Songs on albums by solo artists which are sung, in their entirety, by other singers - where the solo artists are themselves primarily singers

Message Bookmarked
Bookmark Removed

Apologies if this has been done before but I wouldn't know how to begin to search for it. I can think of three offhand:

Scott Walker, "Long About Now" (on "'Til the Band Comes Home") sung by Esther Ofarim.
*Nico, "Le Petit Chevalier" (on "Desertshore") sung by Ari Delon.
Kevin Ayers, "When Your Parents Go to Sleep" (on "Bananamour") sung by his bass player, Archie Leggett (for some reason).

(*I suspect there might be others sung by offspring, spouses etc)

Starmer: "Let the children boogie, let all the children boogie." (Tom D.), Tuesday, 5 October 2021 21:53 (two years ago) link

annoyingly the first example i think of is drake:

kendrick lamar on "buried alive"
yebba on "yebba's heartbreak"

grove street (party) direction (voodoo chili), Tuesday, 5 October 2021 21:54 (two years ago) link

lonnie lynn sr. on common's various "pop's rap" tracks

grove street (party) direction (voodoo chili), Tuesday, 5 October 2021 21:55 (two years ago) link

I've thought of another one.

Lee Hazlewood, "For a Day Like Today" (on "Cowboy in Sweden") sung by Suzi Jane Hokom.

Starmer: "Let the children boogie, let all the children boogie." (Tom D.), Tuesday, 5 October 2021 21:56 (two years ago) link

GZA, "B.I.B.L.E. (Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth)" (on Liquid Swords), performed by Killah Priest.

If you include spoken-word interludes, there's Charles Mingus on Joni Mitchell's Mingus.

Halfway there but for you, Tuesday, 5 October 2021 22:05 (two years ago) link

"I've Had It" on Like Flies on Sherbet. Sung by Jim Dickinson

glumdalclitch, Tuesday, 5 October 2021 22:09 (two years ago) link

Milton Nascimento, "Pablo" (on Milagre dos Piexes) sung by Nico Borges.

The 25 Best Songs Ever Ranked In Order (Deflatormouse), Tuesday, 5 October 2021 22:20 (two years ago) link

(xp) Ah good one, on the same album, or at least on the CD version, there's also "Baron of Love", which is sung by Ross Johnson.

Starmer: "Let the children boogie, let all the children boogie." (Tom D.), Tuesday, 5 October 2021 22:20 (two years ago) link

There’s two on Pete Townshend’s Who Came First: Ronnie Lane sings “Evolution,” and Billy Nicholls sings “Forever’s No Time At All.”

Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Tuesday, 5 October 2021 22:37 (two years ago) link

I wouldn't call him "primarily" a singer because the bass always comes first with him, but Mike Watt sang all the songs on his solo albums except for his first, Ball-Hog or Tugboat? where he sang on the first track/single "Big Train" and a couple others with an all-star cast of vocalists doing the rest:
Against the 70s - Eddie Vedder
Piss-Bottle Man - Evan Dando
Chinese Firedrill - Frank Black
Sexual Military Dynamics - Henry Rollins
Max and Wells - Mark Lanegan
Forever...One Reporter's Opinion - Pat Smear
E-Ticket Ride - Mike D
Song for Igor - Vince Meghrouni
Tell 'em, Boy! - Dave Pirner
Heartbeat - Tiffany Anders
Drove Up from Pedro, Tuff Gnarl, Sidemouse Advice - Carla Bozulich

BrianB, Tuesday, 5 October 2021 22:39 (two years ago) link

Weren't there some Buck Owens album cuts that Don Rich sang lead on, or at least was mixed higher than Buck was?

Precious, Grace, Hill & Beard LTD. (C. Grisso/McCain), Tuesday, 5 October 2021 23:52 (two years ago) link

setting aside any quibbles about bert jansch being primarily a singer, 99% sure that's roy harper doing the vocal duties on a man i'd rather be.

no lime tangier, Wednesday, 6 October 2021 02:32 (two years ago) link

What about sampled vocals, like Shree Maa on David Sylvian's "Praise"?

Halfway there but for you, Wednesday, 6 October 2021 02:46 (two years ago) link

the new Tim Heidecker album has a song sung entirely by Weyes Blood

frogbs, Wednesday, 6 October 2021 03:03 (two years ago) link

David Freiberg (backed by Paul Kantner) sings “It's Only Music" on Grace Slick’s Manhole. (I bet there are some other examples of this among that general crew)

juristic person (morrisp), Wednesday, 6 October 2021 03:19 (two years ago) link

Yeah, Grace wrote and sang "sunrise" on Kantner's Blows Against the Empire too

BrianB, Wednesday, 6 October 2021 03:38 (two years ago) link

Brian Wilson’s Gettin' In over My Head (2004) features a Carl Wilson lead vocal (recorded in the 1990s) on “Soul Searchin'.”

juristic person (morrisp), Wednesday, 6 October 2021 04:02 (two years ago) link

Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers: "I Don't Want To Fight" (on Echo) sung by Mike Campbell

Precious, Grace, Hill & Beard LTD. (C. Grisso/McCain), Wednesday, 6 October 2021 04:29 (two years ago) link

Grasscut's "Snowdown" from Everyone Was A Bird (2015) sung by Elisabeth Nygård

doug watson, Wednesday, 6 October 2021 09:59 (two years ago) link

Xxxtentacion - I don’t even speak spanish

✖✖✖ (Moka), Wednesday, 6 October 2021 10:12 (two years ago) link

peoria lunchbox blues on magnolia electric co by songs ohia, sung by scout niblett, and old black hen on the same, sung by lawrence peters

hard man, Wednesday, 6 October 2021 11:03 (two years ago) link

“Tawny Moon” from Kate Bush’s live album, sung by her son Bertie
“Jack Palance” from Discover America by Van Dyke Parks. Though this isn’t quite the same thing since it’s a snippet of a song by an entirely different artist and VDP isn’t on it at all

Vaguely Threatening CAPTCHAs, Wednesday, 6 October 2021 12:01 (two years ago) link

Pretty sure there are some Robert Wyatt tracks sung or voiced by others, and isn't there an Antony & the Johnsons number sung by Rufus Wainwright, or is it a duet? Apologies for vagueness.

fetter, Wednesday, 6 October 2021 14:53 (two years ago) link

"Le Brouillard" from Brigitte Fontaine's Comme à la radio is sung by Areski Belkacem. There may be others; he gets equal billing on some of her later albums.

obvious, Wednesday, 6 October 2021 16:00 (two years ago) link

T Bone Burnett - Image, a not very good song sung in 4 languages by Ruben Blades and others.

The 6ths and Probot probably belong in this thread, but The Alan Parsons Project doesn't.

Hideous Lump, Thursday, 7 October 2021 05:34 (two years ago) link

I listened to that Campbell-sung Petty track and it's funny because he sounds like a less-nasal Petty; casual listeners probably wouldn't have known the difference.

Precious, Grace, Hill & Beard LTD. (C. Grisso/McCain), Thursday, 7 October 2021 05:41 (two years ago) link


You must be logged in to post. Please either login here, or if you are not registered, you may register here.