Maybe this question is inspired by those commercials where they have a very odd assortment of celebrities preparing dinner like they’re a family. (i.e. Mr. T/Loni Anderson/Mary Lou Retton/George Hamilton, Sally Jesse Raphael/Chuck Woolery/Little Richard/Pat Morita) Maybe this question is inspired by the pairing of Elton John and Eminem. Anyway, what do you think would be the oddest or most bizarre musical duet or collaboration?
For instance…imagine Morrissey cutting an album with Snoop Doggy Dog, or some saccharine pop diva like Jewel joining up with some metal or hard rocker like Glen Danzig, or some twangy male country singer teaming up with a techno rave band like Jesus Jones, the Shamen, or EMF…what is the most bizarre and twisted musical collaboration that the human mind could imagine, and what would it sound like?
Not that I’d be caught dead watching it, but I’ve recently seen a commercial for a musical concert on VH1 featuring a duet between Aretha Franklin and Kid Rock.
/shudders
If there are any worse, I don’t even want to know.
I’d have to say that if anyone wrote music for a tuba and a violin, that’d be pretty weird.
Oh…but you’re talking about pop music?
In that case, I’d go with the little kid who had that country song (you know who he is…he had the hit last fall and he sings really high…“one life”, “one heart”, “one prayer” - the title was something like that) and Ozzy. Preferably, in the video, Ozzy would encounter some chickens. And then, for fun, we’d throw Madonna in there.
OH! The title of that kid’s song is “One Voice”! (I think.)
Salvadore Dali and the Marx Brothers. This actually happened, although it never got beyond the stage where Dali suggested a bunch of bits, like Groucho as a multi-armed Hindu God (Shiva?) answering a multitude of phones. He also presented Harpo with a harp tuned with barbed wire. There’s a great gag photo of Harpo, bandages on his fingers, staring daggers at Dali who’s answering with a “whad ya expect?” shrug.
Yes, SNL did have a parody with Matthew Perry playing Julio Iglesias, but he (Julio, I mean) really did sing with Willie Nelson and that really was the name of the song. He also did a duet with Diana Ross but I can’t remember the name of the song.
Willie Nelson did at least one album full of duets. My father has a copy, I think… ::Goes to get it:: It’s called (Get this) ‘Half Nelson’, and while it doesn’t have the Nelson/O’Connor duet that dodge mentioned, it has Willie and Julio doing To All The Girls I’ve Loved Before (Track 7), as well as (None really as strange as that):
Pancho and Lefty, with Merle Haggard; Slow Movin’ Outlaw, with Lacy J. Dalton; Are There Any More Real Cowboys? with Neil Yoing; I Told a Lie to My Heart, with Hank Williams; Texas on a Saturday Night, with Mel Tillis; Seven Spanish Angels, with Ray Charles; They All Went to Mexico, with Carlos Santana; Honky Tonk Women, with Leon Russel; and Half a Man, with George Jones.
Puff Daddy and Jimmy Page, doing a “cover” of Kashmir. I called my uncle Mark back in Ohio just to tell him to turn on the television and watch this, because I couldn’t believe it.
And I’m glad someone already mentioned that f’ed up duet between Bing Crosby and David Bowie. Have you seen the SNL parody of that? Jimmy Fallon is playing David Bowie, and when he gets to high-pitched over-song (there’s got to be a musical term for that), he sings, “Why am I doing this? This is messed up…”
Elton John and Eminem has got to be right up there, too.
Frank Zappa and the London Symphony Orchestra blew my mind! Now then, personally, I thought it was FANTASTIC! But, I’ve been told before that I tend to be a Zappa Freak
