\n<\/p>\n
Most pop\/hip-hop collaborations don\u2019t qualify here \u2013 commissioning a verse from a rapper to increase your single\u2019s \u201creach\u201d does not a duet make \u2013 but Lights On does. It moves back and forth between both participants, and moreover, it\u2019s superb: a perfect evocation of the night ending before the stimulants have worn off.<\/p>\n
<\/span>Campbell and Gentry at the 1968 Grammy awards.<\/span> Photograph: Bettmann\/Bettmann Archive<\/p>\n The whole of Gentry and Campbell\u2019s eponymous duets album is a delight, but if you had to pick a highlight, their version of the Gentry-penned Morning Glory is the one. It\u2019s a spectacularly lovely song, its drowsy but glowing mood \u2013 a one-night-stand gone right, a rarity in pop \u2013 amplified by the twin vocals.<\/p>\n There\u2019s an argument that Tom Waits\u2019 soundtrack to Francis Ford Coppola\u2019s One From the Heart is significantly better than the film itself. The weary after-hours jazz of Picking Up After You \u2013 in which a marriage gone stale is picked over with scabrous relish by both parties \u2013 is particularly splendid.<\/p>\n The genius of Otis Redding and Carla Thomas\u2019s splendidly argumentative take on the old Lowell Folson blues number (aside from its implausibly funky breakbeat) is the way Thomas\u2019s disparaging vocal undercuts Redding\u2019s super-slick soul-man image: \u201cYou know what, Otis? You\u2019re country \u2026 you wear overalls \u2026 and you need a haircut!\u201d<\/p>\n The kind of improbable masterpiece that only Prince in his pomp could have dreamed up, then executed so convincingly: funk with squealing rock guitars, former MOR favourite Sheena Easton recast as strutting temptress, the whole thing held together by spoken-word sections that compare sex to baseball. The end result is, unaccountably, incredible.<\/p>\n <\/span>Flack and Hathaway.<\/span> Photograph: GAB Archive\/Redferns<\/p>\n Infamously, Back Together Again was recorded the day Donny Hathaway took his own life: the studio session had already been abandoned due to his erratic behaviour. And yet the song is a joy-bringing delight. That such transcendent, life-affirming music could have emerged from such desperate circumstances is testament to the singers\u2019 power and chemistry.<\/p>\n George Michael\u2019s Cover to Cover tour saw him tackling everything from David Bowie\u2019s Fame to Adamski\u2019s Killer, but a surprise London guest appearance by Elton John deservedly provided a transatlantic No 1. The song\u2019s considerable emotional heft was further amplified by the fact that John had only recently emerged from rehab.<\/p>\n Take That\u2019s cover might be better known, but the original is the masterpiece: an epic of high-drama disco delirium, squelching synth and cinematic strings. The moment, three minutes in, when the familiar riff kicks in is euphoric, the arrival of the queen of Salsoul three minutes later unfeasibly thrilling.<\/p>\n You\u2019re spoilt for choice when it comes to Sinatra\/Hazlewood duets \u2013 from the hilarious Jackson to the drowsily erotic Summer Wine, they\u2019re all great. But Some Velvet Morning is the best: darkly sexual and faintly baffling, filled with disorientating shifts in time signature and references to Phaedra (\u201ca sad-assed broad,\u201d as Hazlewood once put it bluntly).<\/p>\n Late-60s Stax at its vertiginous height. Everything about Private Number is exquisite, from its atmospheric intro to the subtle orchestration to Bell and Clay\u2019s vocals, pleading but restrained. The lyrical plot twist is neatly done, and the song\u2019s emotional shift from moody verses to jubilant chorus offers guaranteed elation.<\/p>\n <\/span>Shane MacGowan of the Pogues and Kirsty MacColl.<\/span> Photograph: Patrick Ford\/Redferns<\/p>\n Try to banish the thought of its festive ubiquity for a moment and instead luxuriate in its exemplary use of the duet as a storytelling device, gradually dragging the grim saga of its dissolute relationship from early optimism through furious rancour to a kind of battered, unpromising reconciliation.<\/p>\n Charli xcx rerecorded her song about her fraught relationship with Lorde days after its release, with its subject answering all her accusations. Equal parts psychodrama and fourth-wall-breaking play on fans\u2019 obsession with linking pop lyrics to IRL events, it is unequivocal evidence of its authors\u2019 mastery of modern pop stardom, and all that comes with it.<\/p>\n The negative image of Michael Jackson and Paul McCartney\u2019s similarly titled but hopelessly drippy The Girl Is Mine. Brandy and Monica dish up five minutes of acidic fingernails-in-the-hair spite (\u201cthere is no way you could mistake him for your man \u2013 are you insane?\u201d) over a superb, bumping Rodney Jerkins beat.<\/p>\n Cave\u2019s 1996 duet with PJ Harvey, Henry Lee, is magnificent, but Where the Wild Roses Grow has the extra improbability factor. At the time of its release, the very idea of Kylie recording a brooding murder ballad with Nick Cave seemed quite remarkable, let alone with results this powerful.<\/p>\n First recorded six years earlier on The Freewheelin\u2019 Bob Dylan, Girl From the North Country was powerfully reinvented in Cash\u2019s company. Slower and sadder, it now sounds impossibly careworn, as if the two of them are competing to see who can sound the most dejected and heartsick.<\/p>\n <\/span>Rogers and Parton.<\/span> Photograph: Gary Gershoff\/Getty Images<\/p>\n The Bee Gees\u2019 post-disco era of writing songs for other artists offers an embarrassment of riches, but Islands in the Stream is the jewel. It was originally a Motown pastiche intended for Diana Ross, but Parton and Rogers\u2019 country reading is so definitive, it\u2019s hard to imagine it any other way. When Rogers played Glastonbury, the crowd insisted he sing it twice<\/em>.<\/p>\n A duet in which the voices appear to be singing completely different songs \u2013 Bowie\u2019s angsty state-of-the-world address alternating with Freddie Mercury\u2019s airy scat vocals \u2013 before they suddenly turn to the same page two-and-a-half minutes in, leading to a fantastically powerful finale. It was an unlikely chart-topper, but then so was Bohemian Rhapsody.<\/p>\n <\/span>Terrell and Gaye.<\/span> Photograph: GAB Archive\/Redferns<\/p>\n It\u2019s hard to pick a favourite from the succession of fabulous duets Gaye and Terrell recorded: Ain\u2019t No Mountain High Enough, California Soul, Ain\u2019t Nothin\u2019 Like the Real Thing. But the glorious You\u2019re All I Need to Get By \u2013 more obviously gospel-influenced than your usual Motown track \u2013 just clinches it.<\/p>\n Dusty Springfield\u2019s stock was so low that the Pet Shop Boys\u2019 label argued they should record What Have I Done to Deserve This? with Tina Turner instead. What that would have sounded like boggles the mind. It certainly couldn\u2019t have improved on the magical blend of Springfield\u2019s husky pleading and Neil Tennant\u2019s icy lugubriousness.<\/p>\n Compiling a list of the greatest duets is a thankless task: even if you confine yourself to rock and pop, and exclude artists for whom duetting is inbuilt or internal (so no Ashford and Simpson or Sam and Dave and no Don\u2019t You Want Me) it\u2019s a vast area to narrow down. Picking a chart-topper is more thankless still, but Don\u2019t Give Up exudes an extraordinary emotional power, linked to the contrast between Gabriel\u2019s utter hopelessness and misery and Bush\u2019s patient expressions of unconditional love: \u201cYou still have us\u201d; \u201cYou worry too much.\u201d That the latter don\u2019t seem to impact on the former at all makes it devastating, but unforgettable.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" 20. Katy B \u2013 Lights On (ft Ms Dynamite) (2010) Most pop\/hip-hop collaborations don\u2019t qualify here \u2013 commissioning a verse from a rapper to increase your single\u2019s \u201creach\u201d does not a duet make \u2013 but Lights On does. It moves back and forth between both participants, and moreover, it\u2019s superb: a perfect evocation of the<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":24413,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[12101,1141,9259,1034,1167],"class_list":{"0":"post-24412","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-duets","9":"tag-pop","10":"tag-ranked","11":"tag-rock","12":"tag-takes"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24412","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=24412"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24412\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/24413"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=24412"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=24412"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=24412"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}18. Tom Waits and Crystal Gayle \u2013 Picking Up After You (1982)<\/h2>\n
17. Otis Redding and Carla Thomas \u2013 Tramp (1967)<\/h2>\n
16. Prince (with Sheena Easton) \u2013 U Got the Look (1987)<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n
15. Roberta Flack \u2013 Back Together Again (ft Donny Hathaway) (1980)<\/h2>\n
14. George Michael and Elton John \u2013 Don\u2019t Let the Sun Go Down on Me (1991)<\/h2>\n
13. Dan Hartman (with Loleatta Holloway) \u2013 Vertigo\/Relight My Fire (1979)<\/h2>\n
12. Nancy Sinatra and Lee Hazlewood \u2013 Some Velvet Morning (1967)<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n
11. William Bell and Judy Clay \u2013 Private Number (1968)<\/h2>\n
10. The Pogues \u2013 Fairytale of New York (ft Kirsty MacColl) (1988)<\/h2>\n
9. Charli xcx and Lorde \u2013 The Girl, So Confusing Version With Lorde (2024)<\/h2>\n
8. Brandy and Monica \u2013 The Boy Is Mine (1998)<\/h2>\n
7. Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds + Kylie Minogue \u2013 Where the Wild Roses Grow (1995)<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n
6. Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash \u2013 Girl From the North Country (1969)<\/h2>\n
5. Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton \u2013 Islands in the Stream (1983)<\/h2>\n
4. Queen and David Bowie \u2013 Under Pressure (1981)<\/h2>\n
3. Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell \u2013 You\u2019re All I Need to Get By (1968)<\/h2>\n
2. Pet Shop Boys with Dusty Springfield \u2013 What Have I Done to Deserve This? (1987)<\/h2>\n
1. Peter Gabriel and Kate Bush \u2013 Don\u2019t Give Up (1986)<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n