Vocal Illusions:

Five White Artists Whose Blue-Eyed Soul Fooled R&B Listeners

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rollerboogie introduces five White artists whose voices slipped seamlessly into R&B — and fooled a generation of listeners who never saw them coming

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Back in pre-internet days, it was an easy enough mistake to make:

(At least that’s what I tell myself.)

For 42 years, I believed this to be true. Until 2019, when Stereogum reviewer Tom Breihan covered “You Make Me Feel Like Dancing” in his quest to review every song to hit #1 on the Billboard Hot 100. (Tom gave the song a 2 out of 10 and brutally ripped apart Sayer’s falsetto.)

I was stunned to see a photograph in the article that immediately revealed that Leo Sayer was in fact, White. I felt pretty stupid for a moment, but with so much information literally at our fingertips these days, finding out I was wrong about something for years is becoming common enough where it doesn’t really bother me as much as it did. Well, ok, maybe a little.

There are many examples of White singers sounding Black…

But there are a few that are so uncanny, they managed to fool lots of folks, at least initially, before they became well-known. 

Applied initially to The Righteous Brothers (as referenced in DJ Professor Dan’s recent article).

Eventually, the name came to generally be used to describe White artists that were getting played on Black R&B stations.

Here are five songs by artists that fit the bill. 

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“What You Won’t Do for Love”

In my humble opinion, any list such as this has to begin with this man and this all-timer of a silky-smooth jam. The song came from Caldwell’s debut, which was released on an R&B label, TK. 

The first night of a tour which featured him as the opening act for Natalie Cole, he said that when he stepped out on stage to an audience of about 7,000 people of color, who knew his music but nothing else about him, a surprised hush fell over the crowd. By the time he was done, it no longer mattered. 

For a number of years after hearing this song, to me it was a foregone conclusion that he was Black. It was rather shocking to learn that he wasn’t. I would question anyone who was to tell me they thought otherwise. Even his name sounds Black. But if his name had been Wojciechowski, I’m not sure it would have mattered.

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“All Around the World”

In the late 80s/early 90s, I was working at a bulk mailing house with a predominantly Black crew and quite often, the R&B station, WGCI, could be heard playing all day. This song was in heavy rotation.

I remember the deejay once commenting after the song:

Lisa Stansfield’s smoky, soulful voice fit like a glove with everything else that was being played on that station, and it never even occurred to me that she wasn’t Black. I know I wasn’t alone. I’m wondering now if any of my co-workers knew. It wasn’t really discussed.

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“Square Biz”

Okay, first of all, this song is just a certified banger from the get-go, with a monster groove and that fat bass slapping underneath. Then Teena Marie comes in with this bigger than big voice, straight out of the tradition of post-disco belters. Her voice can do it all.

I was not as into dance music at that time, but I’m guessing if people weren’t in the know, they would have assumed Teena Marie was Black upon hearing her voice. Given that her nickname was “The Ivory Queen of Soul”, they figured out she wasn’t soon enough.

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“Person to Person”

Yes, I realize the name of the group would have been a dead giveaway, but just listen to this smoldering slab of funk and pretend for a minute that you don’t know anything about the band.

Then go ahead and tell me that it sounds like a bunch of White dudes from Scotland. Can’t explain just how this happened, but one thing is clear; AWB had that sound nailed down to the ground, baby. 

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“What A Man”

Linda Lyndell recorded two singles for Stax Records, with this one cracking the R&B charts. Listening to her get-down-to-business-gospel-tinged vocals, one could picture her just fitting in to the sound of R&B at the time, no questions asked.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t that simple. When it became more widely known that she was a White Southern woman singing Black music, things took a dark turn. In her words: 

* the full article can be found here  

She stopped recording and performing after that, and “What a Man” was all but forgotten –

Because of the renewed interest in the song, Lyndell was encouraged to go back to performing, and in 2003 she sang “What a Man” live for the first time ever:

There are many more singers we could talk about here. 

Feel free to throw out some examples or to come clean on times you were wrong about an artist, if nothing else, to make me feel better.

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