Songs You Thought Were Sung By a Specific Person of the Opposite Gender

I am, however, perhaps the only one who initially thought Sophie B. Hawkins's "As I Lay Me Down" might be MJ.

I used to think "I Saw the Light" by Todd Rundgren was Carole King.

HEAVILY influenced by her style, and I'd have loved to hear her cover it!

My kid sister, 10 years younger than me, has just discovered "Fast Car" by Tracy Chapman when stealing tracks of my iPod. She refused to believe it was a woman singing even after being shown photographic evidence.

(Pssst, I know that, but I thought it was Suzi Quatro when I first heard it. That was the point of the thread.)

This has more to do with the actual construction of the song than the vocal, altough that part IS pretty effeminate.

When I Need Love - Leo Sayer

until this year I assumed it was a fifty-ish woman but if someone would have told me Carole King it would have rang bells and nothing would ever have dissuaded me from it.

There's another one too that I've been trying to come up with all day & dcan't remember the song or the artist. I do remember the 'video' (promo film - it's an early 70s song, as much as I can remember) featured the singer walking around a fountain. Black guy in a tan leather jacket I think... Help me out here...

Was this Johnny Nash, "I Can See Clearly Now"? He's in front of a fountain, but I think his jacket is weathered denim ...

Denim, you say.

I was going to say Little Jimmy Scott, but I can't put my finger on who he sounds like .. Eartha Kitt, maybe?

here's some less-specific gender confusers:
- "Venus," Shocking Blue (woman singing, thought it was a man)
- "Love Machine," Miracles (man singing, thought it was a woman)
- "I Had To Say It," Millie Jackson (thought she was a dude for sure; doesn't sing a note on this song, she's rapping - it's a hip-hop parody)
- "Let Me Be The Man My Daddy Was," Chi-Lites (man singing, thought it was a woman, which is why I flipped out whenever he and the rest of the group sang the title)

Now that you say this, I recall, I did too.

- "Love Machine," Miracles (man singing, thought it was a woman)

And now that you say *this*, I remember that the first time I heard the Miracles' "Do It" (the hit that preceded "Love Machine") I was convinced it was Diana Ross.

I distinctly remember seeing the video for Culture Club's "Do You Really Want to Hurt Me" before they had gotten any press and thinking "Great song, but that is one ugly woman."