Songs you thought were sung by someone of the opposite gender

I thought High School Confidential by Rough Trade was sung by a guy.

Q Lazzarus - Goodbye Horses

I thought Nick Gilder was female in both looks and voice.

I thought Hanson's MMMBop was sung by a girl for about a month.

"Jackie Blue"

I love this song. It came out when I was a kid and I thought the main part was a guy at first but learned after seeing them on TV it was a woman.

When I heard the Blow Monkeys’ cover of “You Don’t Own Me” I assumed the lead singer was a woman with a really, really deep voice.

Am I the only one who thinks the drummer at R5 is kind of hot?

When I was very small, I thought Tracy Chapman's "Fast Car" was sung by a young, teenage guy. Love her though.

I thought Do You Really Want to Hurt Me was sung by a woman.

I thought “I Try” by Macy Gray was a colossal joke performed as a prank.

When I first saw a pic of Jon Bon Jovi I thought he WAS a woman. He doesn't sound like one but he sure looked like one (facially, anyway) in his younger years.

Journey - "Lovin' Touchin' Squeezin'"

Jermaine Stewart, We Don't Have to Take Our Clothes Off. I was also confused by Neil Sedaka's Laughter in the Rain.

Ain't No Reason by Brett Dennen

Never dawned on me that it could be a guy and there are plenty of women named Brett too

Beautiful song though.

Anything by Yaz-era Alison Moyet

This oldie goldie is great! "Brean 'n' Butter"

If you listen to the lyrics of "Ain't No Reason" you could see it as a metaphor for finally being able to come out of the closet "love will set me free, I know."

I'm posting an obscure fact about Victor Hugo. 10 points for me!

I'm R19 and I'm an idiot--wrong thread.

Watching TV and DLing don't mix lol

This thread is transphobic! It assumes gender is binary.

Somebody’s Knockin’ by Terri Gibbs

Hot and Cold by Katy Perry

One of the Alabama Shakes songs. Thought it was a man singing

Air Supply - I thought it was a male and female duo.

Someone already beat me with Yaz

I can't remember which Fleetwood Mac song I first heard Christine McVie sing on, but I was shocked to learn she wasn't a guy singing.

Some great songs on here ! Somebodys Knockin will forever remind me of a tempestuous nightmare relationship I had with a stunning blue eyed alabama man .He was indeed the devil with blue eyes and blue jeans ! I danced to jermaine a 1000 times but only realized a few years ago he wasnt a she! I loved this song for years before I realized it was a man singing.

Me too, R24.

I always thought the guy from Rush was a woman. I can't remember which songs specifically, but twice I heard them on the radio and thought the singer was female.

The Stylistics “You Make Me Feel Brand New”. I was 7 or 8.

First time I heard "feel it still" by Portugal the man I thought it was a woman.

Bit of a side drift, but as a kid was convinced Rick Astley was black until I saw one of his videos.

Cigarettes After Sex

The "female" voice in this song is apparently Jack White.

Wayne Newton looked like a LESBIAN back then.

The theme song to ARTHUR (1981)

For years I thought a young black woman was singing this.

R6 - I was thinking more, menopausal.

Leo Sayer's "You Make Me Feel Like Dancing"

R6 - I got that a lot. Why do you think I showed my Bush in the I’m So Excited video?

I still don't know if the lead singer of Silversun pickups is male or female. I suppose I could google .

[Bit of a side drift, but as a kid was convinced Rick Astley was black until I saw one of his videos.]

I thought the same of Dusty Springfield.

I thought The Fifth Dimension was white.

Portugal Man's "Feel it Still" - I was blown away when I found out it was a man singing.

R22 Me, too! And when I first saw her on TV, I thought it was a blind transgender person!

R43 They’re not?

I thought this was the voice of a man.

Believe by Cher. There was so much autotune it sounded like an androgynous robot.

Like R9, I thought "Fast Car" was sung by a guy. The fact that Tracy Chapman has one of those gender ambiguous names didn't help clear it up any.

Nothing beats Jimmy Scott.

My mother used to play a Christmas album, and I still don't know if the singer was a lady with a weird voice, or a little boy with a weird voice. This was in the late 60s/early 70s.

I thought Marvin Gaye was a lady when I first heard this song:

Didn’t Marvin Gaye sing that classic “Let’s Get It On (Like Dogs in the Road, Pt.1)” ?

“Kiss” by Prince is VERY reminiscent of Got To Give It Up, down to the femme falsetto.

Don't make fun of me but when I was young I thought this was sung by a young boy.

Young boys do tend to sound like girls though.

Todd Rundgen singing "I Saw the Light".

I thought it was Carole King.

R56, that reminds of another: Quindon Tarver on the Romeo & Juliet soundtrack.

I solved my own mystery. It was A Brenda Lee Christmas.

Why do fools fall in love?

"Somebody's Knockin'"

Cher's voice was so deep on her debut single, the public thought she was a guy.

McAlmont and Butler - Yes

R5 Steve Cash was purdy! That's a good song. When they wrote it they realized it was for a woman to sing and had to change it a bit for a man to sing. They weren't gender benders, it was the 70s. Steve Cash's face looks completely contemporary, though. Could run into him in any hipster town today.

"You Are Everything"

I was 12 when this came out. I thought the singer was a female.

R30 I remember hearing him sing Danke Schoen on the radio in my Dad's car when that song came out. My father swore it was a girl.

More trivia: Todd Rundgren knew Liv Tyler wasn't his daughter but signed the paternity papers and supported Liv until she was grown up.

OP, what’s a g*nd*r?

I honestly did not know that this was a woman singing until last year!

r69, I didn't know that was a woman singing until now!

Some of you don't have much of an ear.

I'm another one who took years to realise Tracy Chapman was a woman.

R50 Bingo!

When I first heard the many songs of the young Luis Miguel I thought it was a sultry woman and could not look up the songs to save my life due to the assumption that the singer was female - seriously - it was just his teen falsetto . Soy Como soy, palabras de amor, for example. And back then, he had a five octave range !

L.P. INTO THE WILD.

Annoying song from an annoying commercial that I thought was performed by a man. The first two or three times I saw L.P. I thought it was a young guy, but then I realized L.P. wouldn't reveal his/ her first name and was trying too hard to be a guy to actually be a man.

A second vote for Tracy Chapman (another gender - ambiguous name).

Another ambiguous Tracy, Tracy Thorne, for about a month I thought she was a he.

Brett (gender ambiguous name) Dennen is male, I thought was a woman.

Another vote for Alison Moyet and YAZ, some of these 1980s / 1990s synth pop groups sounded like each other.

Still uncertain about JAMIE XX the lead singer of PORTUGAL. THE MAN

"Cool It Now" until like 3 years ago.

I guess it's because I was very young when this song came out and the vocal effect confused me, but the first couple of times I heard it I thought it was a duet, with the first verse was sung by a guy and the second by Janet.

I heard Sinnerman on a television show (can’t remember what show though) and liked it - went to download it and discovered that it wasn’t a man singing.

First few times I heard Melissa Etheridge's "I'm The Only One" on the radio I was astounded that Wayne Newton was singing rock and getting airplay.

Ditto, R26.

"Over My Head."

Marianne Faithfull.

On "As Tears Go By" and her earlier stuff, she was Joan Baez or Judy Collins.

But with "Broken English" and everything since, she's been Tom Waits.

Anything by Tracy Chapman. I thought she was a dude for the longest time.

I thought the bridge of “Almost Heat You Sigh” by The Rolling Stones was post coke/fat era Stevie Nicks.

I thought “Don’t Treat Me Bad” by Firehouse was by Pat Benatar.

Constant Craving by KD Lang. I thought it was a guy (well, not far off)

Mr. Big “To Be With You”

For a long time, I thought it was a woman singing.

[quote] "Jackie Blue"

I thought when I was little that Jackie Blue and Help Me (Joni Mitchell) were sung by the same person.

I didn't realize until relatively recently that a man sings Jackie Blue.

[quote] Another ambiguous Tracy, Tracy Thorne, for about a month I thought she was a he.

Tracey (not Tracy)

Thorn (not Thorne)

This one! I will let you guys decide it yourself.

Janie Street's "Under the Clock". Thought she was a guy even after I saw the video.

Surprised no one has mentioned the Bee Gees. They sort of pioneered the vocal androgyny of the 70s.

The Europop group "Modern Talking" sounded like women.

I had heard that "Jackie Blue" was about the notorious transvestite Jackie Weiss, but the dates make it seem unlikely.

I had to Google "I'm Your Venus" to find out that it was sung by a woman.

[QUOTE] I had heard that "Jackie Blue" was about the notorious transvestite Jackie Weiss, but the dates make it seem unlikely.

I think it was about Jackie Fox

Nobody has posted this yet?

I knew someone who thought the male voice was really a female voice & vice versa in this song =

Same as above =

This came out while I was in junior high, many of classmates thought it was sung by male ( the video didn't help matters).

When this song came out on the radio

many around me thought it was a dude singing ("no girl sings like that").

Isn't It Time by The Babies

R11 it was a joke.

I didn't know The Bucketheads' "The Bomb" was a sample from Chicago's "Street Player", sung by Peter Cetera.

In the full Chicago version, it sounds like a guy, but the Bucketheads' sample always sounded like a Martha Wash-type to me.

R34 Jack White tends to do that. The old woman singing Amazing Grace at the end of Loretta Lynn's Woman's Prison is Jack White.

DL fave Helen Shapiro.

I heard this one for years on the oldies channel on the piped in music at work but I never knew the singer was a female.

I heard this one for years on the oldies channel on the piped in music at work but I never knew the singer was a female.

I'm glad I was never as stupid as OP.

r102, you just blew my mind. I had no idea that was Peter Cetera.

On the radio I thought this disco remake of La Bamba was sung by a dude-Antonio Rodriguez.

I guess it wasn't.

Liar, Liar by The Castaways

Apocalypse by Cigarettes After Sex. I listened to the entire cd thinking the vocalist was a woman.

"feel it still" is totally a woman - oops!

R9 yep, that’s the one I was gonna say

I didn’t think Portugal the man was a woman, but I assumed it was a black twink for some reason, I wasn’t expecting a white man.

Dancing to it.

Girl on the far left in first group is Dance Moms favorite Maddie Ziegler. Of course, she's totally outdanced by the girl in the middle., Kaycee Rice.