TIME: "Top 10 Musical Collaborations" - Sitcoms Online Message Boards

JamesG · 08-10-2011, 04:25 PM

TIME: Top 10 Musical Collaborations
August 9, 2011

Jay-Z and Kanye West

On Aug. 8, 2011, Kanye West and Jay-Z released their garish, 16-song (assuming you get the deluxe edition) collaborative album 'Watch the Throne', capping off a prolific partnership that the rappers have enjoyed ever since Kanye produced 'This Can't Be Life' on Jay-Z's 2000 album 'The Dynasty: Roc la Familia'.

Kanye quickly became known for sampling classic R&B and soul songs — like Bobby "Blue" Bland's 1974 hit 'Ain't No Love in the Heart of the City', over which he layered Jay-Z's vocals to create the similarly titled 'Heart of the City (Ain't No Love)' on 2001's 'The Blueprint'.

All in all, the rappers have worked together on more than 20 projects. 'Watch the Throne' may be their most ambitious endeavor, but it probably won't be their last.

Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong

Both jazz giants in their own right, the collaboration between Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong was, predictably, the stuff of legend.

After dabbling with informal recordings years earlier, Fitzgerald and Armstrong released their first official album of duets, 'Ella and Louis', in 1956. Her sweet, pitch-perfect singing blended effortlessly with Armstrong's deeper, raspier vocals.

One year later, they followed up their debut effort with 'Ella and Louis Again', which saw the performers sing solos, and in 1958, their third and final album, 'Porgy and Bess', was released.

The latter, a compilation of songs from the Gershwin opera of the same name, became their most famous collaboration and was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2001.

David Bowie and Queen

'Under Pressure', the 1981 hit written by David Bowie and Queen, is an artfully crafted rock song born from a jam session between Bowie and the British four-piece band.

It was such a fluid arrangement that no one is quite sure who wrote the signature bass line. Queen drummer Roger Taylor has said it was the band's bassist, John Deacon; Deacon said it was Bowie; and Bowie said he didn't know who it was, but it certainly wasn't him.

Well, whoever it was, it definitely wasn't Vanilla Ice; the rapper sampled that bass line for his 1990 hit 'Ice Ice Baby' without permission.

Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell

Although Marvin Gaye dueted with several other female vocalists, none were able to create the chemistry he shared with Tammi Terrell.

At first the two, who got together in 1967, recorded their parts separately, even for their famous recording of the Ashford & Simpson song 'Ain't No Mountain High Enough', which appeared on their first joint album, 'United'.

Beginning with the song 'Ain't Nothing like the Real Thing', which appeared on their second album, 'You're All I Need', Terrell and Gaye started recording jointly.

Although Gaye was notoriously shy and reticent to do live performances, he sang onstage several times with Terrell, and audiences quickly adored the singers as a pair.

A live performance, in Virginia, however, foreshadowed trouble for them: Terrell collapsed onstage and had to be carried away by Gaye. At a nearby hospital, she was diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor.

After eight operations and six weeks in the hospital, Terrell returned to record the rest of the songs for the second album, including the hit single 'You're All I Need to Get By'.

In 1969, the duo released one final duet album, 'Easy', before Terrell died in March 1970.

Stan Getz, João Gilberto and Astrud Gilberto

We may never have heard Astrud Gilberto's elegantly bored alto on 'The Girl from Ipanema' and 'Concorvado' if she hadn't been the only English speaker in her husband's band, according to Donald L. Maggin's biography Stan Getz: A Life In Jazz.

When she translated her husband's music for the American saxophonist, he loved her voice and insisted she sing on the record, despite protestations that she was an untrained housewife. Other accounts have Brazilian guitarist João encouraging his wife's interest in singing.

Either way, the result was a collaboration to bridge all divides: Astrud's blue voice matched well with Getz's soft tenor sax and played a nice foil to the nasal, viscous honk of her husband.

Meanwhile, Antonio Carlos "Tom" Jobim provided the wistful lyrics and clean piano.

The team fomented an international explosion of bossa nova (literally "new trend"), a style of piano and guitar jazz-pop from Rio de Janeiro that benefited from the American sax.

But there is such a thing as too close: after three albums, the partnership broke apart when João and Astrud became estranged and Astrud began touring with Getz, subsequently becoming his lover.

The Traveling Wilburys

Thinking about the members of the fleeting Traveling Wilburys makes you wonder just how the band came together. I mean, how exactly were Bob Dylan, Tom Petty, Roy Orbison, George Harrison and Jeff Lynne, all virtual legends by the 1980s, able to join forces to become rock 'n' roll's all-time Dream Team?

Well, it all began as an accident.

In 1988, former Beatle Harrison was looking for a B-side for his new single 'This Is Love'. It just so happened that Harrison, Petty, Orbison and Lynne were playing together in Dylan's studio, so Harrison had them all record a new song with him, 'Handle with Care'.

The studio execs loved it and thought it should be turned into an album.

The Wilburys recorded 'The Traveling Wilburys Vol. 1' and then recorded a second album after Orbison died in 1988.

The band's music doesn't stand up to what each musician did with his primary outfit, but being able to listen to Dylan and Petty's vocals scratching against each other or hearing Harrison's guitar slide along with Orbison's unique voice is still as remarkable today as it was 23 years ago.

Loretta Lynn and Jack White

On 2004's Grammy Award–winning 'Van Lear Rose', Loretta Lynn and Jack White, like in all great partnerships, influence each other without giving up their individuality.

Lynn delivers characteristically sincere anecdotes about country family life in her distinctive, wide vowels and tremulous voice; White provides an electric-guitar backbone that is equal parts disaffected Detroit attitude and Appalachian hat tip.

Still, this is a Loretta Lynn album, showcasing her life story and lyricism, her heritage and sound.

And while White serves as producer and plays lead guitar, he's unable to hide his fandom — he's responsible for a rambling story about childhood illness on "Little Red Shoes" that only a major Lynn-ophile could love.

The collaboration is at its best on the album's only duet, 'Portland, Oregon' — a hard-charging song about a drunken, lusty night that's laced with a butterfly-inducing trickle of slide guitar.

It's so otherworldly that you don't even notice the lyrics couple together a 70-year-old and a 28-year-old.

Alison Krauss and Robert Plant

It could be said that 'Raising Sand' is as much a T-Bone Burnett album as it is an Alison Krauss–Robert Plant album.

The perpetually besuited producer was surely the mastermind behind the disc, rounding up a killer group of old songs that went on to win the 2009 Grammy for Album of the Year. Still, without the vocals of Krauss and Plant, it would be nothing more than some really great instrumentals.

That year, TIME included the collaboration in its top 10 albums of the year, writing, "The moments when Krauss abandons her precision soprano and lets loose are breathtaking, but it's Plant, toned down to a delicate mountain twang, who's the real surprise; you can actually count the moments he showboats on one finger."

Eric Clapton and B.B. King

Eric Clapton and B.B. King's 2000 album 'Riding with the King' was a long time in the making.

The two first performed together live in 1967, when a 22-year-old Clapton was a member of the band Cream.

In 1997, King released his duets album 'Deuces Wild', on which he collaborated with Clapton on the song 'Rock Me Baby.'

The younger guitarist had always called King one of the biggest influences on his music, so Clapton made sure to keep hope alive for recording a full album with his idol.

Eventually he finally got his wish, and 'Riding with the King' won a Grammy Award for Best Traditional Blues Album.

Kanye West and Bon Iver

In 2007, while Kanye West was selling out concerts and performing 'Gold Digger' for hundreds of thousands of fans, Justin Vernon (playing under the name Bon Iver) was secluding himself in a cabin in northern Wisconsin to write the heartbreak-filled album 'For Emma, Forever Ago', which he initially self-released.

Three years later, Vernon assisted on 'Lost in the World' for Kanye's album 'My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy'.

'Lost in the World' is a complex track that segues from an Auto-Tuned treatment of Bon Iver's 'Woods' to a multipart-harmony, drum-heavy sing-along to Kanye's spirited rhyme section to a Gil Scott-Heron sample.

Vernon also worked with West on the Jay-Z–Rick Ross–Nicki Minaj–guesting song 'Monster'.

http://www.time.com/time/specials/pa...087487,00.html

Zoneboy · 08-10-2011, 06:31 PM

Not a bad list but they left off a few that are much better. It's also highly unlikely that anyone at Time magazine has any idea who Mike Oldfield is.

Mike Oldfield & Barry Palmer - Crime of Passion

Mike Oldfield & Maggie Reilly - Moonlight Shadow

Mike Oldfield & Roger Chapman - Shadow On the Wall

Mike Oldfield & Anita Hegerland - Innocent

Nena & Kim Wilde - Anyplace, Anywhere, Anytime

Brad Russ · 08-18-2011, 08:45 AM

Good list! Here are some of my favorite collaborations.

Amy Grant, and Peter Cetera - Next Time I Fall
Natalie Cole and Nat King Cole - Unforgettable
Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash - One Too Many Mornings
Michael and Janet Jackson - Scream
Several artists - We Are The World
Carlos Santana and Michelle Branch - Game of Love
Carlos Santana and Matchbox 20 - Smooth
Elvis and Lisa Marie Presley - In The Ghetto
Keith Green and several Christian artists - Oh Lord You're Beautiful
Keith Green and Bob Dylan - Pledge My Head To Heaven
Elton John and George Michael - Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Me
2Pac and Snoop Dogg - Gangsta Party

Just to name a few.

08-10-2011, 04:25 PM	#1
JamesG Freakshow Moderator Forum Icon Join Date: Feb 01, 2008 Location: Brooklyn, NY Posts: 57,304	TIME: "Top 10 Musical Collaborations" TIME: Top 10 Musical Collaborations August 9, 2011 Jay-Z and Kanye West On Aug. 8, 2011, Kanye West and Jay-Z released their garish, 16-song (assuming you get the deluxe edition) collaborative album 'Watch the Throne', capping off a prolific partnership that the rappers have enjoyed ever since Kanye produced 'This Can't Be Life' on Jay-Z's 2000 album 'The Dynasty: Roc la Familia'. Kanye quickly became known for sampling classic R&B and soul songs — like Bobby "Blue" Bland's 1974 hit 'Ain't No Love in the Heart of the City', over which he layered Jay-Z's vocals to create the similarly titled 'Heart of the City (Ain't No Love)' on 2001's 'The Blueprint'. All in all, the rappers have worked together on more than 20 projects. 'Watch the Throne' may be their most ambitious endeavor, but it probably won't be their last. Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong Both jazz giants in their own right, the collaboration between Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong was, predictably, the stuff of legend. After dabbling with informal recordings years earlier, Fitzgerald and Armstrong released their first official album of duets, 'Ella and Louis', in 1956. Her sweet, pitch-perfect singing blended effortlessly with Armstrong's deeper, raspier vocals. One year later, they followed up their debut effort with 'Ella and Louis Again', which saw the performers sing solos, and in 1958, their third and final album, 'Porgy and Bess', was released. The latter, a compilation of songs from the Gershwin opera of the same name, became their most famous collaboration and was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2001. David Bowie and Queen 'Under Pressure', the 1981 hit written by David Bowie and Queen, is an artfully crafted rock song born from a jam session between Bowie and the British four-piece band. It was such a fluid arrangement that no one is quite sure who wrote the signature bass line. Queen drummer Roger Taylor has said it was the band's bassist, John Deacon; Deacon said it was Bowie; and Bowie said he didn't know who it was, but it certainly wasn't him. Well, whoever it was, it definitely wasn't Vanilla Ice; the rapper sampled that bass line for his 1990 hit 'Ice Ice Baby' without permission. Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell Although Marvin Gaye dueted with several other female vocalists, none were able to create the chemistry he shared with Tammi Terrell. At first the two, who got together in 1967, recorded their parts separately, even for their famous recording of the Ashford & Simpson song 'Ain't No Mountain High Enough', which appeared on their first joint album, 'United'. Beginning with the song 'Ain't Nothing like the Real Thing', which appeared on their second album, 'You're All I Need', Terrell and Gaye started recording jointly. Although Gaye was notoriously shy and reticent to do live performances, he sang onstage several times with Terrell, and audiences quickly adored the singers as a pair. A live performance, in Virginia, however, foreshadowed trouble for them: Terrell collapsed onstage and had to be carried away by Gaye. At a nearby hospital, she was diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor. After eight operations and six weeks in the hospital, Terrell returned to record the rest of the songs for the second album, including the hit single 'You're All I Need to Get By'. In 1969, the duo released one final duet album, 'Easy', before Terrell died in March 1970. Stan Getz, João Gilberto and Astrud Gilberto We may never have heard Astrud Gilberto's elegantly bored alto on 'The Girl from Ipanema' and 'Concorvado' if she hadn't been the only English speaker in her husband's band, according to Donald L. Maggin's biography Stan Getz: A Life In Jazz. When she translated her husband's music for the American saxophonist, he loved her voice and insisted she sing on the record, despite protestations that she was an untrained housewife. Other accounts have Brazilian guitarist João encouraging his wife's interest in singing. Either way, the result was a collaboration to bridge all divides: Astrud's blue voice matched well with Getz's soft tenor sax and played a nice foil to the nasal, viscous honk of her husband. Meanwhile, Antonio Carlos "Tom" Jobim provided the wistful lyrics and clean piano. The team fomented an international explosion of bossa nova (literally "new trend"), a style of piano and guitar jazz-pop from Rio de Janeiro that benefited from the American sax. But there is such a thing as too close: after three albums, the partnership broke apart when João and Astrud became estranged and Astrud began touring with Getz, subsequently becoming his lover. The Traveling Wilburys Thinking about the members of the fleeting Traveling Wilburys makes you wonder just how the band came together. I mean, how exactly were Bob Dylan, Tom Petty, Roy Orbison, George Harrison and Jeff Lynne, all virtual legends by the 1980s, able to join forces to become rock 'n' roll's all-time Dream Team? Well, it all began as an accident. In 1988, former Beatle Harrison was looking for a B-side for his new single 'This Is Love'. It just so happened that Harrison, Petty, Orbison and Lynne were playing together in Dylan's studio, so Harrison had them all record a new song with him, 'Handle with Care'. The studio execs loved it and thought it should be turned into an album. The Wilburys recorded 'The Traveling Wilburys Vol. 1' and then recorded a second album after Orbison died in 1988. The band's music doesn't stand up to what each musician did with his primary outfit, but being able to listen to Dylan and Petty's vocals scratching against each other or hearing Harrison's guitar slide along with Orbison's unique voice is still as remarkable today as it was 23 years ago. Loretta Lynn and Jack White On 2004's Grammy Award–winning 'Van Lear Rose', Loretta Lynn and Jack White, like in all great partnerships, influence each other without giving up their individuality. Lynn delivers characteristically sincere anecdotes about country family life in her distinctive, wide vowels and tremulous voice; White provides an electric-guitar backbone that is equal parts disaffected Detroit attitude and Appalachian hat tip. Still, this is a Loretta Lynn album, showcasing her life story and lyricism, her heritage and sound. And while White serves as producer and plays lead guitar, he's unable to hide his fandom — he's responsible for a rambling story about childhood illness on "Little Red Shoes" that only a major Lynn-ophile could love. The collaboration is at its best on the album's only duet, 'Portland, Oregon' — a hard-charging song about a drunken, lusty night that's laced with a butterfly-inducing trickle of slide guitar. It's so otherworldly that you don't even notice the lyrics couple together a 70-year-old and a 28-year-old. Alison Krauss and Robert Plant It could be said that 'Raising Sand' is as much a T-Bone Burnett album as it is an Alison Krauss–Robert Plant album. The perpetually besuited producer was surely the mastermind behind the disc, rounding up a killer group of old songs that went on to win the 2009 Grammy for Album of the Year. Still, without the vocals of Krauss and Plant, it would be nothing more than some really great instrumentals. That year, TIME included the collaboration in its top 10 albums of the year, writing, "The moments when Krauss abandons her precision soprano and lets loose are breathtaking, but it's Plant, toned down to a delicate mountain twang, who's the real surprise; you can actually count the moments he showboats on one finger." Eric Clapton and B.B. King Eric Clapton and B.B. King's 2000 album 'Riding with the King' was a long time in the making. The two first performed together live in 1967, when a 22-year-old Clapton was a member of the band Cream. In 1997, King released his duets album 'Deuces Wild', on which he collaborated with Clapton on the song 'Rock Me Baby.' The younger guitarist had always called King one of the biggest influences on his music, so Clapton made sure to keep hope alive for recording a full album with his idol. Eventually he finally got his wish, and 'Riding with the King' won a Grammy Award for Best Traditional Blues Album. Kanye West and Bon Iver In 2007, while Kanye West was selling out concerts and performing 'Gold Digger' for hundreds of thousands of fans, Justin Vernon (playing under the name Bon Iver) was secluding himself in a cabin in northern Wisconsin to write the heartbreak-filled album 'For Emma, Forever Ago', which he initially self-released. Three years later, Vernon assisted on 'Lost in the World' for Kanye's album 'My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy'. 'Lost in the World' is a complex track that segues from an Auto-Tuned treatment of Bon Iver's 'Woods' to a multipart-harmony, drum-heavy sing-along to Kanye's spirited rhyme section to a Gil Scott-Heron sample. Vernon also worked with West on the Jay-Z–Rick Ross–Nicki Minaj–guesting song 'Monster'. http://www.time.com/time/specials/pa...087487,00.html

08-10-2011, 06:31 PM	#2
Zoneboy RIP, I'LL NEVER FORGET YOU :( Moderator Forum Superstar Join Date: Jul 13, 2003 Location: AT HOME WISHING ALL THIS WAS JUST A DREAM AND THAT I'LL WAKE UP FROM THIS NIGHTMARE. Posts: 34,506	Not a bad list but they left off a few that are much better. It's also highly unlikely that anyone at Time magazine has any idea who Mike Oldfield is. Mike Oldfield & Barry Palmer - Crime of Passion Mike Oldfield & Maggie Reilly - Moonlight Shadow Mike Oldfield & Roger Chapman - Shadow On the Wall Mike Oldfield & Anita Hegerland - Innocent Nena & Kim Wilde - Anyplace, Anywhere, Anytime
	__________________ 'Twas The Night Before Christmas And All Through The Full House Not A Creature Was Stirring, Not Even Mighty Mouse. All My Children We're Nestled All Snug In Their Beds While Visions Of Sugarbakers Danced In Their Heads.

08-18-2011, 08:45 AM	#3
Brad Russ Member Forum Star Join Date: Feb 17, 2002 Location: Portland, Oregon Posts: 10,085	Good list! Here are some of my favorite collaborations. Amy Grant, and Peter Cetera - Next Time I Fall Natalie Cole and Nat King Cole - Unforgettable Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash - One Too Many Mornings Michael and Janet Jackson - Scream Several artists - We Are The World Carlos Santana and Michelle Branch - Game of Love Carlos Santana and Matchbox 20 - Smooth Elvis and Lisa Marie Presley - In The Ghetto Keith Green and several Christian artists - Oh Lord You're Beautiful Keith Green and Bob Dylan - Pledge My Head To Heaven Elton John and George Michael - Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Me 2Pac and Snoop Dogg - Gangsta Party Just to name a few.