411mania.com: Music - The 411 Music Top Five 05.05.09: Top 5 Best Collaborative Efforts

Ben Czajkowski

The definition of collaborative effort is vast. There is so much in this genre that it can encompass. This week's topic stretches into the realm of artists from established efforts working with others to create some of the best music that the modern genres have ever seen. This week, I've tried to select different facets of collaborative efforts.

5. Santana ft. Rob Thomas - "Smooth" (Vocals provided for an entire song): This song was all over the radio ten years ago. It spent twelve weeks atop the Billboard Charts. According to Wikipedia, the song was ranked at #2 overall in the Hot 100 and the #1overall rock track. Two powerhouse players in the music industry coming together to create an amazing piece of music that can be grooved to. Even instrumentally, the track stands alone as perfection. And the girl in the music video? Fucking smokin'. She was how I started my day every morning for many, many VH1/MTV cycles.

4. Eminem ft. Dido or Elton John - "Stan" (Sampling of another artist's work): For the last several weeks, I've brought up the fact that I think Eminem's best work is done when he samples some another artists, most notably female. He did it with "Toy Soldiers" and "Sing For The Moment" (Steven Tyler is pretty feminine. Dude looks like a lady! So my premise stands). But "Stan" stands out as the best of these efforts. This psycho-dramatic song about obsessive fandom and artistic responsibility might stand alone as a solo effort; however, Eminem performed it so flawlessly not only with Dido herself, but also with Elton John. Hell, the latter performance was AMAZING, one of the best live performances in the history of recorded music.

3. Mariah Carey and Boyz II Men - "One Sweet Day" (Duet): In the same vein as the last song, "One Sweet Day" has a similar emotional poignancy that strums at even the most cynical of heart strings. The Boyz and Carey wrote the song together and mesh together nearly perfectly. There's so much gravity in the lyrics, and the delivery sends shivers down my spine. It should be a staple on every R&B playlist, and it is definitely one of the best duets of all time.

2. Queens of the Stone Age ft. David Grohl (on drums) - "No One Knows" (Instrumentals provided in some aspect): David Grohl. Best drummer of all time. Hands down. Watching him just beat the fuck out of his kit on this song. You can feel the intensity behind each stroke that he makes as he pounds away. "No One Knows" showcases exactly why I feel that he belongs behind a kit almost as much as he belongs behind a mic. He is such an all around talented musician that I would be amiss if I didn't include him somewhere on my list, with his hands in so many things, over the years.

1. Various Artists - Roadrunner 25th Anniversary (The entire CD): It might be easy to pull together artists for a tribute album, covering some of the best works of any given artist. But how hard is it to pull together dozens of band members, seemingly randomly assign groups, and tell them to put out something unique? Sounds like a high school or college sociology project. Roadrunner managed to pull it off almost seemlessly, creating an entire CD of near-flawless hits that can appeal across several genres of music. And they did it by pulling from their own ranks, stretching back to their inception.

Aarón Mayagoitia

5. Jeff Beck & Rod Stewart – Truth and Beck-Ola: The very first two albums Stewart recorded and the very first two Jeff Beck solo albums. Both albums are a feast for blues and rock fans alike. Stewart's unique voice blended magically with Beck's trailblazing style of playing. You won't listen to Rod rock out more than he does on these two albums.

4. Deep Purple & The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra – Concerto for Group and Orchestra: I won't get into details about who did the first rock/orchestra thing, but I will say that of all of them, this is my favorite one. Conductor Malcolm Arnold had a great deal to do with the project coming to life, since other classical uptights at the time couldn't stand the idea of an orchestra playing with rockers.

3. Metallica & King Diamond – "Mercyful Fate": I'm talking about this version:

Oh yeah, gets me every time.

2. Pretenders & Willie Nelson – "Both Sides of Goodbye": A bonus track from their latest album Break Up the Concrete. I couldn't help but feel like breaking into tears when I listened to this for the first time. Willie Nelson and Chrissie Hynde pour their hearts out on this slow country ballad that's way too strong a track to be left out as a bonus.

1. Paul McCartney & Youth – Electric Arguments: The latest Fireman album is a masterpiece, an album so varied and colorful that it could even be considered one of McCartney's best pieces of work ever. Whatever producer Youth does to get Paul's creative juices flowing should be done on several more albums; who knows what they're capable of coming up with next.

Chris Crowing

To my mind, anything which isn't a total solo effort is by definition a collaboration - for all their seeming stability, the work of Metallica, U2, Tool of whoever are the result of a collaboration of a number of musicians. However, for the purposes of this list, I'll select my top 5 'one off' collaborations by artists who's day job is in other acts etc.

Honorable Mentions: Everything by This is Menace (highly recommended!)

5. Death in Vegas feat Iggy Pop - "Aisha": A customarily tidy production and writing job from the Death in Vegas boys is lifted above the level of 'just another hook fuelled dance tune' to a brooding masterpiece by Iggy's none-more charismatic vocals. A perfect example of a simple approach working, the guitar line chugs along with the vocals, drums, bass and last the keyboards coming in to add momentum, then dropping to sparseness in their appropriate and perfectly timed places. The bass line is hookier than hell, and the lyrics are hilarious/threatening depending on your point of view - and the song is probably my favorite all time 'getting ready to go out' - nothing puts you in the mood for a club better than 'what am I - I'm a murderer' followed by an drawn out death scream. The perfect mix of rock, electronica and just a hint of disco. And murderers. Just awesome!

4. Probot (Dave Grohl, Feat Cronos) - "Centuries of Sin": I was going to go for Max Cavelera's turn on "Red War" (Lemmy's "Shake Your Blood" was close too) but digging up the Probot album and taking a listen, this song gives me a bigger grin. Just some pure, old school groovesome metal with some semi-nonsense lyrics about violence, damnation and all that fun stuff. This gets the vote over "Red War" because Grohl's drums are more impressive, Cronos comes across more entertainingly than Max (which wasn't how I remembered it, but I'm going with my current feeling) and because the core riff and general tone of the song is more fun. Dammit, it's Dave Grohl playing drums with the guy from VENOM singing - that just too cool!

3. Peeping Tom feat. Dub Trio - "Were Not Alone": Mike Patton is responsible for more awesome vocal performances in more styles than almost anyone who isn't Kate Bush - throw in the awesomely talented Dub Trio guys (who were brilliant when I saw them supporting Skindred.) This song has everything for the discerning Patton fan, from an implausibly high vocal, through a sweeping arena filling chorus and some off tempo reggae tinged beats from the Trio. Simply a perfectly put together track that always makes me smile.

2. Deftones feat Maynard James Keenan - "Passenger": Take two of the most iconic voices of the 1990s and put them together on one of the best tracks from the first great album of the noughties. Sold? I've always seen this song as a sequel of sorts to "Be Quiet And Drive (Far Away)" with the 'this time won't you please / drive faster" line. The sweeping momentum of the music allows Chino and Maynard the room to play off of each other, and with two such amazing singers playing off each other at the peak of their powers, the result was never going to be anything but amazing.

1. Linkin Park & Jay-Z - "Points of Authority / 99 Problems / One Step Closer": I've always liked Linkin Park, and Jay-Z has always been one of the big name rappers that I've had time for. What's more I've got real nostalgia for the 'nu-metal' period (everyone does for those years between 17 and 22 when everything seemed new and shiny) and with my no.2 pick, this comes out as one of the best 'collaborations' of that period, when they were relatively common. Sure, this is the 'pop' choice of the two, but I've always liked this track, and it actually manages to improve on the sing/shout dynamic of the original "One Step Closer" by adding in Jay-Z and Shinoda's smoothly delivered rap lines, and balancing Chester's 'everything you say to me...' with the '99 problems' line. Just really well put together dumb dance floor filling fun, and there is nothing in the world wrong with that!

Tom Santoro

5. Leaders of the New School & A Tribe Called Quest - "The Scenario": Busta Rhymes and the Leaders appeared on the this track on The Low End Theory album. The beats, the delivery and the lyrics are all top notch. Out of all the hip hop collaborations, this one is by far the best and one of my favorite songs of all time.

4. USA for Africa - "We Are the World": Just for the mere fact it got every top musician at the time to lend their talents to the song is impressive. Kudos to Quincy Jones for getting all the artists to get around lawyers and agents and the like to do something good. I don't see anything like this happening again because there is too much ego among today's artists. Oh, yeah Africans are still poor and hungry.

3. Run DMC & Aerosmith - "Walk This Way": Really this is mostly a cover with Steve Tyler and Joe Perry guesting on their own song. The combination helped bring rap into the living rooms of millions of suburban teens through MTV. It also helped extend the career of Aerosmith who had long been forgotten after years of substance abuse.

2. Michael Jackson featuring Eddie Van Halen on Guitar - "Beat It": The addition of Eddie Van Halen playing a scorching guitar solo helped bring Jackson a wider audience. Coming off the synth pop of "Billie Jean" and the other collaboration with Paul McCartney on "The Girl is Mine", Jackson released straight rocker. Obviously, Quincy Jones spared no expense getting the absolute best to play on "Thriller" and that is why the song has endured for so long (crappy cover by Fall Out Boy and John Mayer not withstanding).

1. David Bowie & Queen - "Under Pressure": Hands down the best collaboration. A timeless bass line and two legendary singers. The singers fit perfectly together as they alternate vocals. Bowie's slow delivery and Mercury's passion make this song great.

Dan Wilcox

5. Seether feat. Amy Lee - "Broken" (2004): The original version of this track, written by Seether vocalist Shaun Morgan, was pretty crappy. You can find it on the band's album Disclaimer. Enter Amy Lee of Evanescence fame, add a few electric guitars and violin sections and you have on your hands one hell of a collaboration. Morgan's is a voice that is pretty hit or miss with me, but I think this track features one of his strongest vocal performances. Amy Lee's is a voice people tend to love or hate, and personally I love it. Even though this track was recorded well before the two ever began dating, I think their voices work well together and all-in-all this makes for a kick-ass collaboration.

4. Michael Jackson and Paul McCartney - "The Girl Is Mine" (1982): Upon its initial release (as the first single from the greatest album of all time, Thriller), "The Girl Is Mine" was not well received, and while its perhaps more appreciated these days, I still think it's pretty underrated. This is Michael Jackson and Paul McCartney, two of the greatest pop acts of all time collaborating on an absolute gem of a song. Yes, it's a little sappy and cheesy, but at the same time its flawlessly awesome. I love Paul's vocal on the second verse, and the interchange between the two vocals as the song climaxes. While it may not go down as one of Jackson's best songs, it's a track that I consider and underappreciated classic and one that I'll never get tired of hearing.

3. Linkin Park and Jay-Z - "Numb/Encore" (2004): This track was of course taken from the album Collision Course, a 6-track EP of mash-ups of songs by Linkin Park and Jay-Z. While I think that the majority of the tracks from the album are pretty uninspired and ultimately forgettable, this track was a little gem and became a pretty big success worldwide. As was the case with most of the songs on Collision Course, the whole song was re-recorded to make the verses fit the beat better, but the take retained all the elements that made both songs so good individually in the first place, including John Legend's back-up vocals from Jay-Z's "Encore." This is definitely a track, however, where the total is greater than the sum of its parts, and for my money is one of the greatest collaborations between a rock and a rap artist you'll find. Shame about the rest of the album, however.

2. Aerosmith and Run-DMC - "Walk This Way" (1986): When one thinks of "great collaborations", one immediately has to think of "Walk This Way." When this collaboration was first suggested, Run-DMC didn't even have a clue who Aerosmith were, let alone what this track would mean not just for both artists, but for the future of music as a whole. The release of this collaboration would open up a whole new genre, and a wide range of possibilities for artists. Rap rock was born, and now rock and pop acts saw the possibility of using hip hop elements in their music, and that would pretty much change music forever. While this may not have been the first recording of its kind, it's certainly a milestone and it opened up a lot of doors for other rap artists, as rap was now on its way to becoming part of the mainstream. I won't lie, this song tends to get on my nerves a little these days, but there's no denying its importance and original greatness.

1. Eminem feat. Dido - "Stan" (1999): Taken from The Marshall Mathers LP and featuring a sample of the Dido song "Thank You", "Stan" is not only my favorite collaboration of all time, but also one of the greatest hip hop tracks of all time, a tale of a devoted but obsessive fan who writes to Em without response, and eventually kills himself by driving a car over a bridge. I'm describing the song, but you've all heard it, it's a classic. Eminem's delivery in this track is pretty much flawless, and Dido is fantastic on the chorus, with each element, the chorus and the verses, blending together seamlessly. I love all the references to previous Eminem tracks, as well as the nod to Phil Collins' "In The Air Tonight." While we're here, it's worth mentioning that the video for this track is pretty great itself, and that if I'd included any honorable mentions in this list, I may have just given a nod to the Eminem and Elton John version of this track, which is well worth a listen if you haven't heard it already.

Matt Shoemaker

5. Caliban ft. Anders Friden of In Flames- "I See The Fallen Sky": Off of Caliban's 2007 album, The Awakening, this track is only available on the Japan bonus edition. Friden handles the verses, while Caliban's Andreas Dorner and Denis Schmidt sing the clean choruses. Friden's emotional approach to the verses make this song very haunting, and the final verse builds up into his trademark tortured screams, and Caliban's vocals and powerful music make for an incredible collaboration between two awesome bands.

4. Amon Amarth ft. Roope Latvala of Children of Bodom: Latvala lends his epic guitar skills to Amon Amarth for the title track off of the band's latest album, Twilight of the Thunder God. Latvala blends an incredibly technical, scorching solo into an already incredibly fast song without really detracting too much from the rest of the band. While it's a short lived solo, it's definitely a crown jewel on an already incredible track.

3. 36 Crazyfists ft. Howard Jones of Killswitch Engage- "Elysium": Howard Jones can be a little goofy at times, but this song shows of his talents perfectly. With only a few lines in the song, Howard makes them count. His presence on the song, both through his screams and pretty unique vocals in the chorus, make for an interesting collaboration.

2. The Cast of Roadrunner United - "Annihilation By The Hands of God": This is more of a personal preference off the album, but even just by pure merit of the band members, this collaboration is epic. Members of some of the biggest death metal bands in history. Deicide, Cannibal Corpse, Disincarnate, Death, Testament, and numerous others are present in this heavy as hell mix of adrenaline and hate. Between Glen Benton's terrifyingly powerful vocals, some truly brutal guitar work, and incredible drumming by Slipknot's Joey Jordison, this is an incredible collection of musical talent.

3. Austrian Death Machine - Total Brutal: Yeah. The whole album. And it is technically a collaboration. Tim Lambesis works with Chad Ackerman (of Destroy The Runner) and various other studio artists to produce one of my favorite albums of 2008. Every song is gold. The lyrics are simple enough to yell along to, the music is brutal as all get-out, and the Arnold impersonations by Ackerman are pretty damn spot on. Aside from being one of the best collaborations ever, this is one of my all time favorite albums.

Hey, 411Mania friends! Coming to you from Cambodia... hello, all! I'm going strictly duets here.

5. "The One You Love to Hate" - Rob Halford/ Bruce Dickinson: Who did not want to hear this one? Bruce appears on Rob's album. The song is pretty good. The concept blows the roof loose. My only complaint? I wish there was less distortion, so you could hear Bruce and Rob cleaner. But I'm not complaining that much.

4. "Hunger Strike" - Eddie Vedder/ Chris Cornell or "Exploited Medley" - Ice T/ Slayer: The well known one from Temple of the Dog's sole release, tribute to deceased Mother Love Bone vocalist, Andrew. Eddie does most of the voals here. The rest of the album is actually Chris. They come together nicely. As a tie, on the soundtrack for the movie Judgement Night, there was that "wacky"concept. Let's bring rappers and metal dudes together. This medley of the Exploited with Ice T and Tom singing... very cool.

3. "Go" - Ogre/ En Esche: Industrial artists are known to collaborate. These two, one from KMFDM and the other from Skinny Puppy, appeared on this Pigface track. It's a great tune, with some fine samples from Drugstore Cowboy. At once, creepy and cool.

2. "Äin't No Nice Guy" - Ozzy Osborune/ Lemmy: Whose song is it? Ozzy's or Lemmy's? Does it matter? Nope. Ozzy and Lemmy both have collaborated with many a fellow musician. Put the two together, and you get this tough, slightly sentimental gem.

1. "Ünder Pressure" - David Bowie/Freddie Mercury: Well, I of course had to include a David Bowie here. It's an awesome song, and among the other artists he's done duets with, you had your pick... Mick Jagger, the Pet Shop Boys, Tina Turner, Trent Reznor, Bing Crosby (ha!), Iggy Pop, and so on and so forth. Here's the winner. These are two musical powerhouses.

Posted By: Jesse Coy (Guest) on May 05, 2009 at 09:43 AM