Thanks, that’s wonderful!
I was going to chime in with “I’ve Got a Feeling,” probably the Best example of what the OP is discussing.
One of my favorites is Quartet (A Model of Decorum and Tranquility)from the musical Chess.
The scene is a discussion between The Russian chess player, his manager/political minder, Florence (the American’s second) and the Arbiter, after the American player has stalked off in a fit of pique. The Russian manager is engaged in political blustering, the Russian chess player is needling Florence in a flirty sort of way, Florence is fending off both of them, and the Arbiter is rattling off esoteric rules for the chess match.
Actually, that round was four way, with the kids singing the resistance song, the mothers on “Blame Canada”, the devil on “Up there” and the men singing “Tomorrow Night”.
Spoon’s cover of “Don’t You Evah” does this in the choruses.
I’m not somewhere I can pull it up to listen, but isn’t there a section in Manfred Mann’s ‘Blinded by the Light’ where that occurs?
The second verse of “Teach Your Children Well” by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young.
At work so no obligatory YouTube link.
Also, unless I’m understanding wrong, “That’s Not My Name” by the Ting Tings.
“You’ve Got Your Troubles” by the Fortunes, in the passage from 2:26-2:39.
Cool! I think/hope the first song that came to mind hasn’t been mentioned yet.
Gang of Four - Love Like Anthrax
I freakin’ LOVE this song. The two voices not only sing over each other, but they seem to run at cross purposes: like the low, flat voice is the official veneer the singer’s character presents to the world, and the singing voice is the internal voice. The whole effect is wonderfully creepy and claustrophobic, while the beat is big and great.
NOTE: The first minute or so is a squall of feedback - very arty of them, but after a listen or two, just a waste. Skip it - but let the song itself build up, which starts when the drums come in right after that…
It’s probably common in opera. One example is the quartet from Rigoletto.
My two favorites:
The ending to
Randy Scouse Git by The Monkees (bad video matchup to audio, sorry)
Most of Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog
“Harborcoat” and Sleater-Kinney were the first ones I thought of, but they’ve already been mentioned. So I’ll go with another R.E.M. song: “Fall On Me” - the choruses only, but there are 3 different vocal lines going on (“Fall on me”, “It’s gonna fall”, the “What is it up in the air for?” part).
And My Chemical Romance’s ‘Mama’
The Indigo Girls do this a fair bit. There’s a little bit of it toward the end of “Galileo” and a lot of it in “Prince of Darkness,” for starters.
This is what I came to post.
Another R.E.M. one: Binky the Doormat, during the chorus-y bit. I really dig the Stipe-Mills countermelodies. They do it a lot… I’m sure I can come up with more if I think on it a bit.
Tori Amos does this in several songs, some that come to mind are the end of Space Dog (starts at around 3:55):
Father Lucifer has a really nice example (IMHO) (about 2:10):
And the Doughnut Song (about 1:25):
I believe she does all the vocals herself.
I opened the thread to post this. 