Was MJ a trendsetter regarding lending vocals for other artists songs?

[filmandmusic]

I’m dropping this question here for people with historical pop knowledge, I’m thinking about @DuranDuran, everybody can chip in of course.

When you watch a chart these days you see tons of artists featuring others artists (not talking about 50/50 duets), everybody is being credited left and right which quickly elevates the amount of hits an artist scores. My feeling says this originated from the hip/hop scene and has blown over to the pop charts.

Now about Michael he lend his vocals to several other artists as well but back then it went by uncredited. You can clearly hear MJ on songs by Rebbie, Latoya, Stevie Wonder, Rockwell, Joe Carrasco, Diana Ross, Dave Mason and probably a bunch more.
How many other pop artists did this back in the 80s or was it quite unusual?

 

[mj_frenzy]

This originated from the hip/hop scene (in the '80s), and more specifically from rappers (rather than rap groups) that started to use guest vocalists in their songs (by using the word 'features' in the track title).

That is because when the guest vocalist had a greater recognition, it was important for the rapper to tell that to the world explicitly (via the word 'features') and also because that would give the rapper's music more identity.

Although clearly a duet, this idea applies also to the 'The Girl Is Mine' song.

Michael Jackson explicitly mentioned the name of Paul McCartney (in the track title) apparently because Paul McCartney's already huge popularity would give the track automatically a more elevated status.

 

[DuranDuran]

My feeling says this originated from the hip/hop scene and has blown over to the pop charts.

I would say it happened before hip hop on jazz instrumentalists records who had a song on their album with a guest vocalist. Such as Just The Two Of Us by Grover Washington Jr. Bill Withers sings on it, but the 45 does not have his name on it and so neither does the Billboard charts. Bill sings the entire song, it's not just a hook like Somebody's Watching Me or background vocals. With the Michael Jackson features, they weren't credited as a duet/feature, but if you bought the albums, he is credited as a background singer. Eric Clapton played the guitar solo on The Beatles While My Guitar Gently Weeps but he is not credited at all anywhere. But it was not common for albums before the 1970s to have any type of credits or lyrics printed. It was common for albums to have some kind of writeup on the back cover. Some songs and/or albums by bands had session musicians like The Wrecking Crew and not the actual members of the band playing on it. Record producers would do this because it was often faster to record this way than with the band members who might have to do a lot of takes because they were high or drunk or just were not as good as the session players. Also the Milli Vanilli thing was not new, there's been a lot of groups over the decades who did not sing on the records, they just were not caught by the public or had the beans spilled on them like Milli Vanilli.

Siedah Garrett is doing a duet on I Just Can't Stop Loving You by Mike. She is not credited as a duet partner on the single. Sheena Easton is not credited as a feature on U Got The Look by Prince either, but she's singing the hook and is in the music video.

In some cases, guest artists would decline to be credited even on the album cover for different reasons, like if they are on a different record label and didn't want to bother getting permission from their label.

 

[DuranDuran]

Stevie Wonder has a song from 1972 called You Are The Sunshine Of My Life. The first few lines are sung by a couple of his background singers (Lani Groves & Jim Gilstrap) but they are not credited as features on the single. Jim is also one of the singers on the Good Times theme song.

 

[filmandmusic]

Thank you for the replies @DuranDuran
Today everything seems to be different, artists probably won’t do it if they don’t ge a credit. It is a cheap and easy way to rack up hits imo

 

[DuranDuran]

Thank you for the replies @DuranDuran
Today everything seems to be different, artists probably won’t do it if they don’t ge a credit. It is a cheap and easy way to rack up hits imo

It's easier to get hits today because of streaming & downloads. When there were physical singles decades ago like 45s, only those charted in Billboard and also the B-side of a single. You had to go to a store to buy a 45 or a maxi single. Album tracks did not chart, even if they got radio airplay. With streaming, every song on an album can chart at the same time, not just a radio single. That's how Drake, Lil Wayne, & Nicki Minaj have more hits on the Hot 100 than anyone else. Pre-internet, Elvis was #1 and James Brown was in 2nd place. Aretha Franklin had the most Hot 100 hits for female artists. It also took them a longer amount of time to accomplish that than the streaming era performers.

 

[Mister_Jay_Tee]

Did not know that about Joe King. Glad to have discovered something new.

MJ was ahead of the game with features, unfortunately very few of them were ever singles. No airplay for album tracks.

There's also Brothers Johnson, Kenny Rogers, and Kenny Loggins. And Bryan Loren, and Brandy.