David Bowie wrote, produced and supplied backing vocals on Mott the Hoople hit All The Young Dudes.
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It always sounded like a John Lennon song to me.
At the time “Money for Nothing” was recorded, there’s no question that Sting was more famous. The Police were absolutely huge with Synchronicity just a couple of years prior. While Dire Straits were known, they were nowhere near that level. Brothers in Arms was the album that rocketed them to superstardom.
The song Shipbuilding was a minor hit for Robert Wyatt. The lyrics, co-production and backing vocals were by Elvis Costello.
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I think (Doobie Brothers) Michael McDonald did a nice job on Steely Dan’s “Peg.”
Prince sang backup on most of the material on the The Time’s first three albums. Prince also wrote most of that material, provided a lot of the instrumentation, and produced the albums (under the pseudonym Jamie Starr).
EDIT: Prince also sang backup on Sheila E’s “The Glamorous Life”.
Can I mention a guitar contribution?
The only studio track by Queen with guitars not from a member of Queen is Innuendo which has Steve Howe of Yes on it. I learned that just two days ago and I am desperate to use it somewhere.
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I’ve often wondered how or why collaborations like this came about. As fantastic of a guitar player that Steve Howe is, I doubt that there’s anything that he can do that Brian May can’t. So why use him?
A lot of times, I think that it’s friendship and collaboration, and being in the right place at the right time. As Wikipedia notes about the song:
According to Wiki he was in the vicinity and (accounts differ) either Freddie or Brian made the original request Howe give them some flamenco style guitar. Apparently Howe was initially reluctant but the combined urgings of Freddie, Brian and Roger persuaded him.
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And I think the counterpart to Zevon as the queen of contributing artists is Emmylou Harris. She sang on hundreds of albums by artists that often were less famous than herself.
Graham Parker’s “Endless Night” (1980) features backing vocals by Bruce Springsteen. Apparently The Boss once said that Parker was the only act he’d pay to see!
@Sam_Stone - Zevon FTW! That’s quite a list.
First thing I thought of when I saw the thread title.
Hall also sang on Elvis Costello’s 1984 single “The Only Flame In Town.”
Since I was on the Queen Wiki page I note Freddie Mercury provided uncredited backing vocals on Andrew Gold’s cheesy pop hit Never Let Her Slip Away in 1978. Freddie and Queen drummer Roger Taylor provided credited background vocals on Billy Squier track Emotions in Motion in 1982.
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In 1961 a single, “My Bonnie”, was released that was credited to “Tony Sheridan and the Beat Brothers”. This was later changed to “The Beatles with Tony Sheridan”.
Don Henley and Michael McDonald both sang on Christopher Cross’s debut album before Cross became a big name.
Those lyrics are AWESOME!
That’s John Lennon and Paul McCartney singing backup to The Rolling Stones on “We Love You.” I suppose you could argue they were more famous than anyone else in the room.
Not “Werewolves of London?” Mick Fleetwood and John McVie played on it.
Look at some of the backup he had on this album (individual track personnel listed).
I meant that “Werewolves of London” was the only Zevon song that I knew.