Famous Artists Who Didn’t Mind Doing Background Vocals

It’s not often that a vocalist who adds what is called ‘background vocals’ or harmonies get recognition, but when that singer is themselves a star, it’s a fairly big deal. Here are more famous singers who dropped by the recording studio to add their two cents, or harmonies to a song.

“Fame” by the late David Bowie has the background vocals of the late Beatle John Lennon. John admired David and John happened to be in the neighborhood when the song was being laid down in the recording studio.

The Everly Brothers are on the song ‘Graceland” by Paul Simon. The Everly Brothers became big fans of Simon and Garfunkel, happily adding their vocals to Paul’s classic song.

The late Dusty Springfield was called by the Elton John camp to sing on an upcoming Elton John album. After sitting in on the recording session Dusty raised her hand and told Elton that she found a song that would be fun to harmonize with. “The B*tch is Back” is the song she chose, and if you listen carefully you’ll hear her beautiful voice all over the bridge and verses.

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Photo credit: Capitol/UMe