# Famous spoken guest voices in iconic songs? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** music\ **Created:** [October 9, 2024, 5:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-spoken-guest-voices-in-iconic-songs/1008585 "2024-10-09T05:12:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2024, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-spoken-guest-voices-in-iconic-songs/1008585/41 "2024-10-09T15:08:30Z")
> [@beowulff](#): > > I was going to post this, since it’s one of my favorite albums, but since you got it first, I’ll post Vincent Price narrating the introduction to _ **Tales of Mystery and Imagination** _: > [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J8BKQ5MTFQY&list=OLAK5uy\_lNCAUSEhegqjQAMMocw1QFu9G-bE4zeTM/](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J8BKQ5MTFQY&list=OLAK5uy_lNCAUSEhegqjQAMMocw1QFu9G-bE4zeTM/) > > (Also another great album) Wasn’t that Orson Welles? Because before you posted this, I was looking up the wiki page for the album because I couldn’t remember who did the spoken parts, only to learn to my surprise that there are two versions: the 1976 original which doesn’t contain any spoken parts, and a remix/remaster from 1987 that contains musical overdubs and adds spoken parts by Orson Welles. There is nothing on the wiki page about contributions from Vincent Price, though. > **[Tales of Mystery and Imagination (Alan Parsons Project album)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tales_of_Mystery_and_Imagination_(Alan_Parsons_Project_album))** > > Tales of Mystery and Imagination (Edgar Allan Poe) is the debut studio album by British rock band the Alan Parsons Project. It was released on 25 June 1976 in the United Kingdom by Charisma Records and 20th Century Fox Records in the U.S. The lyrical and musical themes of the album, which are retellings of horror stories and poetry by Edgar Allan Poe, attracted a cult audience. The title of the album is taken from the title of a collection of Poe's macabre stories of the same name. > Musicians ... ---
**Author:** ![Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/prof.pepperwinkle/32/13627_2.png) [@Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Prof.Pepperwinkle)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2024, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-spoken-guest-voices-in-iconic-songs/1008585/42 "2024-10-09T15:09:12Z")
Leonard Nimoy’s “Pure energy” in _What’s On Your Mind?_ by Information Society. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2024, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-spoken-guest-voices-in-iconic-songs/1008585/43 "2024-10-09T15:09:28Z")
I won a “War of the Worlds” promo jacket when that album came out because I was working at a record store at the time and we won a store - display contest by recreating the cover art in styrofoam and random stuff we had around the back room. ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2024, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-spoken-guest-voices-in-iconic-songs/1008585/44 "2024-10-09T15:13:24Z")
I swore it was Price (and, it sounds like him), but it looks like it was Welles. ---
**Author:** ![Si\_Amigo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/si_amigo/32/2877_2.png) [@Si\_Amigo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Si_Amigo)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2024, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-spoken-guest-voices-in-iconic-songs/1008585/45 "2024-10-09T15:14:07Z")
William Shatner speaks and yells the entire song of Common People while Joe Jackson sings the chorus. ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2024, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-spoken-guest-voices-in-iconic-songs/1008585/46 "2024-10-09T15:24:34Z")
Jim Carrey provides the voiceover on The Weeknd’s “Phantom Regret by Jim.” [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/xulynscFILE/maxresdefault.jpg "Phantom Regret by Jim") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xulynscFILE) ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2024, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-spoken-guest-voices-in-iconic-songs/1008585/47 "2024-10-09T15:33:43Z")
Not sure whether this counts, but on Brent Spiner’s performance of “It’s a Sin To Tell a Lie”, not only is he backed up vocally by Michael Dorn, LeVar Burton, Jonathan Frakes and Patrick Stewart (“The Sunspots”) but Stewart also speaks a verse in the middle of the song. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/pFwiLa3TYwg/maxresdefault.jpg "It's a Sin to Tell a Lie - Brent Spiner and the Sunspots") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pFwiLa3TYwg) ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2024, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-spoken-guest-voices-in-iconic-songs/1008585/48 "2024-10-09T15:35:31Z")
Primus’s Tommy the Cat, featuring Tom Waits as the titular cat: [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/r4OhIU-PmB8/maxresdefault.jpg "Primus - Tommy The Cat (Official Music Video)") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r4OhIU-PmB8) ---
**Author:** ![blondebear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blondebear/32/1022_2.png) [@blondebear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blondebear)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2024, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-spoken-guest-voices-in-iconic-songs/1008585/49 "2024-10-09T15:53:29Z")
From Quadrophenia: BBC’s Jon Curle’s news blurb [at the end of “Cut My Hair”](https://youtu.be/9paltc-bpTQ?feature=shared&t=202). (It’s a shame there’s no video that lets this segue into the great opening riff of “The Punk And The Godfather”) ---
**Author:** ![Superdude](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/superdude/32/13450_2.png) [@Superdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superdude)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2024, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-spoken-guest-voices-in-iconic-songs/1008585/50 "2024-10-09T15:54:58Z")
The song _[Pope](https://youtu.be/lwHn849JNPg?si=EJAXfKL3x14hUpcm)_ by Prince features a voiceover from Bernie Mac at the beginning that says, “Y’all don’t understand…I ain’t scared of you motherfuckers” followed by Mac saying “stir it like motherfucking coffee.” It also contains Bernie Mac saying “seek and destroy” partway through the song. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2024, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-spoken-guest-voices-in-iconic-songs/1008585/51 "2024-10-09T16:09:59Z")
She wasn’t famous, but for her voice-over whispering “Big boys don’t cry” on 10cc’s I’m Not In Love, Kathy Redfern became a minor celebrity. She was actually the secretary at the recording studio. ---
**Author:** ![gnoitall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bb73d2/32.png) [@gnoitall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gnoitall)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2024, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-spoken-guest-voices-in-iconic-songs/1008585/52 "2024-10-09T16:12:30Z")
It was Orson Wells, quoting Poe’s _Marginalia_ XVI: > **[Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore - Works - Editions - The Collected...](https://www.eapoe.org/works/pollin/brp20405.htm#m150)** > > The Collected Writings of Edgar Allan Poe - Vol. II: The Brevities (Marginalia - part 05) > [@](#): > > For my own part, I have never had a thought which I could not set down in words, with even more distinctness than that with which I conceived it… > > There is, however, a class of fancies, of exquisite delicacy, which are not thoughts, and to which, as yet, I have found it absolutely impossible to adapt language… They arise in the soul (alas, how rarely!) only at its epochs of most intense tranquillity — when the bodily and mental health are in perfection — and at those mere points of time where the confines of the waking world blend with those of the world of dreams. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/J8BKQ5MTFQY/maxresdefault.jpg "A Dream Within A Dream (1987 Remix)") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J8BKQ5MTFQY) ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2024, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-spoken-guest-voices-in-iconic-songs/1008585/53 "2024-10-09T16:25:14Z")
Gordon Sinclair, Canadian journalist, writer, and commentator. He was very well known in Canada. I still get emotional listening to this recording. Especially because it’s from a Canadian’s viewpoint. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/z4i3LmR0K74/hqdefault.jpg "Gordon Sinclair - The Americans (A Canadian's Opinion)") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z4i3LmR0K74) ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2024, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-spoken-guest-voices-in-iconic-songs/1008585/54 "2024-10-09T16:26:19Z")
Bandleader Archie Bleyer provided the spoken “Yes?” on the Chordettes’ recording of “Mr. Sandman.” ---
**Author:** ![ch51](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ch51/32/3111_2.png) [@ch51](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ch51)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2024, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-spoken-guest-voices-in-iconic-songs/1008585/55 "2024-10-09T16:27:24Z")
Side 2 of the Small Faces’ Ogdens’ Nut Gone Flake LP from 1968 features the story of Happiness Stan interlinked with narration between the six songs provided by comic monologuist and performer Stanley Unwin in his unique, nonsensical private language of “Unwinese”. ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2024, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-spoken-guest-voices-in-iconic-songs/1008585/56 "2024-10-09T16:29:23Z")
Adam Driver in “Please Mr. Kennedy.” 😉 [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/lSwO-k-RqNA/maxresdefault.jpg "Inside Llewyn Davis - Please Mr. Kennedy") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lSwO-k-RqNA) ---
**Author:** ![psychonaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psychonaut/32/4655_2.png) [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2024, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-spoken-guest-voices-in-iconic-songs/1008585/57 "2024-10-09T16:37:30Z")
In [the Bevis Frond’s “Right On (Hippie Dream)”](https://songsear.ch/song/The-Bevis-Frond/Right-On-Hippie-Dream/536305), poet [David Tibet](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Tibet) reads long excerpts (editorials and letters to the editor, I think) from the famous 1968 psychedelic zine _Gandalf’s Garden_. The song probably isn’t all that famous among the general public, though it was frequently remarked on by the album’s reviewers. When I first heard the song, I thought the spoken-word pieces were supposed to be some sort of parody. I only later learned that the texts were apparently written in earnest back in the 1960s. ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2024, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-spoken-guest-voices-in-iconic-songs/1008585/58 "2024-10-09T16:38:37Z")
Cheech Marin and Tommy Chong on Joni Mitchell’s version of _Twisted_ > Wait, no driver on the top? > Man, the chick is twisted, crazy! ---
**Author:** ![Ynnad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/4491bb/32.png) [@Ynnad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ynnad)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2024, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-spoken-guest-voices-in-iconic-songs/1008585/59 "2024-10-09T16:52:00Z")
Speaking of Pink Floyd, there is the following dialogue from _The Wall_: Marshall Dillon: Well, we got only about an hour of daylight left. We better get started. Miss Tyson: Is it unsafe to travel at night? Marshall Dillon: It’ll be a lot less safe to stay here. Your father’s gonna pick up our trail before long. Miss Tyson: Can Lorca ride? Marshall Dillon: He’ll have to ride. Lorca, time to go! Chengra, thank you for everything. Let’s go. Miss Tyson: Goodbye, Chengra! Chengra: Goodbye, Missy! Miss Tyson: I’ll be back — one day. Chengra: The bones have told Chengra. Miss Tyson: Take care of yourself. Chengra: Marshall, look after my Missy. The identity of the actors portraying these characters is left as an exercise for the reader. ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2024, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-spoken-guest-voices-in-iconic-songs/1008585/60 "2024-10-09T16:56:09Z")
> [@2\_More\_Bits](#): > > Madness has a great song called “Michael Caine.” Love it! Very Bowie-esque. And not a hint of ska. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-spoken-guest-voices-in-iconic-songs/1008585.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-spoken-guest-voices-in-iconic-songs/1008585.md?page=4)