Collins did some solo stuff during his time as lead singer of Genesis). Maybe I’m reading this wrong, but it sounds like you are under the impression that Collins had a solo career before Genesis. He joined Genesis as a nobody, ten years before he released his first solo album. He was a member of Genesis continuously throughout the height of his solo career, until he left in 1995. Did I just unmask another misconception? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2017, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-music-group-personnel-misconceptions/791825/16 "2017-07-22T00:34:01Z")
Usually the frontman is the singer. Sometimes it’s the lead guitarist. But a bassist or drummer (who don’t or rarely sing) is weird. Pete Wentz is the bassist of Fall Out Boy. Nicky Wire is the bassist for the Manic Street Preachers. I had to look up both singers’ names. > [@Colibri](#): > > This thread wouldn’t be complete with **lno’s** confession that he though Jerry Lee Lewis and Jerry Lewis were the same person in one of the Dope’s classic threads. Patti Smith and Patty Smyth is another one, though I learned that before it embarrassed me. > [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](#): > > I was shocked, _shocked_ I tells ya, when I learnt the lead singer of the song [Venus](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aPEhQugz-Ew) by the Shocking Blue was a female. Lots of these. For example, 80s staple Yaz/Yazoo. The guy from Kill Hannah [sounded like Shirley Manson](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S99AukhkgW4) of Garbage. [Q Lazzarus](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XTs_TZFjbJ8) of Buffalo Bill tucking his genitals away fame. > [@ChockFullOfHeadyGoodness](#): > > I knew a girl in high school that could not get it through her skull that Blondie was the name of the band, not the singer. I lost count of the number of times I had to repeat " _She_ is Deborah Harry; _they_ are Blondie." An interesting one: Vincen Furnier renamed his band “Alice Cooper,” and everybody thought it was his name. He’s since taken the name personally, too. Apparently he pays royalties to use the name. ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2017, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-music-group-personnel-misconceptions/791825/17 "2017-07-22T00:39:01Z")
I confuse Oingo Boingo, Bananarama, and Bow Wow Wow, but just because of the group names and the time period, not any of the members. ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2017, 12:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-music-group-personnel-misconceptions/791825/18 "2017-07-22T00:41:20Z")
> [@thelurkinghorror](#): > > An interesting one: Vincen Furnier renamed his band “Alice Cooper,” and everybody thought it was his name. He’s since taken the name personally, too. Apparently he pays royalties to use the name. That’s interesting. I’ll bet that ALMOST happened to Jethro Tull – ahem, I mean Ian Anderson. Did anyone mention people assuming Peter Wolf was “J. Geils”? ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2017, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-music-group-personnel-misconceptions/791825/19 "2017-07-22T00:43:51Z")
> [@ChockFullOfHeadyGoodness](#): > > It was only within the past 5 years that I found out that Nick Gilder, of “[Hot Child in the City](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d02k10Bz6ro)” fame, is male. In those pre-MTV days when music was only on the radio, I would have sworn Nick was short for Nicole. As a child, I assumed the voice of Johnny Nash was that of a female, and the voice of Fleetwood Mac’s Christine McVie was that of a male. ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2017, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-music-group-personnel-misconceptions/791825/20 "2017-07-22T00:46:18Z")
> [@campp](#): > > When I first heard Dire Straits’ _Sultans of Swing_, I honestly thought it was the new Bob Dylan album that was coming out at that same time. Took me awhile to figure that out. I still think it sounds kind of close to Dylan’s voice. I really thought it was Eric Clapton (when I was nine). My father liked both singer/guitarists, and they do play in a similar style (especially in the late 70s). [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-music-group-personnel-misconceptions/791825.md?page=2)