Lou Reed and Metallica
Avant-garde singer-songwriter Lou Reed might have once recorded an experimental album called Metal Machine Music, but his music could never exactly be classed as metal. It raised some eyebrows, then, when Reed teamed up with the biggest metalheads of them all, Metallica, for the 2011 album Lulu. Almost 90 minutes of Reed mumbling over Metallica thrashing, the album didn’t win over fans of either artist.
David Bowie and Bing Crosby
In 1977, experimental rock legend David Bowie appeared on TV Christmas special Bing Crosby’s Merry Olde Christmas, recorded mere weeks before the crooner’s death. Their duet, an amalgamation of Christmas standard The Little Drummer Boy with specially composed track Peace on Earth, has become one of the best-loved Christmas songs ever, even though Bowie didn’t look back kindly on the experience in his later years.
Run-DMC and Aerosmith
Back in 1986, the musical landscape was very different. Hip-hop acts like Run-DMC were for the most part considered underground, whilst rockers Aerosmith were viewed as has-beens. Things changed drastically when the two groups got together, Run-DMC covering Aerosmith’s 1975 track Walk this Way. The track was a huge hit, opening the floodgates for both mainstream acceptance of rap and a resurgence for stadium rock.
Kylie Minogue and Nick Cave
Australian actress-turned-singer Kylie Minogue has always been best known for playing on the lightest of pop music. As such, no one saw it coming when, in 1996, Minogue collaborated with moody singer-songwriter Nick Cave on Where the Wild Roses Grow, a haunting ballad about a disturbed man murdering a beautiful woman. Still, the song proved a hit, and Cave and Minogue have remained good friends.
Jack White and Alicia Keys
Another Way to Die, the theme song to 2008 James Bond movie Quantum of Solace, marked the first time that two artists had collaborated on a Bond theme. However, those artists were powerful soul singer Alicia Keys and lo-fi guitar hero Jack White. This mash of contrasting styles proved jarring for many, and it remains one of the most polarizing Bond themes of them all.
U2 and Luciano Pavarotti
Italian opera singer Luciano Pavarotti and Irish stadium rock band U2 may have been among the biggest names in music back in the 90s, but they weren’t necessarily names you’d utter in the same breath. Nonetheless, they collaborated on the track Miss Sarajevo, as part of U2’s experimental side project Passengers, in 2005 – just two years before the legendary tenor sadly passed away.
Public Enemy and Anthrax
Hip-hop may have broken through in part thanks to rockers Aerosmith, but blending that style with extreme thrash metal was a different ball game entirely. 1991 saw thrash metal pioneers Anthrax record a reinterpretation of Public Enemy’s 1987 track Bring the Noise, with the hip-hop icons themselves guesting. To the surprise of many, it worked, and rap metal soon became a popular subgenre.
Queen and Five
Queen’s anthemic rock track We Will Rock You has long been one of their standards, and has been covered by many other artists. Even so, it came as a surprise when Brian May and Roger Taylor collaborated with the now largely forgotten British boy band Five on a cover of the track in 1999. Rock fans huffed and puffed, but it was still a hit.
Stevie Wonder and Blue
Another unlikely (or, in the eyes of some, soul-destroying) collaboration between a bona fide musical legend and a disposable British boy band occurred in 2003, when pseudo-R&B quartet Blue teamed up with Stevie Wonder on a cover of his classic track Signed, Sealed, Delivered, I’m Yours. More than two decades later, Wonder is still held up as an all-time musical genius, whilst Blue… aren’t.
Bone Thugs-n-Harmony and Phil Collins
Call us cynics, but we tend to think that old, bald white guys from England who started out in prog rock are not generally hip. That’s what made it somewhat alarming when Phil Collins teamed up with hip hop act Bone Thugs-n-Harmony on their 2002 track Home. In fairness to Collins, the song was built around a sample from his 1985 song Take Me Home.
