I’m following Roger Daltrey’s tour on the ‘net and I’ve been impressed by Katy Jacoby’s violin solo on Baba O’ Riley – originally laid down by Dave Arbus. Nobody in the band could’ve done that.
Clapton’s solo on While My Guitar is another instance of an iconic non-member solo. Harrison, Lennon or McCartney were good guitarists, but they didn’t have the chops to match what Eric did.
What other examples do you have?
Merry Clayton on “Gimme Shelter”. One of the greatest rock n’ roll vocals of all time.
Jerry Garcia on Teach your Children Well.
Billy Preston on “Get Back.”
Bud Shank’s flute solo on “Californian Dreaming,” which bring up the issue of how to count session musicians in this.
I think it counts as a solo, but certainly as a guest lead vocal -
Gibby Haynes on Jesus Built My Hotrod.
One of Eddie Van Halen’s best solos is the one he rips through on Michael Jackson’s Beat It.
Stevie Wonder’s harmonica solo on Eurythmics “There must be an angel (playing with my heart)”. Eurythmics - There Must Be An Angel (Playing With My Heart) - YouTube
First thing that came to mind when I saw this thread.
Elliott Randall’s lead guitar work on Steely Dan’s Reelin’ In The Years is one of my favorites of all time. When I bought the albumin 1972, I noticed a couple of things that struck me as weird. The band had a lead singer, David Palmer, who only sang lead on one or two songs, and they had two great guitarists, Jeff Baxter and Denny Dias, and used a guest guitarist on the most guitar-intensive song on the album.
All of this made more sense when it later became apparent that Steely Dan was really Becker and Fagen.
Randy Brecker floating on top of Bruce Springsteen’s Meeting Across the River is sublime.
Stevie Winwood on Jimi Hendrix’s “Voodoo Chile.”
I was going to say his harmonica solo on “I Guess That’s Why They Call It the Blues”. The man could play a mean harp.
Although not technically a Mothers of Invention album, Apostrophe features much of their line-up, as well as Jack Bruce’s awesome bass solo on the song “Apostrophe”.
I just realized I wrote this in the past tense. As far as I know, he’s still kicking; sorry Stevie!
Maybe Honorable Mention to Duane Allman on the Layla album, I think. Even if there’s no single ‘solo’ of his to point to.
Lee Ritenour’s guitar solo in The Brothers Johnson’s “Strawberry Letter 23”
David Gilmour’s two guest solos on Paul McCartney’s “No More Lonely Nights”
Jeff Beck on Tina Turner’s “Private Dancer”
Former Hollies vocalist Allan Clarke on The Alan Parsons Project’s “Breakdown”
That is sad but I doubt anyone with any medical background would agree that staying up late and singing an emotional song caused her miscarriage.
Jr. Walker’s sax solo on Foreigner’s Urgent.
The guitar solo from Al Shatonia* (AKA Metallica’s Kirk Hammett) on Pansy Division’s Headbanger.
*Say it out loud.
Al Kooper’s organ on Dylan’s “Like a Rolling Stone.” Dylan was not using an actual band, but Kooper was only in the studio to observe. He managed to sneak in and sit at the organ and made up his part as he went along.
Donovan on “Billion Dollar Babies.” If only because it was so different from his usual persona.