Beat logo

20 of the greatest musical collaborations of all time.

Plus a few not so great.

By Phill RossPublished 4 years ago 10 min read
1
The Highwaymen (Top left: Kris Kistofferson, Top Right: Johnny Cash, Bottom left: Waylon Jennings, Bottom right: Willi Nelson.

When we think about music collaborations our minds are usually tuned in to those songs we have heard on the radio or on television countless times.

The hits that we have all sung along to at some time will always be the songs that people name when asked the question "name a great collaboration".

Songs such as Queen & David Bowie's under pressure which was released in 1982 and reached number 1 in the UK, Canada and Netherlands will always be firm favorites to listen to, this song has one of the most memorable bass lines, played by Queen's bassist John Deacon, that I have ever heard.

The melodic intro featuring the piano and Brian may's finger picking guitar leads is joined by Freddie's vocal just before David Bowie and drummer Roger Taylor join the song.

This next video is taken from the George Harrison tribute concert, George was of course the infamous guitarist from the Beatles and a member of the Travelling Willbury's along with Jeff Lynne of ELO (Electric Light Orchestra), Tom Petty (of Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers, Bob Dylan and the crooner Roy Orbison of Pretty Woman fame.

This concert was to celebrate George's life after he sadly passed away of Cancer 29th November 2001, it features many musicians including Jeff Lynne and Tom Petty, Steve Winwood and Prince but it also has one special ingredient.

George's son Danny Harrison, this isn't all that makes this particular performance special though towards the end of the track we are given an extraordinary insight into a very underrated guitar players abilities.

Prince steals the show and creates magic in the process as at the end of the performance he throws his guitar into the air and it seemingly disappears out of sight leaving the artist formerly known as Prince beaming with delight.

It has always been the norm for a large group of famous musicians to gather together in support of some cause or other and in 1989 a supergroup was formed temporarily featuring some of the greatest names in Rock music.

David Gilmour, Tony Iommi, Bryan may, Ritchie Blackmore, Ales Lifeson, Chris Squire, Ian Gillan, Bruce Dickinson, Paul Rogers, Keith Emmerson, Geoff Downes and Roger Taylor....the list reads like a Who's Who of Rock and metal.

Of course the only song that would be fitting for a supergroup of this caliber to record would be Deep Purple's Smoke On The Water, although I am not sure they thought that one through as ironically their performance was in aid of an Armenian earthquake disaster.

We all love live gigs and if you have ever been to a large stadium or festival concert you will know the joy of standing among a crowd of 50,000 or more people, the smell of sweat and the noise of screams, whistles and the inevitable woman flashing her breasts off at the band on stage.

Nothing beats watching your favorite musicians only feet away from you as they play the songs you know and love, but what can top this? well when your favorite band invite a guest on stage to perform with them of course.

This happened in Toronto in 2011 as Pearl Jam rocked out their version of Neil Young's Rocking in the Free World, the audience were treated to the original writer and performer of the song, Neil Young himself joining the band on stage.

Neil Young's Les Paul guitar was almost on fire as he jammed along with Pearl Jam's Mike McCready and Eddie Vedder's powerful vocals burst out across the audience like a hurricane.

This is one gig I wish I had been at.

Eddie Vedder is no stranger to collaborations and in 2014 at Brisbane, Australia, he joined the Boss (Bruce Springsteen) and Audioslave's Tom Morello on stage for a performance of AC/DC's classic rock song Highway to Hell.

Our next collaboration is from the amazing guitarist Orianthi, she is joined on stage at a small venue by Bon Jovi's Ritchie Sambora and the daughter of Allman brother, Greg Allman, Brooklyn on vocals for a performance of the Rolling stones classic Gimme Shelter.

Brooklyn Allman's vocals are powerful and raw, Orianthi looks and plays amazing and Ritchie Sambora doesn't miss a note as always together this collaboration is an awsome rendition of a great song.

When it comes to celebrating the lives of other musicians, you will always find some of the best musicians in many different genres will "band" together to perform together and in the case of Kiss this was no exception, live at the Rock Honors in 2006.

Slash, Gilby Clarke, Scott Ian and Rob Zombie were joined on stage by Kiss's very own "spaceman" Ace Freighley for a rendition of Kiss's 1976 song God of Thunder.

On the softer side of music we find ourselves in the genre of country music and 3 queens of country performing a song written by Neil Young, Dolly Parton, Linda Rondstadt and Emmy Lou Harris singing the beautiful song "After the Goldrush"

What more can be said about such talented and beautiful voices blended together in a song which has the touch of genius from its penmanship.

In 1988 two members of Queen, Brian May and bass player John Deacon joined the gravel like vocal style of Yorkshire singer Joe Cocker and popular drummer/singer Phil Collins for an upbeat almost jazzy version of the Box Top's 1967 US number 1 hit song The Letter.

This particular collaboration version is a bit of a contrast from the original version below.

On the 25th November 1984 at Sarm West Studio's in Notting Hill, London there was a gathering of possible the largest amount of superstars to ever be recording in the same studio at the same time.

A project born from the brainchild of Boomtown Rat's frontman Bob Geldof and Ultravox/Thin Lizzy musician Midge Ure after viewing a news report on the starvation in Africa.

Deemed as one of the greatest (although possibly cheesy in today's standards) songs to have ever been recorded Do They Know It's Christmas was an immediate hit and featured the vocal talents of so many 1980's stars.

Some of those involved included:

Bono and Adam Clayton of U2

Simon Le Bon, Nick Rhodes, John and Andy Taylor of Duran Duran

Phil Collins

Tony Hadley, John Keeble, Gary and Martin Kemp of Spandau Ballet

Marylin

George Michael

Francis Rossi and Rick Parfitt of Status Quo

Pete Briquette

Bob Geldof and Johnny Fingers of the Boomtown Rats

Sara Dallin, Karen Woodward and Siobhan Fahey of Bananarama

Boy George and Jon Moss Jon Moss from Culture club

Glenn Gregory and Martin Ware of Heaven 17

Dennis Thomas from Kool & The Gang

Midge Ure of Ultravox

Paul Young

it also included some spoken messages on the B side from the band Big Country, David Bowie, Holly Johnson of Frankie Goes to Hollywood and Paul Mc Cartney, musicians on the song included:

Phil Collins - Drums

John Taylor - Bass

Midge Ure - Keyboards/programming

Of course in 1985 the USA followed suit with their own charity single We are the World which featured some of America's greatest talent in music, the following are just a few of the many artists who appear on this particular collaboration:

Lionel Richie

Stevie Wonder

Paul Simon

Kenny Rogers

Tina Turner

Michael Jackson

Diana Ross

Huey Lewis

Cindi Lauper

Willie Nelson

1985 also saw the Heavy Metal genre, not wanting to be left behind and seem heartless, release their own charity single and although this wasn't anywhere near as popular as the previous pop releases it was in my opinion a poor attempt at "keeping up with the Jones" which peaked at number 26 in the US charts.

There was no where near the turnout that the pop singles saw from musicians and only 8 vocalists are credited as main vocals in the track, with around 30 other musicians providing backing vocals.

Reverting back to Country Music and one of the greatest ever supergroups to come out of the USA featured the legends, Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson and Kris Kristofferson.

For any country fan this supergroup, known as The Highwaymen took country music by storm providing their own "non Nashville" style of country to a more than willing audience.

This next track came as quite a surprise to me and not what I was expecting at all, in fact I thought i had the wrong video to begin with until the vocals kicked in, the song Blow by Ed Sheeran features the vocal talent of country star and hit songwriter Chris Stapelton and British pop/soul singer Bruno mars.

The opening riff is a powerhouse of heavy electric guitar that wouldn't sound amiss in any Metallica song however the track seems to be a mixture of rock/metal, pop and soul, a fusion of genres creating a great tune that I have found myself listening to over and over, Ed Sheeran released an album of collaborations with other artists in his 2019 album No 6.

There Must Be More To Life Than This was a collaboration between superstars Freddie Mercury and Michael Jackson, the track was released on Mercury's solo album Mr Bad Guy although the song had been originally recorded by Queen and intended for Queen's 1982 album hot space but it didn't make the release.

With this next video we return once more to live performance and the infamous Beatles Paul McCartney joined on stage by guitar God Eric Clapton and Phil Collins on drums performing a medley of Beatles songs from their Abbey Road album.

Every once in a while we get blown away by a performance of multi talented menageries and in 2015 in London, United Kingdom, the audience who had gathered to watch the band Korn perform were given a treat of explosive proportions, a heavy metal feast to fill their dark souls as Slipknot are invited out on to the stage to perform the track Sabotage.

Although not for everyone I think that this performance deserves a mention purely on the energy expelled by both bands as they blast out the song and bounce around the stage like its a blow up bouncy castle, the commanding performances of both Corey Taylor and Johnathon Davis make this one of the few videos that you can feel the atmosphere from the audience and performers alike.

Now we time travel back to the era of Hippies, LSD and Woodstock, 1969 and a television performance of Wales own prince of vocals Tom Jones and one of the greatest female vocalists of the 20th Century, the late Janis Joplin performing the song Raise your Hand.

Two amazing bluesy voices in one room the sheer joy of performing together is seen in both their faces as they sing and dance although I have to admit Janis Joplin blows Tom Jones out of the water vocally and takes the song to a new level despite Tom's powerful voice keeping up perfectly with her passion.

Wanted man was a collaboration between the man in black, Johnny Cash and lyrical genius Bob Dylan and was recorded for cash's 1969 album Live at San Quentin, a strange collaboration which in this out take below doesn't seem to work too well although I am sure the final take they used on the album was much better.

The final collaboration here is from a 10" EP titled St Valentine's Day Massacre by Metal Godfather's Motorhead and their female equivalent Girlschool, a heavy twist of almost`12 bar blues given the Motorhead touch to liven it up, Lemmy's gravel like vocals and heavy bass carry the song along like a freight train running off the rails waiting to hit you in the face with a barrage of Rock n Roll.

There are probably a thousand or more great collaborations out there but the 20 above are just some of the songs that I think deserve mentioning and maybe realizing that musicians from different genres can often create something unique or mind blowing may serve as a mind opener for those who are stuck in a genre closet.

list
1

About the Creator

Phill Ross

I have been writing for 39 years starting out with poetry then moved on to song lyrics and music/band reviews,I now write mostly historical related books and I have written and self published 15 books to date.

Reader insights

Be the first to share your insights about this piece.

How does it work?

Add your insights

Comments

There are no comments for this story

Be the first to respond and start the conversation.

Sign in to comment

    Find us on social media

    Miscellaneous links

    • Explore
    • Contact
    • Privacy Policy
    • Terms of Use
    • Support

    © 2024 Creatd, Inc. All Rights Reserved.