Last Updated: 12:01am BST 08/11/2003
I've added the Youtube videos and I indicated my favorites. - caitlin1214
It takes two to make it outta sight, Lyn Collins once observed. The duet, it seems, is having a renaissance. One of the biggest-selling songs of the year has been Blu Cantrell and Sean Paul's Breathe, a brilliantly sung conversation on the age-old theme of breaking up. Indeed, no rap single these days is complete without a female voice to balance the macho rhyming. That has been the spark for this special Arts+Books, in which our critics attempt to pick the greatest of all time. Does a duet have to be a dialogue? No, we decided – just two voices, one song. That opened up the field to hundreds of possibilities, of which these are the 50 best.
(Telegraph.co.uk)
50 Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton
Islands in the Stream, 1983
One of the best-selling country singles of all time was written by the Bee Gees for Kenny Rogers, who recorded it with Dolly Parton for his Eyes That See in the Dark album; its huge success was probably due to the fact that it's not really a country song at all, but a country-pop-soul crossover tune.
The voices are a good match, the harmonies perfect; it's simple, cuddly, and reassuringly warm. The chorus also formed the basis for the hit single by rapper Pras: Ghetto Superstar (That Is What You Are). Respect to Kenny and Dolly.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=lo-7f6JxyRQ
Key moment: The two hanging piano chords that precede the grand entrance of the vocal.
I've added the Youtube videos and I indicated my favorites. - caitlin1214
It takes two to make it outta sight, Lyn Collins once observed. The duet, it seems, is having a renaissance. One of the biggest-selling songs of the year has been Blu Cantrell and Sean Paul's Breathe, a brilliantly sung conversation on the age-old theme of breaking up. Indeed, no rap single these days is complete without a female voice to balance the macho rhyming. That has been the spark for this special Arts+Books, in which our critics attempt to pick the greatest of all time. Does a duet have to be a dialogue? No, we decided – just two voices, one song. That opened up the field to hundreds of possibilities, of which these are the 50 best.
(Telegraph.co.uk)
50 Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton
Islands in the Stream, 1983
One of the best-selling country singles of all time was written by the Bee Gees for Kenny Rogers, who recorded it with Dolly Parton for his Eyes That See in the Dark album; its huge success was probably due to the fact that it's not really a country song at all, but a country-pop-soul crossover tune.
The voices are a good match, the harmonies perfect; it's simple, cuddly, and reassuringly warm. The chorus also formed the basis for the hit single by rapper Pras: Ghetto Superstar (That Is What You Are). Respect to Kenny and Dolly.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=lo-7f6JxyRQ
Key moment: The two hanging piano chords that precede the grand entrance of the vocal.