I was watching an episode of Mad Men which ended with a cover of Don Mclean’s River of Babylon. I linked the episode song rather than the original since I prefer it a bit.
Anyway, it reminded me that it’s a shame that music rarely tries to have different singers doing multiple concurrent vocal lines because you can do some interesting things with them that make them more musically diverse than a typical single vocal line. This also can include when the vocals are double tracked and a single vocalist has seperate vocal tracks like in the Radiohead song Idioteque. (It’s relatively subtle there compared to the above song.)
What I’m not talking about is when multiple singers are singing at the same time just to create harmony. There has to be some sort of seperation and interplay between the vocalists or tracks.
Anyway, that style of vocals interests me so I would like people to list (preferably with links) songs that make use of the technique.
The Great Curve by Talking Heads has some of the most interesting and sophisticated concurrent vocal lines of any pop song I know–anywhere from 3 to 5 different vocal parts going on simultaneously.
That sure was one weird selection for video, BTW. (and one of the things I’m starting to dislike about youtube…go find lady gaga Born this way…the official one…go on, I dare ya!
There’s also the finale of The Music Man where the leads’ themes come together - he’s singing 76 Trombones at the same time she’s singing Goodnight My Someone, and they fit together very well - and halfway through the song they switch. Very clever.
The band Invocal does this a lot. Try Small Anxious Waltz on here - lots of the other songs have multiple vocals but not in the first few seconds that you can listen to on the sample.