Songs with male and female lead vocals in unison

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by synapsistapped, Feb 16, 2019.

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  1. synapsistapped

    synapsistapped Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Palo Alto, CA, USA
    What are some songs with simultaneous male and female lead vocals? Ones where the entire song is sung by both in unison. Is there a term for this?

    Well known example:

    Fleetwood Mac - "I Don't Want to Know"

     
  2. synapsistapped

    synapsistapped Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Palo Alto, CA, USA
    Lesser known example:

    Whalebones - "Another Jungle"

     
  3. Crawlin From The Wreckage

    Crawlin From The Wreckage Custom Titled

    Location:
    Canada
  4. Jacob29

    Jacob29 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Kansas City
    Peter Paul and Mary Leaving on a Jet Plane
     
    Another Steve and SITKOL'76 like this.
  5. pokemaniacjunk

    pokemaniacjunk Forum Resident

    Location:
    south paris maine
    Spanky & Our Gang has quite a few like that.

    a couple examples are My Bill and Come and Open Your Eyes
     
    Hall Cat likes this.
  6. KevinP

    KevinP Forum introvert

    Location:
    Daejeon
    Sorry if I'm coming across as anal, but I think these are 'octaves', not 'unison.'
     
    lavalamp3, PhoffiFozz, Majk and 2 others like this.
  7. Uncle Ernie

    Uncle Ernie Forum Resident

    When Steve Earle and Allison Moorer were happily married for a little while, they recorded this lovely tune:

     
  8. RickH

    RickH Connoisseur of deep album cuts

    Location:
    Raleigh, NC
    Hungry Wolf - X

    John Doe and Exene Cervenka
     
    Fullbug, Borgia, ramonesfan and 2 others like this.
  9. Humbuster

    Humbuster Staff Emeritus

    Smithereens:

    In a lonely place (w/ Susan Vega)
    Something Stupid (w/ Marti Jones)
     
  10. Uncle Ernie

    Uncle Ernie Forum Resident

    And there's this beauty from Tom Petty and Stevie Nicks:

     
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  11. Arnold Grove

    Arnold Grove Senior Member

    Location:
    NYC
    A good number of Jefferson Airplane/Stairship songs have this style of singing:

    Such as: "Crown Of Creation":

     
    MHS3, Another Steve, US Blues and 3 others like this.
  12. According to the article "Unison" in Wikipedia, the octave is acceptable. But I don't know any more though... ...Only that harmony is not unison!
     
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  13. pbuzby

    pbuzby Senior Member

    Location:
    Chicago, IL, US
    They're singing in harmony, not unison. "Don't Stop" has Lindsey and Christine in unison for parts of the song.
     
  14. Isitquiex

    Isitquiex Forum Resident

    Location:
    Texas
    My favorite and most recent example of unison singing by Phoebe Bridgers and Conor Oberst - they deliberately did not want to create "duets"

     
    lesterbangs likes this.
  15. RayS

    RayS A Little Bit Older and a Little Bit Slower

    Location:
    Out of My Element


    John & Yoko: "Angela"
    ("Every Man Has a Woman Who Loves Him" from "Double Fantasy" is another John & Yoko example.)
     
    Last edited: Feb 16, 2019
    ParloFax likes this.
  16. RayS

    RayS A Little Bit Older and a Little Bit Slower

    Location:
    Out of My Element


    Bob Dylan & Clydie King - "Abraham, Martin & John"
     
    Last edited: Feb 16, 2019
    Regandron likes this.
  17. KevinP

    KevinP Forum introvert

    Location:
    Daejeon
    In a popular sense, that's probably correct. I think I was corrected by my orchestration professor when I used 'unison' like that.
     
    ParloFax likes this.
  18. Scott in DC

    Scott in DC Forum Resident

    Location:
    Washington, DC
    Jon & Robin - Do It Again a Little Bit Slower

    Scott
     
    doublenaught likes this.
  19. doublenaught

    doublenaught Forum Resident

    Location:
    Indiana
    Gillian Welch and David Rawlings have some.



    "The Way It Will Be"
     
  20. pbuzby

    pbuzby Senior Member

    Location:
    Chicago, IL, US
    Some early Fairport Convention (when they were the "British Jefferson Airplane") has male/female unison vocals with Sandy Denny and Ian Matthews (or other combinations of their early singers).
     
  21. Dylancat

    Dylancat Forum Resident

    Location:
    Cincinnati, OH
    Pentangle
     
  22. Michael

    Michael I LOVE WIDE S-T-E-R-E-O!



    well mostly...; )
     
  23. Suncola

    Suncola Possibilities

    Location:
    NW Indiana U.S.A.
    Am I nuts or are 90% of these sung in harmony?

    I think the John & Yoko one was the only one I heard as unison. One or two were sung at the interval of an octave.

    :shrug:
     
  24. pbuzby

    pbuzby Senior Member

    Location:
    Chicago, IL, US
    I guess I'll mention "Hey Paula" (octaves) since no one else has yet.
     
  25. Nostaljack

    Nostaljack Resident R&B enthusiast

    Location:
    Washington, DC
    There's not a moment of unison singing on this song. There are a few who don't know what unison singing is, it seems.

    Ed
     
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