Music has always had a strange relationship with tension. Two artists who can barely stand each other, or who are locked in some form of competition, will step into the same studio and produce something that neither could have made alone. The friction, it turns out, can be the fuel.
Some of these collaborations were born from manufactured beef, others from genuine personal wounds. A few were pulled off through outright deception. What they all share is this: the resulting recordings became timeless. Here are six of the greatest duets ever made, and the turbulent backstories that the polished final mixes couldn’t quite bury.
“The Girl Is Mine” – Michael Jackson & Paul McCartney (1982): A Friendship Already on Borrowed Time
McCartney and Jackson became friendly in the mid-1970s when they met to discuss possible songwriting collaborations. The two would eventually go on to have hits with “The Girl Is Mine,” the lead single from Jackson’s Thriller in 1982, and “Say, Say, Say,” featured on McCartney’s album Pipes of Peace in 1983. On the surface, it was one of pop’s most cheerful partnerships. Beneath it, a clock was already ticking.
It was during this period of mutually advantageous collaboration that McCartney reportedly explained to Jackson just how lucrative music publishing rights could be, especially given that McCartney had lost his stake in Northern Songs, the publishing company he set up with fellow Beatle John Lennon. Then, just two years later on August 14, 1985, Jackson purchased the publishing rights to the majority of the Beatles’ catalog, some 251 songs, for $47 million, outbidding McCartney. The duet had been charming. What followed was not.
“Say Say Say” – Paul McCartney & Michael Jackson (1983): The Song That Preceded a Betrayal
They recorded several duets in the 1980s, among them the chart-topping “Say Say Say,” but then saw a blossoming friendship fractured when Jackson, in what was arguably one of the shrewdest business moves ever made, outbid McCartney for the publishing rights to the Beatles catalog in 1985. “Say Say Say” spent seven weeks at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 and remains one of the defining pop collaborations of its decade. It was also, in hindsight, the last great moment of a friendship that would unravel almost immediately afterward.
The rift was so great that McCartney and Jackson barely spoke ever again. In 1987, the Beatles sued over Nike’s use of “Revolution” in a television commercial. The legal dispute was complicated and split across publishing and recordings, but the broader issue was unmistakable. McCartney hated the idea of Beatles songs being used to sell products. The studio chemistry that produced “Say Say Say” had long since curdled into something far more complicated than a pop disagreement.
“The Boy Is Mine” – Brandy & Monica (1998): Rivalry as Creative Engine
Brandy and Monica’s 1998 duet was as much about their real-life rivalry as it was about the fictional love triangle in the lyrics. The two R&B singers were supposedly feuding behind the scenes, which added an extra layer of tension to their vocal performances. The tension was somewhat real. They recorded their vocals in separate studios to avoid conflict. The song was inspired by Michael Jackson and Paul McCartney’s “The Girl Is Mine,” and Brandy and Monica performed the song together live for the first time at the VMAs, an event that ended with a tense backstage confrontation that confirmed the rivalry wasn’t just marketing.
Capitalizing on the presumed rivalry between the singers, the record spent 13 weeks at number one in the US. “The Boy Is Mine” took home the Grammy Award for Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group while being nominated for both Record of the Year and Best R&B Song. After this R&B duet achieved massive success, the rumors of a feud only spread more. Brandy and Monica’s representatives even had to publicly state that everything was cool. Whatever the truth of their relationship, the tension in every single exchange on that record sounds unmistakably real.
“Under Pressure” – Queen & David Bowie (1981): Combustion in a Swiss Studio
Opening with one of the most recognizable bass lines ever, 1981’s “Under Pressure” was the result of an impromptu jam session between Queen and David Bowie, two of the biggest acts in the world, when they were recording at the same studio in Montreux, Switzerland. Bassist John Deacon created the riff, went out for pizza, and forgot how to play it when he came back. Drummer Roger Taylor had to remind him. The session was fueled by wine and spontaneity. The circumstances were loose, but the personalities involved were anything but easy to manage.
A duet like no other, the anthem saw rock legends Queen team up with the one and only David Bowie. Brian May said of the song’s tricky process: “It was hard, because you had four very precocious boys and David, who was precocious enough for all of us.” Despite the song’s massive success, Queen and Bowie never performed it live together at the same concert. The tension between Bowie and Freddie Mercury during mixing nearly caused the project to be scrapped. Released as a single in 1981, the powerful rock song topped the pop charts in the UK and Canada, and in the decades following its release, it has often been ranked among the greatest songs of all time.
“When You Believe” – Whitney Houston & Mariah Carey (1998): Tricked Into the Same Studio
For much of the 1990s, the suggestion that Mariah Carey and Whitney Houston would ever work together was an unthinkable prospect. Rumors of a fierce rivalry, widely perpetuated by the media, had long existed between the pair, although the evidence remained slight at best. DreamWorks’ Jeffrey Katzenberg subsequently approached Mariah Carey and Whitney Houston, with each being told the other had already agreed to a duet. By the time they found out, with no one truly knowing who signed up first, the pair were committed to the project.
There was tension between the two women, and they ended up recording separately. As producer Babyface explained, they did not record together. It was done separately. The one great thing that came out of it was that he was asked to be the producer, because both of them had asked for him and neither were going to do it unless he was involved. The duo’s “When You Believe” from The Prince of Egypt soundtrack won an Academy Award for Best Original Song in 1999. Following the untimely death of Houston just before the Grammy Awards on February 11, 2012, Carey showed nothing but respect for her fellow singer-turned-friend, attending her funeral in Newark, New Jersey. Whatever divided them before the microphones, the song they made together outlasted all of it.
“You Don’t Bring Me Flowers” – Barbra Streisand & Neil Diamond (1978): A Rivalry Between Two Separate Takes
One of the greatest duets in history was actually a fluke. Each cut was a take of the Neil Diamond song recorded individually. In 1978, a scorned, just-divorced radio jockey from Louisville, Kentucky, spliced them together as a spiteful missive to his ex-wife. The makeshift duet was so popular that Diamond and Streisand were compelled by their label to record an actual duet, which shot to number one on the Billboard charts. The song hadn’t even been intended as a duet. It became one almost entirely by accident.
This duet is about two lovers who have drifted apart over time. It was originally intended as the theme tune for the short-lived TV show All That Glitters, and was later recorded as two separate solo versions by Neil Diamond and Barbra Streisand. After an early form of mashup featuring the two versions gained popularity, an official duet was recorded by the pair, and it became a huge hit, helped significantly by their charged performance at the Oscars. The real tension here wasn’t between two artists so much as between a song and the strange path it had to travel before it found its true form. Two voices, never meant to share the same track, ended up producing one of the most emotionally raw breakup songs in pop history.
