Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga’s much anticipated collaboration Cheek to Cheek drops on Tuesday. The two are as unlikely a duo as it gets, and yet their debut album is surprisingly brilliant: a cheeky throwback record that that offers Bennett the chance to connect to younger fans, and gives Gaga the chance to showcase those fine pipes, often masked under layers and layers of dirty synths. In light of the wonderfully strange pairing, we look at 10 other odd couples who made beautiful music together.
What’s missing from our list? Add your suggestion in the comments below.
Kendrick Lamar and Imagine Dragons
The Grammys are known for throwing artists together and praying for something magical. The results vary from “meh” to “terrible.” But their instincts were wildly correct when pairing Imagine Dragons with Kendrick Lamar. Lamar certainly didn’t need any help in boosting his image, but collaborating with him helped Imagine Dragons gain new fans who had previously dismissed the group as “that band from those car commercials.” Their remix of the bro-y Radioactive with Lamar’s spitfire, mind-blowing rap verses finally proved that rap and rock could not only work together, but could make truly memorable music.
Kanye West and Bon Iver
Kanye has proved to be of this generation’s most inventive and unique performers; experimenting, innovating, and creating music that is thoughtful (Homecoming, featuring Chris Martin) and groundbreaking (Stronger, featuring Daft Punk’s Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger). Lost in the World, Kanye’s first collaboration with Bon Iver (Justin Vernon), was a timely and haunting conclusion to his last masterpiece, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. Vernon’s haunting voice and lyrics about alienation pair perfectly with West’s sharp verse, as well as additional left-field samples from Manu Dibango’s Soul Makossa and Gil Scott-Heron’s Comment No 1.
James Blake and Chance the Rapper
Consider Blake and Chance to be the younger, fresher version of Bon Iver and Kanye West. Soulful, lonely singer-songwriter plus cheeky, introspective rapper equals winning combination. This track, however, was built from Blake’s synthy yet occasionally blank-sounding Life Round Here and turned into a complete gem. Chance’s sparkling flow is a perfect match to the starkness of Blake’s production work. This collaboration appears to have been a winner for both performers as they soon after announced they would live together as roommates in Los Angeles to work on more music.
Jamie xx and Gil Scott-Heron
Who would have thought the percussionist of an uber-buzzy British band would not only collaborate with a spoken word artist who first came to prominence in the 60s, but create an entire remix of his work? Jamie xx (Jamie Smith) and Gil Scott-Heron seem like the least likely of duos, and yet We’re New Here was a stunning masterwork of remixes that were perfect for dance floors and late nights. Smith was originally approached by XL head honcho Richard Russell to remix Scott-Heron’s album and the two communicated with each other through letters to rework material. Smith’s post-dubstep flourishes turned Scott-Heron’s stunning 2010 studio album, I’m New Here, into an undeniable peak moment for both performers.
Phantogram and Big Boi
Anyone that knows Big Boi knows the Outkast rapper has outré tastes. For one, he’s probably the biggest Kate Bush fan in the world. And based on his numerous collaborations with New York-based Phantogram, he’s also clearly a fan of angular, trippy synth-pop. Objectum Shalama is one of their strongest collaborations, a throwback 80s funk jam mixing Big Boi’s Objectum Sexuality with Phantogram on the chorus and samples of Shalamar’s A Night to Remember. Clearly meant to be spun on dance floors for maximum booty-shaking everywhere, Objectum Shalamar is a flashy and sexy moment for both.
St Vincent and David Byrne
St Vincent (Annie Clark) and Byrne’s 2012 album, Love This Giant, was a winning moment of collaboration for the two. For Clark, it offered her a chance to break out of the complex yet isolating art rock of her previous album, Strange Mercy, and embrace more rhythm and funk (a change that was also felt with her next self-titled album). For Byrne, it was a chance to reconnect and collaborate on a scale previously unheard of (at least since the demise of Talking Heads) for the performer. Recorded for nearly three years, the results were sharp, slinky and downright fun.
Kate Bush and Peter Gabriel
Written by Gabriel, this duet of desperation and hope is also one of the most commercially successful tracks in Bush’s discography. That should come as no surprise to Bush’s dedicated and feverish fan base, who hold an intense appreciation for the musician’s witchy, literary and complex deep cuts which rarely get as much airplay as Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God) and Hounds of Love. This quiet and contemplative collaboration, however, fits in nicely with both performers’ past work while still pushing the boundaries of their respective genres, mashing previously under-utilized instrumental and vocal flourishes like soulful R&B crooning and downtempo rhythms.
Michael Jackson and Paul McCartney
When two of the greatest artists of all time collaborate, only one of two results is possible: the most unfortunate and disappointing music imaginable (like Lou Reed and Metallica), or the most enjoyable and smartest earworms. Thankfully, Jackson and McCartney proved to be a winning match (at least until that whole “purchasing the entire Beatles catalogue” betrayal came to a head). Say Say Say from McCartney’s album Tug of War and The Girl is Mine from Jackson’s Thriller were potent early snapshots of how pop, rock and R&B would meld seamlessly during the next two decades and firmly dominate the airwaves.
Santana and Rob Thomas
There was a point in time in which you couldn’t escape Smooth. Top 40 radio, R&B, adult contemporary – nearly every radio station gave the Santana and Rob Thomas collaboration ample airtime. But that more than anything proves how strong of a cross-collaboration the two created. Smooth was a song for everyone, it seems, fitting in perfectly with Thomas’ mopey alt-rock in Matchbox Twenty, your parents’ traditional R&B and your pop-leaning sensibilities. And there’s no denying that chorus: one of the best and most melodic from the past 20 years.
Aerosmith and Run DMC
Walk This Way will forever be known as the collaboration of all collaborations, and rightfully so. This genre-bending work (and its equally charming video) were a perfect response to the growing tension between rock music and the rising rap genre in the 1980s. It’s amazing to think that so many artists from different genres are hesitant to collaborate nearly 30 years later, but perhaps times are changing based on the recent works that prove the seemingly disparate connections between genres are quickly eroding.
