Isn’t it fun when your favourite artists do a collab? There are not too many things that get the average music fan more excited than finding out two or more artists that you love to listen to are getting together to make a sweet little melodic baby. However, sometimes even the biggest artists produce collabs that get lost to history. Here’s three to try and jog your memory.
One Of THOSE Nights – The Cab (featuring Panic! At The Disco & Fall Out Boy)
The song that inspired this article. Honestly, nothing has ever made me feel more of a fake fan than finding out Brendon Urie and Patrick Stump had been on the same track and I didn’t know about it. And it’s a real shame that this song doesn’t get the recognition it deserves because it’s bloody great. What really makes this song work so well is how well the three men’s vocals work together while also being distinct enough to offer something to the track. Alex DeLeon’s relatively clean voice intermingles so nicely with Stump at his vibrato-loving best in the unendingly catchy earworm of a chorus, balanced by early Urie’s raw, “not every song is a Broadway song” voice in the comparatively softer post-chorus. It’s just a stellar song that should’ve launched The Cab as a major player in pop-punk, and on re-listening back to the album Whisper War, which this song is the opening track on, it makes me very sad that it didn’t.
Half of My Heart – John Mayer (featuring Taylor Swift)
Okay, I’m not sure just how forgotten this is but John Mayer only won a Grammy for his solo performance of this song so shut up. Back in 2009 when Taylor Swift was just a Christian country girl doing Christian country things, she appeared on this adorable not-Christian (but still pretty country) ditty with America’s answer to the heartthrob-guy-with-a-guitar phase of music John Mayer and honestly, it’s pretty good. The song tells the story of battling with the struggle of fully committing to his partner out of his insecurities about love, backed up by the clean guitar tones typical of a Mayer song. The song peaked at 25 in the Billboard Hot 100, dropping out within two weeks. But hey, Mayer did win a Grammy for it two years later so it’s not all bad I suppose?
Eaten Alive – Diana Ross (featuring Michael Jackson)
I could’ve gone with quite a few MJ songs here, such as Get It (alongside Stevie Wonder) or his duet of There Must Be More To Life Than This with Freddie Mercury (not released until after both men’s death), but I instead decided to go with this number with Diana Ross from 1985. With Jackson still flying in his “spooky” phase, he teamed up with Ross on this song, the title track of her album no less, after hearing a demo and believing that the chorus could be improved. Fun fact, this song was originally written by Barry Gibb of the Bee-Gees, so no shade thrown there Michael. The Thriller influence can be heard throughout this song, particularly in the percussion, and it wouldn’t sound out of place at all on anybody’s Halloween playlist. However, the issue very quickly arose of how little Diana Ross sounded like Diana Ross in her vocal performance and the song plummeted, outshone by Ross’s other single Chain Reaction, and became a huge disappointment, only hitting number 77 in the Hot 100. For all the incredible artists MJ has collaborated with over the years, of course, the one we all remember has to be with damn Rockwell.
What other big artist features have been forgotten over the years? Be sure to shout at me what I too have forgotten about in the comments below!
