Dobie Gray was not the first to sing “Drift Away”, but his version is probably the most famous. He later sang on Uncle Kracker’s version
One (in)famous example: Doug Sahm covered “Wallflower” by his buddy Bob Dylan on “Doug Sahm And Friends” with Dylan on “backing vocals”, but Dylan’s voice was so prominent in the mix that it’s practically the lead vocal.
“Tomorrow Wendy” was a Concrete Blonde cover of the Andy Prieboy original. Johnette sang background on the Prieboy version. They have both performed it live with each other many times.
Gray’s performance with Uncle Cracker was similar. Is there a word for something more than “backup vocal” but less than “duet”?
One more, now a cover of a Doug Sahm song: he sang a whole verse of his own song “Give Back The Key To My Heart” on Uncle Tupelo’s cover.
(he famously predicted a great career for Jay Farrar but wasn’t much impressed by Jeff Tweedy. Even legends can fail…)
Ted Yoder got a lot of YouTube views for his cover of Everybody Wants to Rule the World on dulcimer. Later Curt Smith stopped by and they did it with vocals.
Will Oldham sang backing vocals on the (still more devastating than the original, released under one of Oldham’s monikers, Bonnie Prince Billy) cover of his “I See A Darkness” by Johnny Cash. Just like Tom Petty did on Cash’s cover of “I Won’t Back Down”.
Ray Davies sang backup on Joan Jett’s cover of Celluloid Heroes.
Elton John sang backup and played piano on Bob the Builder’s version of** Crocodile Rock**.
It’s not exactly a cover, but Mark Knopfler insisted in playing guitar for Weird Al Yankovic’s parody version of “Money for Nothing”.
So you guys won’t know who Ray Columbus is, and his biggest hit She’s A Mod, but what they heck, here’s a cover of it from the late 80s by Double J and Twice The T.
Phil Collins sung lead on his version of Behind the Lines by Genesis. Phil had sung lead on the Genesis version as well!
Neil Young backing up Norah Jones.
Dweezil Zappa played the opening guitar solo on “Genius In France”.
Ozzy Osbourne recorded a version of the Black Sabbath song Changes as a duet with his daughter Kelly Osbourne. He took the opportunity to revise the lyrics.
TCMF-2L
Al Kooper and Mike Bloomfield did Simon and Garfunkel’s 59th St. Bridge Song (Feelin’ Groovy), live at the Fillmore - Paul Simon liked it and dubbed in harmony vocals for one verse.
The Mothers of Invention did “Happy Together” on their live album “Fillmore East – June 1971” with vocalists Howard Kaylan and Mark Volman and bassist Jim Pons.
Garth Brooks sang “Hard Luck Woman” for a Kiss tribute album with all of Kiss performing (Paul singing backup).
Craigslist by WAY is parody of The Doors. Ray Manzarek played keyboards on it.
Oops
Manzarek also produced and played keyboards on Echo & the Bunnymen’s cover of People Are Strange.
He also produced X’s debut album, which featured a cover of Soul Kitchen. While he played organ or synths on four of the albums’ songs, he did not play on the Doors cover.
Are there any reputable cites for Manzarek playing keyboards on that cover? I was looking at that earlier and although it is claimed all over the internet, I couldn’t find any claims that seemed reputable.