Well, actually I do know that Dolly Parton didn’t sing on “Communication Breakdown,” but Toni Tennille, of Captain and Tennille fame, did perform background vocals on Pink Floyd’s “The Wall.” William Burroughs, Beat writer, methedrine addict, and general weirdo, performed on Laurie Anderson’s “Mr. Heartbreak.”
Any other examples of people showing up on albums that, at first blush, wouldn’t appear to be a good fit at all?
Johnny Depp played guitar for Shane MacGowan and the Popes.
Ben Folds Fear of Pop Volume One featured William Shatnber on the track ‘In Love’.
Bruce Johnston was also a back-up singer on Pink Floyd’s The Wall. Johnston was in the Beach Boys and wrote “I Write the Songs” for Barry Manilow.
Her cover of Stairway to Heaven is something else, though.
This is a music/movie crossover, but it surprised me when I learned it…
Toni Basil (“Oh-Mickey-you’re-so-fine”) played the dark-haired prostitute in Easy Rider and one of the militant lesbians in Five Easy Pieces. When I saw the latter (having already seen Easy Rider), I thought, “Hey, is that Toni Basil again? What exactly is the deal with Toni Basil having small roles in 1960s Jack Nicholson films that have ‘Easy’ in their titles?”
(Later I found out that Five Easy Pieces came out in 1970, not technically the 60s. Another good theory shot down.)
This one is probably better-known, but Mick Jagger sings some backup on Carly Simon’s hit You’re So Vain. Which is amusing, because he’s one of the people the song is reputedly about. [I think the ultimate truth is that it’s about Warren Beatty, but I think Mick might be the only man ever born who was so vain he’d appear on someone else’s song about how vain he is.]
Shake your head by **Was(not Was)**features vocals by Ozzy Osbourne - and Kim Basinger.
…on Rock’n Roll Lullabye, an old BJ Thomas hit.
Quasi
She was prominently featured in Head, Monkees’ movie which was written by Nicholson and directed by Bob “Five Easy Pieces” Rafaelson.
Dolly Parton may not have sung on “Communication Breakdown” but Sandy Denny did sing on “Battle of Evermore”.
Dave Grohl appears as part of the Bangles Boys Choir on the most recent Bangles album.
At a slight tangent:
It always amuses me when the old TOTP clip of Rod Stewart and the Faces doing “Maggie May” gets shown, there’s DJ John Peel looking embarrassed and obviously not playing the mandolin with them
She’s also in, but is unrecognizable, as Red in Village of the Giants. I only know this because it was MSTied.
John Lydon and Afrika Bambaata joining up for the “Time Zone” single was a fairly unexpected pairing back when it came out.
Country music’s Jimmie Dale Gilmore teamed up with Mudhoney for a pretty cool EP
Train Robber Ronnie Biggs was an erstwhile Sex Pistol.
Elvis Costello sang a few bars of The Squeze’s “Tempted.” Tempted by the fruit of another…
Jimmy Page played on many of Donovan’s hits.
Glen Campbell played on Booker T. and the MGs’ Green Onion (I think)