On the radio I just heard “An American Dream” (1979) by The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band (going by the moniker The Dirt Band at the time), which features lovely backing (and uncredited) vocals by Linda Ronstadt:
Ronstadt’s backup vocals are so prominent that “An American Dream” is on at least one of her greatest hits albums. It brought to mind other songs with notable (and uncredited) backup singers, like “Gold” (also 1979) by John Stewart with a heavy dose of Stevie Nicks:
Stevie, of course, sings backup on a number of other songs by other artists.
With one exception, if I never hear another James Taylor song again it will be too soon. That one exception is his cover of “Handy Man” (1978), which features absolutely lovely backing vocals by Leah Kunkel, who was also sang backup vocals for Stephen Bishop, Carly Simon, and Art Garfunkel. She was also the sister of Cass Elliot.
I will never be able to not hear his voice on Carly Simon’s “You’re So Vain” (1972) when I found out some years ago that one Mick Jagger sings uncredited backup on the song:
What are some of your favorite songs that have notable backup singers?
The great Emmylou Harris has an impressive career of her own, but she also sang background or duets for almost everyone, Dylan, Neil Young, and most importantly Gram Parsons on his two solo albums, which started her career. I estimate that I must be owning at least 50 albums she appears on.
David Bowie sang a lot of background on the albums he produced for Lou Reed and Iggy Pop.
Paul McCartney and John Lennon sang background on the Stones’ “We Love You”. And Lennon sang on Bowie’s “Fame”.
The Ikettes, Ike Turner’s female vocal backing group including his wife Tina, sang background on Frank Zappa’s albums “Apostrophe” and “Overnite Sensation”.
Rosanne Cash, Shawn Colvin and the Indigo Girls all did backing vocals on Mary Chapin Carpenter’s album “Come On Come On.” But the best was her backup chorus when she did it live at the CMAs that year.
This is a notable singer rather than a famous one. Only about a year or so ago I realized that the background singing for Still the Same by Bob Seger reminded me a lot of the background singing on Dark Side of the Moon. So much so that I wondered if they were the same singers. It turns out that on the album, they weren’t. But it turns out that Venetta Fields, one of the background singers for Still the Same, did tour with Pink Floyd for their Dark Side of the Moon tour and subsequently did record with them for Wish You Were Here (and I didn’t even know the latter until looking at Wikipedia just now.)
So it’s possible that there is a connection there, like Seger or his producers were intentionally or unintentionally trying to echo Dark Side with the singing in Still the Same.
(And of course there is the notable non backup singer Roy Harper singing the lead vocal on Have a Cigar off of Wish You Were Here. If the Floyd needed a singer to support them on other songs, then I would think that Roy would do a serviceable job of the other rougher, waters-esque vocals on some of their other songs.)
After Zappa hired The Ikettes, Ike Turner told Zappa, “Pay each singer $25 per song, and not more than that, because that’s what I pay them per song.” Zappa thought this was too low. So Zappa instead paid each of them $25 per hour, and the session lasted eight hours.
“Hip to be Square,” by Huey Lewis and the News, features several members of the San Francisco 49ers as backup singers: quarterback Joe Montana, defensive back Ronnie Lott, wide receiver Dwight Clark, and linebacker Riki Ellison.
(The band had been founded/based in San Francisco, and Lewis had grown up in nearby Marin County.)
