5 Musicians You Never Knew Had Cameos on Famous Songs
Rock stars are kind of like preschoolers: They just love to hang out and play with their toys together. The more famous they get, the more likely those collaborations are to be publicized, but sometimes, it’s more fun to just hang out in the back and your buddy. Like when…
John Lennon Sang Backup on David Bowie’s ‘Fame’It’s wild enough that when you hear the high-pitched refrain of the word “Fame” on the same-named song, you’re hearing John Lennon, but it’s only fitting, because he came up with the whole dang hook. In 1974, Bowie tracked Lennon down in New York to beg him to jam, and the result was Lennon singing the word “aim” over a riff created by Bowie’s guitarist, which Bowie just changed slightly to be a little more thematically resonant. Boy, things would have been a lot different if Lennon hadn’t been so easy to hunt down.
Prince Played Keyboards on Stevie Nicks’ ‘Stand Back’If you’ve noticed that Stevie Nicks’ 1983 hit “Stand Back” sounds a lot like “Little Red Corvette,” that’s because she was listening to the Prince song when she got the idea. She decided to call Prince up (“because I’m Stevie Nicks”) to let him know, and “he was there in 20 minutes, and he played (keyboard) on ‘Stand Back,’ and he was there an hour and a half, and then he left.” Prince gave Stevie Nicks the most Stevie Nicks encounter of her life.
Flea and Dave Navarro Played Alanis Morissette’s ‘You Oughta Know’When Alanis Morissette needed help putting together the quintessential work of female rage, she called… the Red Hot Chili Peppers? According to Dave Navarro, then the band’s guitarist, Morissette only had the vocals written when he and bassist Flea came into the studio, and “we basically jammed until we found something we were both happy with,” laying down the track on the spot. Next time you hear it, tell the person nearest to you that it’s your favorite Red Hot Chili Peppers song.
Justin Vernon Played Triangle on Taylor Swift’s ‘Ivy’Taylor Swift and Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon are longtime collaborators, and he’s all over her 2020 album Evermore, providing everything from backing vocals to… “field recording”? Never explain to us that that’s not just putting a microphone in the grass. His most delightful credit, however, is playing the triangle on the song “Ivy.” Listen, there’s just not a lot of studio triangle players, okay?
Hans Zimmer Played Keyboard on the Buggles’ ‘Video Killed the Radio Star’Before he was one of the only film composers you can name, Hans Zimmer was just another shiny-suited keyboardist in the ‘80s. We know because we can see him looking extremely uncomfortable in front of the camera in the video for “Video Killed the Radio Star” by the Buggles, best ed as the first video ever played on MTV. Zimmer actually played keyboards on the song as well, but if producer Trevor Horn had his way, he’d have gotten even more out of the future Oscar winner — he tried to convince him to record a rap. Ah, what could have been.