Memorable background vocals

[voodoobassist]

Some tasty stuff here,...

 

[roccobass]

Marcy Levy on Eric Clapton's Slowhand album. In particular, The Core. She's pretty talented.

 

[LowActionHero]

LOTS of them.

 

[two fingers]

Sting on "Money for Nothing" by Dire Straits

Done here at Live Aid

 

[P-Belly Evans]

Absolutely anything P-Funk related. Wonderful bv's all the time. I picked this coz it's the first one that came into my head

 

[two fingers]

Also Sting on Phil Collins' "Long Way to Go".

 

[Bonafide]

Long is the struggle, hard is the fight...

 

[Carl Hillman]

The Jackson 5 singing 'Doo Dee Wop' on Stevie Wonder's funky rebuke of Richard Nixon...

 

[roccobass]

My choice for the shortest stint in a song, but I will forever remember it, goes to Mary Sterpka towards the last minute or so of the James Gang "Midnight Man". It just shimmers. Truly, I love the whole structure of the backgrounds. It kind of reminds me what you'd hear in a Hawaiian song. IMO.

 

[Bonafide]

Standin' at the old turn row ya'll...

 

[Spectrum]

Adele Bertei kills it in this, the best version of Hyperactive. Killer synth bass line as well.

 

[Todd Hamby]

Don't let the sun go down on me.

 

[Kipp Harrington]

This is a spinoff of a couple of other threads. I didn't see any previous ones regarding it, so here goes.

Ever hear a song that would be so incomplete without the background vocals? Ones that, you want sing instead the lead vocals. There's a bazillion. I'm listening to one now. Anybody else, please offer up!

I think the gals in Skynyrd did a nice job.

This is a spinoff of a couple of other threads. I didn't see any previous ones regarding it, so here goes.

Ever hear a song that would be so incomplete without the background vocals? Ones that, you want sing instead the lead vocals. There's a bazillion. I'm listening to one now. Anybody else, please offer up!

 

[Bass-ball]

Not a harmony part, but just try to imagine 'Gimme Shelter' without Merrie Clayton's wailing, haunting part. Still gives me shivers all these years later.

Came to say this. I might even add that the real lead vocal in that song is Ms Clayton herself. (Not a fan of Mick's singing anyway).

I like the way Seal's background vocals always sound.

Peter Gabriel picks really good background singers too.

Same with post-Waters Floyd stuff.

 

[Pdaddy1978]

Zappas "I am the slime" and "Montana " wouldn't be the same without Tina Turner and the Iketts.
The Pointer sisters on Alice Coopers "Teenage lament" , and anything else they ever sang on.
The gals who sang on Humble Pies "Eat it"...can't think of their name right now.

 

[Pings Bass]

https://www.udiscovermusic.com/stories/the-i-threes-bob-marleys-reggae-singers/

 

[pglaser01]

Pretty much every Beach Boys song

 

[Komadinic]

Ed O'Brien really changed the atmosphere of the song with his back vocals on this one

 

[GretschWretch]

Don't know about background vocals, but for background mayhem this pretty much takes the cake.

 

[ELG60]

Edit: This is the definitive version of The Letter:


Edit 2.0: