I think the board needs a thread like this. In the glory days of radio this was a very big issue - you didn't know how the face behind the song looked like. What singers you thought looked different? I thought Baccara was not a duet, but a solo singer, a teen girl, looking like Velma from Scooby Doo. I thought the group behind 'Lolipop' - The Chordettes were black. I thought the Velma-like singer behind Baccara songs also sang "Porque te vas" by Jeanette. Any similar stories?

I always thought Tony Joe White the guy who sang "Polk Salad Annie" was a black guy until recently.  

And the first time i heard "I Gotta Get Through This" by Daniel Bedingfield I thought a woman was singing it. lol.

I see a similar concept nowadays with cartoon/commercial voice actors, and even too a degree radio DJs today. Who thought as a kid growing up that Bart Simpson, Tommy Pickles, and Ash Ketchum were actually voiced by women and not young boys as most kids like myself thought (though I'll admit that since Bart didn't go through puberty after I went through it, I definately suspected something). Or about an old/young character where the actual voice actor is much different in real life age? Or that the voice actress for Penny on most Inspector Gadget episodes is of a different race than the character?

But for singers, this thought doesn't usually last unless you're listening to Top 40, and even then exposure comes pretty quickly; in fact many probably recognize the face before they recognize the songs they do!

Yeah, that's why prefer video to radio. I hate being disillusioned lol.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=raJWuz7qQVc

I thought Rick Astley was black,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmgB7qVh0-w
and Curtis Stigers
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=20Nh-de3CA4&feature=related
and Michael McDonald
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2iFqcFcdBU&feature=related

What do I know?  :-[