This one is probably borderline, much like Brent Spinner’s work, but the famous person is going to be more famous than most. Although I note, a lot of the songs mentioned aren’t all that iconic, especially compared to the likes of Thriller!
And that would be Christopher Lee, and his forays into Heavy Metal Music. In the following albums, he has multiple spoken word as well as sung sections:
You’re probably talking about the introduction of the instruments that made it to the original release, but Stanshall also narrated a hilarious drunken tour of the recording studio overtop the album’s closing track, “The Sailor’s Hornpipe”. This was cut from the official release in favour of an unadorned instrumental version, but it eventually resurfaced as a bonus track on various remastered releases.
"…opens with the voice of President Lyndon Johnson delivering his “We Shall Overcome” speech to Congress, talking about “the dignity of man” when his speech is interrupted by raucous laughter, applause and the sound of The Electric Flag building up for the spirited opener, “Killing Floor.” Howlin’ Wolf’s original was about a destructive relationship with a woman; The Electric Flag casts America as the destructive lady in question and the killing floor becomes the war in Vietnam.
Speaking of Viv Stanshall, his running dialog for The Intro And The Outro is pretty great. (even though it doesn’t qualify as a “guest voice”)
This is probably cheating because it’s a clip from a film, but I’m counting it. Frank Maxwell and Peter Fonda from The Wild Angels at the start of Primal Scream’s Loaded
Yes, one of the most heartbreaking and beautiful songs, ever.
Hehehe, and @iamatractorboy , that’s a well worn clip. For example, here it is in Mudhoney’s In ‘n’ Out of Grace
Didn’t know that, never heard that before!
“Regulate” by Warren G featuring Nate Dogg opens with a clip from the movie Young Guns spoken by actor Casey Siemaszko.
For decades something bugged me… and my kid, who introduced me to Aesop Rock. At the the beginning of “Bring Back Pluto”, SOMEone says:
This is my friend Tony. He’s pretty cool, although he’s not always so smart.
It became a catchphrase around the house, any time anyone did anything dumb.
Suddenly, a few years ago, googling that phrase got a hit! It was from the beginning of an anti-masturbation video, from… the '80s maybe?
Here, it’s a fun song; my kid’s generation misses having nine planets. (The first lyric is “And then there were eight…”)
That may not have counted as a famous voice, although some of us swear it’s the same kid who played Kevin’s dorky best friend on The (original) Wonder Years.
Josh Saviano played Paul Pfeiffer. Who ended up going to Yale, and is now on the business side of entertainment.
Hmmm, he and Fred Savage are still friends, anyone know Fred well enough to ask him?
Which reminds me that Living Colour’s Cult of Personality features voice clips from Malcolm X, JFK, and FDR.
Also from The Wall near the end of “Don’t Leave Me Now” you can hear basketball announcer Chick Hearn doing the play-by-play for a Lakers-Bulls game.
Chas Adams’ monologue at the beginning of Madness’ “One Step Beyond” is one I’m surprised it took me this long to think of.
The Beatles’ “I Am the Walrus” surely qualifies as an iconic song. It features a dramatic reading from Shakespeare’s King Lear by noted actors Mark Dignam and Philip Guard, thanks to John Lennon fiddling with an AM radio in the recording studio.
1964, Beach Boys, “Drive In”: None other than Smokey Bear himself delivers his line
“…if you say you watched the movie you’re a couple of liars,
and remember only you can prevent forest fires…”
At the beginning of the Assemblage 23 song “Disappoint,” there’s a line from John Malkovich in the movie “In the Line of Fire”: “Do you believe in the nobility of suicide?”
(I can’t figure out how to post the video…)
It’s a known bug in our board software/configuration. See here for the workaround:
I posted Gordon Sinclair’s voice over earlier
I wanted to add he was Canada’s Paul Harvey. Except Sinclair also had a career as a journalist.
His Americans recording charted 4 on U.S. Billboard Hot 100 in 1974.
I can’t recall a music voice over, commentary ever doing that again.
Paul Hardcastle’s 1985 song “19,” about the Vietnam War, sampled narration from an ABC television documentary, narrated by Peter Thomas: not a household name, but a very recognizable voice to anyone who’s watched U.S. television documentaries or commercials from the 1980s through the 2000s.
Jamie T’s Sheila has a passage of Sir John Betjeman reading his poem The Cockney Amorist.
