Thanks to @rosbif, I have had the pleasure of hearing a new song from Shakespears Sister. They’ve been away too long (26 years), and the delightful tension of their rivalry which extends even to their contrasting vocal styles is present as it was in ‘Stay’, etc.
It makes me want to hear other examples of duets that delight, bringing contrasting styles that draw out the best of each performer. Can you help me out with your favourites?
This always struck me as fairly ‘distinctive’ – Siouxsie’s ethereal and floaty vocals beamed in from a Paris cafe, Morrissey’s – well he’s just got back from the NF disco in a ruminative mood.
Thanks for kicking things off in style. Morrissey doesn’t do much for me, but Siouxsie has a great, steel-edged voice. I’m always happy to see Miranda Richardson at her peak – Dance With A Stranger was a great film.
Sarah-Jane Morris and Jimmy Somerville are one of my favourite duetting pairs:
Am I right in remembering that after “Don’t Leave Me This Way” had been number 1 in the UK for weeks, they mimed each other’s vocals on Top Of The Pops?
Apparently so – towards the end of this clip would support that:
https://youtu.be/UiKV4BC-izM
Easy! Isobel Campbell and Mark Lanegan: feathers and gravel.
There’s something very special about that. At first I thought her voice, together with the tinkling piano, was the silver lining to his cloudy tones, so closely does it follow the same path.
But then I got to musing – what is she was supposed to be the lead, and his BVs just muscled in in a mansplaining/manspreading way? Surely not…
I really like JAMC’s Stoned & Dethroned album. Especially this duet between Jim Reid and Hope Sandoval:
That’s quite gentle, and their accented voices complement each other well. I dropped off the JAMC after Automatic – is S&D as good as any of the early albums?
Hard to say, cos every JAMC album is so different. But if you like the above song, you’ll like the whole album.
Alison Krauss and Robert Plant’s voices blend so beautifully.
Like a single malt, a complex, balanced expression distilled from the Mid West and the West Midlands. I’ve known a livelier version of this song from them, but it makes for a sweet, soporific nightcap.
It’s really not my thing but “Please send the letter” is rather special.
One From The Heart is probably my favourite duet album. This footage of rehearsals, with Coppola, is pretty interesting:
Part 1:
Part 2:
It’s an agreeable watch – Tom looks so young there, quite conventionally handsome. I looked up the film on Wikipedia – Harry Dean Stanton and Natassja Kinski – I wonder if that’s the only film they’ve both been in, apart from Paris, Texas?
My first thought! Also this little gem.
Hasn’t Bette got a lovely voice? Completely different to how I remember her from ‘Ruthless People’. It’s quite the showtune. Is this exemplar of Tom Waits’ pre-Swordfishtrombones output?
Oh yes she’s pure class. His early stuff is very like this, earlier is very bar room which then gets very slightly smoother. I love that Foreign Affairs album.
Before I watched Season 2 of “The Deuce”, I’d never herd this before.
It’s the original of Elvis Costello’s “This Year’s Girl,” with Natalie Bergman’s vocals replacing Costello’s in some lines of verses 2 and 3. It all works really well, I think. And what a great series, too.
Bergman’s vocals come in at 1:14
I don’t enjoy Elvis Costello’s voice at all – it does nothing for me, but as a sound experiment, placed against strong female vocals, it’s intriguing, I guess. Who knows, maybe one day, I’ll hear the one song that unlocks the listening pleasure he brings to so many.
the lascivious Serge loved to have a bit of sugar up against his spice. I wont go for the obvious one though.
The first version of this I heard was by Luna, with the singer (Letitia?) from Stereolab. It’s probably heresy to say I prefer their version, mainly because I’m in love with Sean Wareham’s indolent guitar playing, but there is something special about the original Gallic chewing of the words on ‘Bernie un Kly’.
Not many more contrasting than these two…Honey and Mustard?
The apple didn’t fall far from the tree with Kami
I’ve listened to my fair share of RT, and while not a great fan, I wouldn’t turn it off. Linda I’ve never heard before – hasn’t she got a clear, confident voice? To my ears, it’s a song which is best in the parts where he sticks to the guitar playing and doesn’t muddy her ringing vocals. They give the physical impression of being a bit Nuts in May, but that doesn’t detract from a calmly captivating performance.
I had to do a bit of googling to find out who the Rails are – not knowing much about the Thompson musical dynasty. She’s got a more balancing vocal accompaniment then her mother – lots of full-throated harmony and dynamic guitar playing, too.
The Rails first album “Fair Warning” is well worth 45 minutes of your time.
Linda’s voice was a marvelous thing – check out something like “The Great Valerio”…sung emotionless and deadpan, no vibrato or vocal trickery, just power, concentration and precision, until an aching longing emerges as the metaphor of the song is revealed.*
*this may be the worst sentence I’ve ever written, but I’m at work so time is (their) money.
Thanks,@nicktf. June Tabor has one of my favourite voices because of those very qualities. I’ll listen out for more of her songs. Although I like cheese in my pop,I can’t bear it in folk.
Nick Cave / Kylie Minogue – Where The Wild Roses Grow
FWIIW, I think this is wonderful.
It’s always worth hearing your opinion, Jack – maybe you’ve got some duet treasures of your own as well?
This was the first song listed that I expected to find, tbh. Not that that’s a bad thing – it is a joy to hear familiar sounds, as it is to have my ears opened to new music.
I can’t be doing with the chorus, which I think is dire, and the numbering of the days is a folk song banality I could do without, but the verses reflecting each character’s perspective is where the song shines for me – chalk and cheese, in effect.
Manic Street Preachers & Nina Persson – You’re Love Alone Is Not Enough
https://vimeo.com/298604217
What a fantastic idea! She brings out a much-needed lightness and spark in the often rather lumpen and earnest Manics – their voices are good together – Bradfield is the better of the two, and the guitar sound is powerfully complementary. The rhythm’s shit, but your can’t have everything.
Nina again, one of my favourite duets of all time. The song is “Golden Teeth and Silver Medals” from A Camp’s album Colonia and her duet partner is Swedish artist Nicolai Dunger Love the lyrics and how they are having an actual conversation with each other in it.
The year after they did another duet on his album Play, not quite as good, but still not too shabby!
Contrasting vocal styles ? Have a listen to Norway’s entry for Eurovison. I think it’s a very pleasant song – particularly the female vocals, but at about 2 mins in the bald bloke steps up and has a Vic Reeves-as-club-singer solo. It’s extraordinary. Didn’t win, but it won the people’s vote.
If anything, I’d say – get rid of the insipid blond bloke and let’s have more of Vic duetting with Galadriel – it’s what makes the song for me.
Peter Gabriel and Kate Bush seemed to enjoy singing together. I normally find Bush’s tone to be harsh and Gabriel’s soft. Here, they reverse roles. I don’t think Bush has ever sung so gently.
Don’t Give Up.
Yet I always find myself preferring the clotted cream and the creme fraiche of Sinead and Willie
I’ll always prefer this’un when it comes to Sinead collaborating. Just gorgeous.
I always believed Sinead to be a better singer than Kate. These two tracks confirm my view.
I think perhaps my favourite singing voice of anyone ever.
This is a great one as well. Sinead’s done a few good duets.
The Collaborations album has got some real treats on it. Even though there’s a Jah Wobble song (Visions of You), which I would normally gravitate towards, the peerless masterpiece for me is the collaboration with the Afro-Celt Sound System – Release. Her measured, but impassioned tone builds against the pounding drumbeat until it explodes into the duet with the male voice. I loved it before I knew the story behind it, which was revealed to me on Wikipedia just now:
Just as the second album was getting off the ground, one of the group’s core musicians, 27-year-old keyboardist Jo Bruce (son of Cream bass player Jack Bruce), died suddenly of an asthma attack. The band was devastated, and the album was put on hold. Then Irish pop star Sinéad O’Connor came to the rescue, collaborating with the band and helping them cope with their loss. “[O’Connor] blew into the studio on a windy November night and blew away again leaving us something incredibly emotional and powerful,” McNally told Katz. “We had this track we didn’t know what to do with. Sinéad scribbled a few lyrics and bang! She left us completely choked up.”
That’s quite an epic – worthy of Fairport. Though a bit leaking their instrumentation, the vocals are up the with Sandy, I’d say.
Damn, that’s good. Though I’d say it’s more like a wholesome bowl of porridge with a dollop of sharp lemon and honey yoghurt.
When she sings “Don’t give up, cause you have friends”, it made me think of the night she ripped up a picture of the pope, except then it was Kris Kristofferson giving her support, not Willie Nelson.
Almost perfect, except for the xylophone and the muted trumpet, which can be dumped.
Not exactly right, Sal. Kris didn’t give her support on the night she ripped up the picture of the pope (which happened on Saturday Night Live), but when she got booed for having done so at a later Bob Dylan tribute concert in Madison Square Garden. She’s since criticized Kris for being patronising in his support and recently slagged him off while fessin’ to having shagged the fella on one occasion. “I would not agree Kris wasn’t toxically masculine” she wrote on twitter.
She’s a complex/difficult woman, that’s for sure. Roger Waters hated her. Sometimes I feel sorry for her having mental health issues, other times I think she’s just an attention-seeking eejit (her very public “breakdowns” and weird behaviourisms seem to coincide with new releases). But nothing she does detracts from the fact that her singing voice is stunningly beautiful.
https://www.irishcentral.com/news/irishvoice/sinead-oconnor-kris-kristofferson-toxic-masculinity-twitter
Thanks for the accuracy check, @Gary. To be honest, because it was such a dramatically powerful act, it seems to me it’s one of those events that’s over/micro analysed in all its dimensions. She’s a performer, and her personal life, troubled or not, doesn’t interest me. I wish her well, because she’s made so many wonderful pieces of music, but I’ll never know her as a person, nor she me, so it’s of no value to delve.
I used to really like this song, probably because I fancied the idea of a close encounter with Kate. They’ve both got Hyatt voices, but now I find this a bit cloying. I prefer her duet with Donald Sutherland, and listening to Peter Gabriel makes me think I should listen to more of his own songs – bit where to start? Please don’t say Genesis! #progphobic
So and ‘Melt’ are his best albums, methinks.
The blessed Kate sings backing vocals on No Self Control but listen out for Phil Collins’s cymbal-less drumming.
Ladies and Gentlemen we have a winner….
I have no words, except that the song almost makes Ronan Keating bearable – when it’s not just his voice you can hear…
Lee Hazelwood & Nancy Sinatra – Summer Wine
What a rich baritone that man has, though the song can join Robert and Alison in insomniacs’ corner.
Iggy Pop & Debbie Harry – Well Did You Evah
It’s on the Red Hot and Blue album, of which ‘Don’t Fence Me In’ sung by David Byrne is easily the best. This is like one of those movies where people say, they had great fun making it.
Aaron Neville’s take on In The Still Of The Night is my favourite on that album.
How about some country soul from the lovely “Rhythm, country and blues” album of duets.
Ooh, that is truly delightful. Aaron’s voice is so full of emotion without breaking down. I’ve never heard of Trisha Yearwood before, but what must be her country sounds well match Aaron’s soul warble.
Tricia is superb. I love her unconditionally.
I’m a big fan of this year’s collaboration between Phoebe Bridgers and Conor Oberst out of Bright Eyes, especially the way their voices mix together.
I can’t get beyond the meaning of four-dimensional chess. That would be the two dimensions of regular chess, plus an extra spatial dimension and then the dimension of time? But regular chess has the dimension of time (surely?). Does that then mean that regular chess is three-dimensional?
I wouldn’t worry about it, they’re from California.
Not quite fitting with the rest of the thread, what with this being two fellers, but so what etc. Rarely ever heard, what with PJ putting the kibosh on the album being released…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QG_BdkKFQtc
As the OP was two birds, I think you are on safe ground, @Barry-Blue. What’s good about this is they have both got distinctive voices. Like in this clip, where Syd Little and Eddie Large show they’re not just great comedians, they’ve also got fantastic dress sense and superb chemistry
https://youtu.be/K0p9ez9qGp0
I think Serge Gainsbourg and…well, pick any one of them
This rather ramshackle duet seemed like the collision of two separate worlds at the time, although we soon got used to it.
I’ve just realised that the cover of North Country Boy by the Charlatans is a copy of this image.