Things you got confused in pop culture

I thought the Jackson 5 was only Michael Jackson. Because I only heard Michael in the songs on the Radio like Can You Feel It, Blame it on the Boogie, Shake Your Body, etc. It was like Michael with backup singers. I didn't understand the other 4 were also Jacksons until later.

I was a kid when Diana Ross announced she was leaving the Supremes and going solo. And then I heard "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" on the radio, and she had backup singers on that recording, and all I could think was, "She's not solo! She still has backup singers!"

All apologies to Mary and Cindy for referring to them as backup singers.

OP, we must be almost the exact same age. I remember cleaning my room at 11 and listening to Top 40 countdown, etc., with those exact songs being on continual rotation.

About a year later, I heard Prince's strange new song "Rags, Miracle Rags" on the radio, about a girl he picks up at Goodwill (or so I believed for several weeks). We didn't have MTV.

For years I thought Jamiroquai was the artistic name of the singer. Then I found out his artistic name is actually Jay Kay and that Jamiroquai is actually a band.

R3 Miracle Rags sound like the inspiration for ShamWow!

Madonna wishes she was a good singer like Denise Williams.

When I first heard "Holiday" on the radio, I thought it was Sister Sledge. I was shocked when I turned on American Bandstand and saw a weird looking white girl singing.

R4 - TIL this information...from you!

When I was a really little kid, I thought Madonna had invented sex and that’s why she was such a big deal.

I remember watching the movie Parenthood (Steve Martin, Dianne Wiest, et al) and recognizing that the kid in it was River Phoenix's brother (Leaf).

For many years afterwards, I watched Joaquin Phoenix in various things and never realized this was the very same person. The kids all have names like Summer and Rain, so I assumed Leaf was another nature-named sibling who had simply done one movie and then quit.

And to expand my R9, I would have been around 5-6 years old when “Erotica” and the Sex Book came out so even though I don’t have an exact memory of when I believed it, it would have made sense because she would have been everywhere during this time and I probably saw it.

I even remember telling my friends at school that she invented sex.

R9, she seemed to feel the same way at the time.

R9 / R11 - it makes sense! She wrote the book on it!

This is edging close to an 'I want to be underwhelmed' thread..

I thought her name was Phyllis Dillis.

I thought Red Skelton's name was Red Skeleton.

I was confused when Jane Pauley replaced Barbara Walters on “Today” because I was only four and they seemed the same.

When I was seven years old, I bought the Archies' "Sugar Sugar" 45 record with my allowance money.

I was crushed when my mother told me that it was just random studio singers singing the song and that the Archies weren't real.

Oh I’ve got another one!

I had no idea that was Bruce Willis in “Death Becomes Her” for the longest time!!!

Even now when I watch it, I forget it’s him.

When I was a kid, I asked my mom how I could become a famous actor. She told me you have to be born into an acting family.

I thought it was really unfair that I would never get to be a famous actor because I wasn't bornin to a famous acting family.

When I first saw Close Encounters of the Third Kind, I thought Richard Dreyfuss was Bob Balaban.

The last thing I had seen Richard Dreyfuss in was Jaws, and he had a beard and glasses just like Bob Balaban did in Close Encounters.

It was months before I figured that one out.

When I was 12, I thought the song Gloria by Laura Branigan was the theme song from the movie Gloria starring Gena Rowlands.

I thought Peggy Lipton was from the family that owned Lipton Tea.

I thought it was about a soap opera actress, R22.

R16 I used to think “Red Skeleton” changed his name to Red Buttons (or vice versa). I also got Rip Torn and Rip Taylor confused.

I thought Seabiscuit was Celine Dion for the longest time.

The realization that Sade was actually not a solo act but a band.

When I was a kid, I thought R-rated movies always contained full frontal nudity.

I was so disappointed when my parents took me to see a Star is Born and I didn't get one look at Kris Kristofferson's penis.

[quote]R18 When I was seven years old, I bought the Archies' "Sugar Sugar" 45 record with my allowance money. I was crushed when my mother told me that it was just random studio singers singing the song and that the Archies weren't real.

This is the saddest, cutest thing - -

R27 - Well, the band is named after her. Strange gray area there.

I loved the “Jackson 5” early ‘70s Saturday morning cartoon show and was later surprised to learn that Motown’s Berry Gordy Jr. didn’t sound and look like his animated version in the program. And I thought the animated Diana Ross must’ve been TV’s “Julia.”

I was confused by Blondie. I thought Debbie Harry's name was Blondie, but one day, I heard a deejay say, "That was Debbie Harry & Blondie," so for awhile there I thought "The Tide is High" was a duet sung by two women, Debbie Harry and Blondie, even though their voices sounded the same.

For over a decade, I thought Chaka Khan had been married to a guy named Rufus, was in a band with him, and went solo after the divorce. I was surprised to learn that Rufus was only the band's name, not her ex-husband.

I think the Ike and Tina Turner saga confused me.

I worked in an office in my 20s and was hooked on PBS children's shows. I loved Mr Rogers, Sesame Street, Wishbone. I drove home for lunch while everyone in the office watched soap operas during lunch break.

For years, I was convinced that Mark Hamill played a priest in an episode of “Gimme a Break!” when the Chief feels guilty after killing an armed robber.

But it was Jay Johnson from “Soap”.

When I was little, I thought the show’s actors had to sing the theme song.

I thought Sandra Bullock was the lead singer of Scandal because she resembles Patty Smyth and they were both new on the scene at the same time.

When I was little I thought that a record album was all recorded at once where the band would sing one song, pause for a minute then sing another song, pause for another minute and that it was recorded in one take.

For more years than I care to admit, I thought Roy Orbison was blind because he wore those huge sunglasses. Also, I thought the Righteous Brothers were really brothers!

[quote]I thought her name was Phyllis Dillis.

You weren’t the only one, R15.

And that made me laugh.

R39 He wasn't?! They weren't?!

I didn't understand the relationship between the turntable and the record when I was little. The first time I tried to play an album with holiday songs, I tried to force the tonearm over to the label, where the text told you the name of the song, instead of on the black part of the record. Fortunately, my mother was watching me, and she was able to show me the way to play a record.

As a child I was completely oblivious to the fact that Carol Burnett and Vicki Lawrence are two different people.

Here's a common one: I would often confuse Jean Stapleton with Maureen Stapleton, and once I figured which was which, I still thought they were sisters for many years.

They're not related, although Maureen was once quoted, "Yes, we are - and she's the one who drinks!"

R2 no apologies to me?

[quote]When I was a really little kid, I thought Madonna had invented sex and that’s why she was such a big deal.

From "Golden Girls" after they return from a Madonna concert:

BLANCHE: Well, I loved her.

ROSE: The name Madonna doesn't really fit her.

SOPHIA: Slut would be better.

DOROTHY: Please, she did things on that stage I never did with my husband.

Speaking of Madonna, when I was in middle school in the early '90s, I was looking through my parents' old record collection. When I came across a Beatles album, I spotted the song "Lady Madonna" and asked my mom, "Just how old is Madonna?" She laughed and explained that Madonna is just another term for the Virgin Mary.

I thought when Uncle Joey said he like to rim Uncle Jesse’s butt he meant he just liked to draw circles on it. Once I got my gay card and read up on it in the handbook, I was thoroughly disgusted by what he really meant!