Two Hearts Are Better Than One: 5 Songs That Are Great Duets
This week's songs are from Kid Rock & Sheryl Crow, Delaney & Bonnie, Nancy Sinatra & Lee Hazelwood, Joni Mitchell & Willie Nelson, and The National & Lisa Hannigan
I watched Joker: Folie a Deux on a plane recently (four word review: good idea executed poorly). It uses the Joker’s trial and loose grasp of reality to string together a series of musical set pieces where Lady Gaga and Joaquin Phoenix sing romantic duets, show tunes, and those in the Great American Songbook. No matter how loud or seriously the two leads sang at each other, all the songs had the same mid-tempo energy. And that’s sort of how many of the most well-known duets tend to play out.
What makes a great duet?
The perfect combination of two not necessarily great, but complimentary, voices is essential. But it also goes beyond that. The larger factor in play is usually that the song or story being told is matched to the singers’ personas.
Country and country-adjacent music are full of these type of songs—and even thrived on well-known creative (and often romantic) partnerships. Hip hop and R&B artists often team up to double the star power, or just get someone with a good voice to sing a catchy chorus. Now that we’re in the age of solo artists, many have entire side careers as featured artists (looking at you, Post Malone).
More recently, artists with fan bases largely associated with one gender are bringing in artists from the other, often to explore different perspectives within a relationship, or to establish a break from listening to a single voice that clearly spends too much time in its own head.
Here are 5 great duets.
“I’ve loved some amazing people, and I’ve loved some other people, too” - Sheryl Crow
Kid Rock & Sheryl Crow - “Picture”
Ok, hear me out: This is a great song. It’s not perfect, because Kid Rock clearly uses auto-tune at one point, and turned into a bigot that supports a would-be authoritarian in order to maintain a sad corner of cultural relevancy he’s found for himself. Plenty of other artists have cozied up to fascists—Dalí, Wagner, Rivera, Stravinsky—all with much more talent than Kid Rock. But none of them sang a duet with Sheryl Crow. “Picture” is a perfect example of using public personas to add a bit of verisimilitude to the material they’re singing, and frankly wouldn’t work without her. Hard-living bad boy and a “good girl” cycle through breakups and heartache and destruction, with the couple talking themselves into repeating the cycle all over again. It’s good storytelling matched with a really nice melody that hits in the right places, and their voices work together. It’s one of those songs that sound so simple, but it’s the really simple ones that are actually hard to get so right.
“I can do Little Richard and Delaney Bramlett can do Little Richard...nobody else” - Little Richard
Delaney & Bonnie - “Just Plain Beautiful”
In something of the inverse of “Picture,” Delaney & Bonnie’s “Just Plain Beautiful” is a wholesome story of two people getting together, sung by a very dysfunctional couple. Bonnie Bramlett sang back-up for Albert King and Ike Turner before she met Delaney Bramlett, who was a member of the house band for Shindig!, along with Leon Russell. I’d never heard of Delaney & Bonnie before seeing them included in the Stax: Soulsville USA documentary. They were only on the label for one album before moving on. Their career, like their marriage, was tumultuous and marred by drug addiction. And yet, the musicians they pulled into the band at various times included Leon Russell, Duane Allman, Dave Mason, Bobby Keys, Billy Preston, Gram Parsons, Jim Keltner, George Harrison, and Eric Clapton—who, while touring with Blind Faith, preferred the sound of the opening act and decided to join the band. The couple is a Wikipedia wormhole unto itself: they shared the stage with Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, and the Grateful Dead; Delaney Bramlett is a Classic Rock Zelig; Bonnie Bramlett went on to act, including a recurring role on Rosanne, and she once punched out a drunk and obnoxious Elvis Costello.
From their debut album Home, the assertive, ascending horn section and funky beat of “Just Plain Beautiful,” is pure Stax. Credit where credit is due: the song was co-written by Stax mainstays Betty Crutcher and Steve Cropper (of Booker T & the MGs), and that’s Donald “Duck” Dunn on bass. It’s a duet, but really it’s the sound of a full band acting as one.
“I don’t think there’s been anybody else who has captured that—any other duo. I really don’t. It was acting, good acting. Yeah, we [had] a chemistry and we capitalized on it.” - Nancy Sinatra
Nancy & Lee - “Jackson”
Frank Sinatra had a couple of popular duets, including “Something Stupid,” with his daughter Nancy. Nancy’s most famous song was “These Boots Are Made for Walkin’”. Lee Hazelwood produced the former and wrote the latter. A former DJ, Hazelwood broke into the record business by writing instrumentals for Duane Eddy and was ultimately asked by Franko help guide his daughter’s career and they paired up for Nancy & Lee in 1968. Hazelwood’s voice is as distinct as his mustache. It’s deep, often recorded with considerable echo, and always a little slower than the song itself. I’d first heard their cover of “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feeling,” (which almost made it on to the covers entry). Regardless of the medium, you can practically hear the small crackles of vinyl in the recording; the guitar and bass sound fantastic, and they sing like they’re bored with each other—as the song calls for. The whole album has a sleepy, hypnotic haze over it. A 2022 reissue includes a never-released cover of the Kinks’ “Tired of Waiting For You.”
“Jackson,” as made famous by Johnny & June Carter Cash, has a thumping boogie to it. But it’s an exercise in contrasts. The hoedown pep of the opening harmonica is quickly betrayed by Hazelwood’s slow paced drawl. He sounds like he’s singing from the couch of a couples therapy session. That contrast somehow makes for compelling music. Or if you’re Nancy Sinatra, you give credit to arranger Billy Strange.
“I cast voices just like I would cast faces for a film” - Joni Mitchell
Joni Mitchell & Willie Nelson - “Cool Water”
“Cool Water” is from Mitchell’s Chalk Mark in a Rain Storm, which unique for Mitchell, includes five duets. Joining Mitchell is Don Henley, Peter Gabriel, and a song with both Tom Petty and Billy Idol. The album was mostly recorded at Gabriel’s home studio in Bath and it shows in the music—the warmth, the fluidity of the percussion. As demonstrated in “Cool Water,” there is also that soft burst of brightness of a late-1980s flange guitar effect. You know that sound—it’s Tunnel of Love-era Springsteen; it’s Wang Chung—you love it, and I love it too.
I can think of few vocalists who could keep up with Joni Mitchell. But with “Cool Water,” she stays fairly close to a melody, making it easy for Willie to keep up, particularly in the harmony parts. We could spend a year sharing out great Willie Nelson duets, from Loretta Lynn to Snoop Dogg (the live version of “Seven Spanish Angels” with Ray Charles is a favorite), he’s a great singing partner. As Joni mentions above, she’s bringing in voices with the ear of a casting director. So Nelson plays the part of her fellow rider, lost in the desert and dreaming of water. The song itself is a classic Cowboy song from the 1930s. It’s been in a number of cowboy movies over the years, and Hank Williams recorded it in 1941, but without Willie and without the flange.
“At one point Aaron even wrote to Matt, like, ‘Is there enough you?’ And Matt was like, ‘I don't miss me at all.’” - Carin Besser
The National & Lisa Hannigan - “So Far So Fast”
I was a bit torn between “The Alcott” with Taylor Swift, or Phoebe Bridgers & John Doe “Killer,” because all of them illustrate how artists can use duets to capture the multiple perspectives of a relationship, two people in dialogue with one another, or in the case of “Killer,” what might be multiple, dark voices inside the head of one person. Additionally, with those songs, an artist with the attention of a younger demographic is bringing their audience to other artists deserving of their attention. This appeals to me, because that means my “Sad Dad Rock” doesn’t sound as lame to my kids, when Taylor Swift is singing with them. I’m highly aware of the “Sad Dad Rock” label, and force myself out of what, admittedly, is my comfort zone. And for a while now “New Album from the National” kind of makes me wince. I feel a sense of “this again,” and don’t get excited about it, and it usually takes me a few months to actually getting around to listening to new music from a band I cherish. I think I know the formula pretty well. But with I am Easy to Find, the National seemed to have a similar feeling I did, and decided to blow up the formula. Along with filmmaker Mike Mills (not bass player Mike Mills), they brought in a murder’s row of female vocalists to put Matt Berninger’s stream-of-conscious wayward soul in dialogue with other perspectives. Instead of wandering around like George Bailey who had never been born, their songs had a fresh sense of life—like George Bailey being recognized by his loved ones again. And as I was saying about bringing one’s audience to another artist, with “So Far So Fast,” Lisa Hannigan’s gentle voice gets a spotlight. Hannigan was brought to my attention as a collaborator of Damien Rice’s. During a downpour at a music festival 20+ years ago, we took shelter in a tent and caught their set, which really met the moment. Hannigan, and a somewhat shy cellist who did a killer version of “Seven Nation Army” as part of a rain-enabled encore, stole the show. She’s had a few solo releases over the years, but deserves more attention (check out her interpretation of Seamus Heaney’s “Anahorish” for a two-minute mental vacation).
“So Far So Fast” could easily be sung with one voice. You wouldn’t have to change a single line for it to just be Matt Berninger singing. It’s a narration from someone experiencing dissociation, and struggling to work their way back into who they are. It’s a powerful thing when a person can overcome that struggle alone. But it’s more of a miracle when it’s another person who is there to pull them back from the brink, and that’s what Berninger’s voice offers when it arrives.
Full playlists of songs featured in 5 Songs: