Bands that have 2 singers that sound so alike you never noticed

From the Jesus and Mary Chain albums poll:

Also, I had no idea, until i read the allmusic blurbs, that both brothers sing. Is there an ILM thread for bands that have 2 singers that sound so alike you never noticed? (this also happened to me with the Cars)
― enochroot, Thursday, November 21, 2024 12:49 PM (six hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

Dead Can Dance? Just kidding... seriously though, Devo. Had no idea 100% of the songs weren't Mark singing.
― the absence of bikes (f. hazel), Thursday, November 21, 2024 6:41 PM (twenty-eight minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

I don't know if I know which Bee Gee is which when they sing, does that count? xpost
― StanM, Thursday, November 21, 2024 6:45 PM (twenty-four minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

Levon Helm is pretty distinctive, but there are a lot of songs by The Band where I don't know if it's Rick Danko or Richard Manuel.

The Rolling Stones and The Smashing Pumpkins

This might not qualify, but I was recently surprised to learn that many Spinners songs I thought had leads by Phillipé Wynne were actually sung by Bobby Smith.

I had a lot of trouble with the two Tears for Fears singers.

Gomez has/had three singers who all sounded very similar.

I assumed for the longest time it was only Ray Davies singing lead for the Kinks.

Flying Burrito Brothers - first album anyway.

... as in I originally assumed Gram Parsons sang lead on all the songs.

Velvet Underground!

Big Star (#1 Record only)

The two Souled American singers sound pretty similar.

Weirdly enough, I find Lindsey Buckingham and Christine McVie blend pretty well. Songs like "Hold Me" and "Don't Stop ... ", if I'm not paying attention I'm not always sure who is singing what part.

something I only noticed when I saw them live: both Kelley and Kim Deal sing in the Breeders. OK, lead vocals is mostly Kim, though.

Something I've always been idly curious about, having never seen the Cars live: What did Ric Ocasek do while Ben Orr was singing? Just stand around? Make faces at the crowd? Play some one-finger keyboard part?

Rhythm guitar, those trademark palm-muted clicks.

Dave Gahan/Martin Gore is another one - I thought that was just Gahan singing in a more delicate register.

bands whose replacement singer does his best to sound like the old one, is a common variation on this.

Beautiful South for me

idk i can usually tell if it's Briana

oh okay i misunderstood the thread

big agree to most posts here

for me as a kid, for some reason, pink floyd

i'm pretty inattentive/cloth-eared to a lot of this stuff, i couldn't pick out Ian/Guy with Fugazi unless i was really concentrating and i didn't even know they were both singers when i first got into the band

Mike D / Ad Rock a lot of the time, for me at least.

for Chicago, I often thought Terry Kath's vocals were Robert Lamm's and didn't even know he sung in the band, thought he just played guitar. they are now pretty easy for me to tell apart but they sing in a similar style, Kath was a little more "I'm an amendment to beeeeeeeeee" sounding

Re: Fugazi, one sounds like an angry caveman, the other sounds like ... his wife?

I have the opposite problem with lots of metal bands where it's only one guy growling AND doing clean vocals, not two.

I have the opposite problem with lots of metal bands where it's only one guy growling AND doing clean vocals, not two.

Trevor Strnad from the Black Dahlia Murder was the king of this. Ultra-guttural death growls punctuated by high-pitched black metal screeching, and switching back and forth so fast you'd swear it was two people.

i think that's one reason i wouldn't automatically assume that 2 registers = 2 singers because yeah people can do that

I used to not realize Kenny Hickey did the 'throaty yells' in Type O Negative because the few times Peter would melodically scream in his higher register, he sounded similar.

I often can't tell the Johns apart in They Might Be Giants unless I really pay attention.

Mentioned this on a different thread years ago but I never realized “Kiss You All Over” by Exile has two different lead vocalists until seeing this video clip years after the fact.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m1LNeRAIJpQ

I can tell the two TMBG guys apart now but for the first few years I was a fan I had no clue there were two of them

the three guys in Gentle Giant all sound alike to me

The only Beach Boy I can distinguish for sure is Murry Wilson drunkenly scatting over Help Me Rhonda

I never knew that Toto had two different singers on Rosanna until I saw the music video.

Teenage Fanclub, but that's probably on me.

bar italia. thought there were two singers, one man and one woman. turns out there are two men and one woman! and they frequently trade lines within songs

for me as a kid, for some reason, pink floyd

I only recently realized Rick Wright sings the verses in "Matilda Mother".

I mean, I know things now, but I couldn’t have told you that Christine McVie wrote and sang a dozen of their biggest hits (and best songs), child me thought it was all Stevie

not singers but the clipse were always one group where i sometimes had to pause for a second and think about which of the two was rapping in a way that i don't think is true for other rap groups where i.e. stylistic divergences are sorta highlighted as a way of differentiating members

i was going to name Clipse earlier but even though my ears often didn't immediately know the difference, I already knew they had two rappers when I became aware of them. do think they're a perfect example for this thread

I had a lot of trouble with the two Tears for Fears singers.

Took me several years to realize that Curt usually has a slightly breathier voice and Roland a more full-bodied. But then on Elemental after Curt left, Roland starts singing more like Curt on a few songs!

the weird thing about Tears for Fears is that I always knew they had two singers but I misremembered Roland singing on way more of them than Curt. it's like I projected his voice onto all their singles

ya clipse is a great call, it’s eerie how much they sound alike

I never knew both guys sang in Tear for Fears. I thought it was like Hall and Oates.

I didn’t realize that Mary Weiss didn’t sing all the Shangri-Las’ songs - her sister Betty sang some of them (not the big hits though). They sound pretty similar.

Mentioning the Cars mystifies me. Ben Orr and Ric Ocasek sounded quite different.

they do sing in like the exact same register, tho

Actually no, you know what, i think it’s my lack of cars knowledge showing: i just didn’t realize Orr sung so many of their songs, before I started listening the voices all washed together to me and I thought Rik was the guy and except for that one dude that sung “drive”

I had their Greatest Hits album but mostly knew them from their music videos, which were for songs that Ocasek sang, so "Drive" hit me as a one-off; "We'll let the guitar player sing one."

Weirdly enough, I find Lindsey Buckingham and Christine McVie blend pretty well.

yes! they basically have the same voice!

the two dudes in supertramp

Jimmy and Dennis Flemion

It took me an embarrassingly long time to work out that Andy Partridge didn't sing all the XTC songs.

Milli Vanilli

Seeing the revival of the Devo thread reminds me I was surprisingly late in discovering they had multiple singers--I just thought Mothersbaugh was really good with wacky vocalizations.

― Charlie Hair (C. Grisso/McCain), Thursday, November 21, 2024 6:27 PM (three hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

yeah at first I thought Mark's parts were just a cartoon voice

I actually thought Goo Goo Dolls only had one guy because the first thing I heard from them was A Boy Named Goo and former lead singer Robby Takac was now resigned to sharing lead vocal duty with Johnny but not getting to sing any of the hits, and his voice sounded like what Johnny's would if he started vocalizing like Peter Lorre so I figured he was doing a more pop punk voice.

finding out Rzenik was not the original lead singer of the Goo Goo Dolls blew my mind years back.

Got to figure there are more than a few people that thought Ric Ocasek sang all the tunes in the Cars.

it's funny that this happens so much. it's almost less common that two singers have very very different voices in the same band.

My Bloody Valentine is another one - couldn't tell you who's singing on what track till I saw them live

Would never have guessed it was Karl Bartos and not Ralf Hutter singing "The Telephone Call". Though Ralf apparently was annoyed that the vocal was too emotional.

Sometimes I don't notice when Dusty is singing in ZZ Top. ("Beer Drinkers & Hell Raisers" is where you can hear them trade verses)

Got to figure there are more than a few people that thought Ric Ocasek sang all the tunes in the Cars.

Really? I don't think he and Ben Orr sounded at all alike. Similar range, but very different timbre.

the olivia tremor control have two main singers who aren't the most distinct to begin with but "i have been floated" is sung by a third, the keyboard player, and he sounds like the exact midpoint of the other two to the point i didn't realise it was someone else until i saw a live video recently

Really? I don't think he and Ben Orr sounded at all alike. Similar range, but very different timbre.

― Vast Halo, Friday, November 22, 2024

Really? I don't think he and Ben Orr sounded at all alike. Similar range, but very different timbre.

― Vast Halo

exactly

Things you were shockingly old when you learned

Oops, meant to post this link:
Things you were shockingly old when you learned

hopefully this gets morep eople to rediscover STAY THE NIGHT

The Ben Orr solo hit?

yup

a CVS standard

I literally learned last week that Doug Yule sings 'Who Loves the Sun', and not Lou Reed.

I’ve said this before but Ric Ocasek sounds like Goofy

Looks like him too.

gawrsh, Jacki, what took you so long, hyuck

Sonic Youth and Spacemen 3 are two bands where I just assumed it was always the same guy singing until I learned otherwise, and after that the difference in the voices became obvious to me.

I could never tell Anni-Frid and Agnetha apart, even though they both have songs where they sing lead.

this is embarrassing to admit as a longtime Silkworm fan but it took me a while before i could distinguish Tim and Andy's voices

Similar range, but very different timbre.

On certain songs he was given, the more "paranoid" ones, Orr definitely seems to be imitating Ocasek's style.

the two dudes in supertramp

This is weird to me because they sing about an octave apart, except when Rick Davies goes into falsetto.

I could never tell Anni-Frid and Agnetha apart

I couldn't until I realized Agnetha sings English with a stronger accent.

One of the things I enjoy about a group like 10cc (where all four members did lead vocals) is deciphering who sings what.

Of course I always knew that both Paul and John sing in the Beatles, but it took me the longest time to be able to distinguish who sings which songs.

Who defined indie rock as pop music with bad singing? In general, it can be difficult to tell multiple singers apart in bands that don't have a big persona up front. Like Daltry followed the delivery from Townshend's demos pretty closely, especially the soft and ballady bits, but you'd never mistake them when he starts chewing the scenery. Whereas Renaldo and Moore's voices both just sound like arts non-profit managers who happen to add vocals to their songs.

Devo and the Cars are the tipping point right? 'Cause they really brought affectless singing to the charts, kicking open the doors Lou had unlocked.

Affectless as in "soul"less, I guess you mean, cause it would be hard to sing less "affectedly" than the guys in Devo!

Matilda Mother was a very late discovery for me too. Not as late, but another shock: Roger taking over for the ending of Dogs. I paid no attention to the differences between vocal approach as a kid, so I think I "memorized" or absorbed Animals for a while there, and it took a long long break and considerable music-listening maturity before realizing, "Oh WAIT a minute here...!"

o. nate, yes me too! I started listening to the Beatles at 20, and while Ringo was obvious, it took me months to be able to distinguish John, Paul, and George. I started with Abbey Road and worked my way backwards, and it seems weird to me now that I should have needed that long. Come the late '60s John had such a distinctive singing voice... and even when I did start getting the hang of it, I thought for the longest time that Oh Darling was John. I don't think I figured it out until I heard Anthology 3.

the true skill is distinguishing George and John's guitar parts, especially on the earlier records

the Devo thing probably isn't helped by the songs Jerry sings on record that Mark does live, things like Going Under iirc. sidebar but I love Bob 1's voice and wish they'd had more of him for contrast

I will tend to have this issue when I'm first discovering a band and everything is like a big soup. Then when things start taking shape out of it and becoming familiar I'll realise the voices are really distinct and it'll be hard to go back to knowing how I could've got them mixed up. A bit like that "what colour is this dress" viral sensation but for the ear

Devo and the Cars are the tipping point right? 'Cause they really brought affectless singing to the charts, kicking open the doors Lou had unlocked.

In the USA you mean.

Sonic Youth and Spacemen 3 are two bands where I just assumed it was always the same guy singing until I learned otherwise, and after that the difference in the voices became obvious to me.

― Kim Kimberly, Friday, November 22, 2024 10:20 AM (two hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

I’m genuinely struggling to wrap my head around the Sonic Youth one. Are you referring to just Thurston and Lee?

Yes.

It took me an embarrassingly long time to work out that Andy Partridge didn't sing all the XTC songs.

― enochroot, Friday, 22 November 2024 02:34 (three months ago) bookmarkflaglink

I just watched the 'life begins at the hop' video on another thread and W T F! Ok most of the ones I know are Partridge but Generals and Majors? Making Plans for Nigel?!?!?!?!? Are you fucking kidding me?

How come they sound so similar?

I don't think they do but maybe that's just me.

I still have trouble distinguishing Robert Forster from Grant McLennan.

Jesus and Mary Chain

I often find it's the case. Damon Albarn and Graham Coxon sound very similar when they sing. Same as Malkmus and Spiral Stairs. I can't tell the difference between the MBV vocalists

I thought "Coffee and TV" was a Damon vocal for so many years, and I still forget sometimes when listening

The Edge does a pretty good Bono impression on "Seconds" (not so much on "Numb")

I do find it interesting how often vocalists in a band sound like each other. I figured it's the equivalent of people in a relationship looking like each other

on XTC's early albums they both adopted this yelpy sort of speak-singing which I think made them seem pretty alike. they toned it down over time though and by Mummer I think it's easy to tell them apart.

I can get the Ben Orr/Ric confusion when he is a given a song that could easily have been handled by Ric, and is delivered like him

I think it gets confusing when you get two lead singers with the same accents who harmonise a lot together and it tricks people into being unable to distinguish them - definitely think this applies do Damon/Graham, Andy/Colin... then again, I find it mad when people say Phil Collins has a very similar voice to Peter Gabriel's. Must be because the early Genesis vocal sound is heavily supported by Phil often doubling with big Pete

I wouldn't have knowin it was Phil on "More Fool Me" unless someone pointed it out

but yes the singing style itself has a lot to do with it, on Trick of the Tail I can imagine there were some who didn't know it wasn't Peter, but on Duke it's definitely not him

Chris Squire hardly sang lead in Yes, but when you hear his solo album Fish Out of Water you can pick out how much he contributed to their vocal sound, so much so that listeners think he sounds more like Jon Anderson than he does.

At the time I assumed Layne Staley was doing all the vocals and harmonies in Alice in Chains, didn't know that Jerry Cantrell was such a big part of that sound.