I’ll admit it:
Some previous volumes of the Record Relays series…
The handoffs of superstar collaborations from one artist to the next…
…have leaned heavily on the obscure.
Not this one. This collection ought to bring nods of familiarity from most listeners.
Yes, there are a few lesser-known songs here, but more than 50 percent of this set hit the Top 20 on Billboard’s Hot 100.
Admittedly, that’s not the case with track one:
Barbra Streisand & Michael Crawford
“The Music of the Night”
Barbra Streisand’s had her share of duet partners, but few have matched her belt for belt like Broadway’s Crawford. The British actor/singer, who had the initial success with this track in the musical “The Phantom of the Opera,” teamed up with Streisand for this version on her Back to Broadway CD.
Barbra Streisand & Kim Carnes
“Make No Mistake, He’s Mine”
This duet on Streisand’s CD Emotion came out in 1985 – four years too late in terms of pop success for either artist. (It peaked at No. 51 pop, though it went Top 10 AC.) Interestingly, Carnes’ 1980 duet partner Kenny Rogers recorded this song in 1987 with Ronnie Milsap as “Make No Mistake, She’s Mine” and scored a No. 1 country hit.
Kenny Rogers & Kim Carnes
“Don’t Fall in Love With a Dreamer”
KennyRogers was incredibly hot in 1980, with four hits that went Top 10 country and AC and Top 20 pop. I love the gravelly vocals that Rogers and Carnes bring to this No. 4 pop hit, providing a grit that ballads often lack.
Kenny Rogers & Dolly Parton
“Islands in the Stream”
Between 1980 and 1983, Rogers pulled off four Top 20 duets with four different women: Kim Carnes, Dottie West (“What Are We Doin’ in Love?” in which he was uncredited but unmistakable), Sheena Easton (the wretched Top 10 remake of Bob Seger’s “We’ve Got Tonight”) and this Number One smash, written by the Bee Gees, and featured on Rogers’ CD “Eyes That See in the Dark.”
(If you want, you can cite “Share Your Love With Me,” featuring Gladys Knight, as a fifth; I don’t, because she’s with the Pips, and their appearance is more background vocals than a duet.)
Dolly Parton & Steve Perry
“Open Arms”
Perry sang lead with Journey on the original of this composition, which hit No. 2 in 1982. He teamed up with Parton to remake it on her 2023 “Rockstar” CD. Sometimes, it’s hard to hear him as Parton goes for Streisand-level belting at several points.
Kenny Loggins & Steve Perry
“Don’t Fight It”
The first single from Loggins’ 1982 solo set High Adventure, it went Top 20 pop. It’s an enjoyable romp, but I do admit I prefer later singles from the album “Heart to Heart” and “Welcome to Heartlight.”
Kenny Loggins & Michael McDonald
“This Is It”
As the ’70s gave way to the ’80s, Loggins was scaling the Top 40 with this track, eventually peaking at No. 11. The Loggins-McDonald vocal production earned a Top 20 crossover to the R&B charts.
James Ingram & Michael McDonald
“Yah Mo B There”
If McDonald thought a Top 20 R&B hit was an accomplishment, this 1984 track must have been really something: It went Top 5 R&B as well as Top 20 pop. It’s on Ingram’s CD It’s Your Night.
Donna Summer & James Ingram
“Mystery of Love”
A track on her eponymous album, produced by Quincy Jones, it bears all his hallmarks, including swooping background vocals from Ingram. I never understood Geffen Records’ singles strategy for this album; straight-up pop-rock tracks like this and the Bruce Springsteen-penned “Protection” were cast aside for the sleepy AC “The Woman in Me” and the spacey, offbeat “State of Independence.”
Brooklyn Dreams & Donna Summer
“Heaven Knows”
You think you know this Top 5 pop hit, a collaboration between the Queen of Disco and singer Joe Esposito. You know one version of it.
Listen to this version (on the accompanying Spotify set) from the 1979 Brooklyn Dreams set Sleepless Nights. Esposito and Summer flip roles from the hit single for a version that sounds a bit rockier.
Brenda Russell & Joe Esposito
“Piano in the Dark”
This is just one of those timeless classics; it sounded like no other Top 10 hit from 1988, and radio was all the better for it. The duet brought Russell her biggest hit ever and first time in the Top 40 since “So Good, So Right” in 1979. It also marked Esposito’s only hit under his own name.
Brenda Russell & Sheila E.
“Walkin’ in New York”
Despite the fact that Russell was a “two-hit wonder” on the pop chart, she kept on writing and performing into the 21st century. This comes from her 2000 collection Paris Rain. Sheila E. brings her jazzy percussion work to the track.
Sheila E. & Prince
“A Love Bizarre”
he single version of this isn’t available on Spotify (other than a live version from the Ringo Starr All-Stars tour, on which Sheila E. played). But the full, 12-minute version from the album Romance 1600 is, and it shows off a broader range of Ms. Escovedo’s talents. (It’s hard for me to hear this without thinking of the mondegreen that one of my sister’s high school friends gave it – she thought it was about the store World Bazaar.)
Prince & Sheena Easton
“U Got the Look”
Unlike their previous team-up on Easton’s “Sugar Walls” (a track I loathed almost as much as her “We’ve Got Tonight” duet), this track completely cooks. I love the attitude Easton gives off in both the track and its video, as someone not easily impressed with the Purple One. It gives the collaboration more tension and groove. From his Sign o’ the Times” collection (BTW, this track also features Sheila E.)
Sheena Easton & Babyface
“The Lover in Me”
The success of her work with Prince pushed Easton in a more R&B-oriented direction than her early 1980s pop/AC. In 1988, she teamed up with the hot production team of L.A. Reid and Babyface for the album The Lover in Me. The title track soared to No. 2 in March 1989.
Des’ree & Babyface
“Fire”
The singer/songwriter/producer had cooled off just a bit by 1998, when this cover of the Bruce Springsteen composition (and No. 2 hit for the Pointer Sisters) appeared on the soundtrack of the romcom Hav Plenty.
Terence Trent D’Arby & Des’ree
“Delicate”
The final Hot 100 single for the artist now known as Sananda Maitreya went to No. 74 on the Hot 100 but did better overseas, hitting the Top 20 in Britain, Iceland and the Netherlands. It preceded the massive success Des’ree would have the following year with “You Gotta Be.”
Here’s the Spotify set for this volume. (All of them were available this time, so no YouTube links!):
So, how many of them did you know this time?
Share your answers and thoughts on this set, in the comments.
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6 for 17. An improvement for me, but still, at 35%, that would be a solid F.
I should have audited the class.
I knew 5 by name, and recognized 2 more when listening. I guess duets weren’t my thing.
Unless, of course, Joey Ramone was involved.
There’s 5 of them I recognise in this form. Along with one more that I’m familiar with in its original form; Michael Crawford with Sarah Brightman on Music Of The Night. A #7 UK hit, Phantom Of The Opera was a big deal here.
I had no idea Piano In The Dark was a duet. I haven’t heard it in a long time and don’t remember a male voice on it. Over here it was released as a solo effort by Brenda Russell.
Obscure duets, the search for, can be fun.
This is my personal favorite.
Admiral Freebee, a legendary(Note: I think he’s legendary.) Belgium singer-songwriter, paired up with Emmylou Harris in 2006 on “Coming of the Knight”, from his third album Wild Dreams of New Beginning. This song came out six years before Sweden’s First Aid Kit’s tribute song “Emmylou”.
That last held note of “Music Of The Night”? god-tier.
I had heard 13 of the 17 before. I was young in the 80s!
I’m pretty sure the only time I heard that Carnes/Streisand song was when I was doing my “listen to every song that’s hit the Hot 100” project.
My mother is a huge Michael Crawford fan, so I’ve heard that song way too many times.
How well did your “listen to every song that’s hit the Hot 100” project go anyway, Zeusaphone?
Got 10 of these just by reading the names of the songs, a new high here, woo hoo! Incidentally, Brenda Russell’s “So Good, So Right” deserved a top 10 placement in 1979 as much as “Piano in the Dark” did in 1988, IMO.