I love it when bands have multiple vocalists, or at least throw in a few instrumentals. For me it gets tiresome listening to the same singer over and over again — especially if they can’t manage more than one style.
When I think about it, this is probably why I don’t own any Ramones albums. In a similar vein, even as incredible a vocalist as Freddie Mercury was, it’s quite nice to have a break for the requisite Roger Taylor song and the occasional Brian May vocal. Sadly, bassist John Deacon never took a lead vocal on any Queen song.
So, I decided to go hunting through my record collection for the ultra-rare lead vocals. Ideally, a band member’s only lead vocal in the group’s entire catalog.
And hey, this ain’t a complete list, but it’s a good one.
In Another Land | The Rolling Stones (1967)
Bassist Bill Wyman’s only lead vocal on a Stones track is this deep cut from Their Satanic Majesty’s Request. I actually quite like this song — which Wyman also wrote — especially within the context of the record itself. Wyman may not be known for his vocals in the ba d, but he sings plenty on his own solo albums and with his Kings of Rhythm. Drummer Charlie Watts never took a lead vocal, and neither did Brian Jones, unless you count the 1964 novelty single 365 Rolling Stones, credited to the Andrew Loog Oldham Orchestra. Jones’ replacement Mick Taylor sang lead occasionally — but not with the Stones.
Ooh La La | Faces (1973)
Mick Taylor’s replacement Ronnie Wood has never sung any lead vocals on Rolling Stones songs, either. Woody sang plenty on his own solo albums as well as with the side project New Barbarians. He also never took a lead vocal when he was the bassist in the Jeff Beck Group or as the guitarist in his first band The Birds. He did, however, have one rather famous lead vocal as the guitarist in Faces.
Pinwheel Twist | The Beatles (1962)
The Beatles laid claim to two of rock’s greatest lead vocalists, but were able to boast the ability of all four members to take a lead. One of George Harrison’s lead vocals is actually the band’s most popular song on Spotify — Here Comes The Sun has more than 1.6 billion streams. That’s worth around $6.4 million alone. In order to find a Beatle who had a rare lead vocal, you need to go back to the days before they signed with EMI. You need to go back to when their drummer was Pete Best. In an effort to ride the popularity of The Twist, Paul McCartney quickly penned a throwaway song called Pinwheel Twist. For a few gigs at the time, McCartney would trade places with Best, who would come to the front of the stage for a shared lead vocal with Paul. It wasn’t one of the songs manager Brian Epstein flagged for the group’s Decca audition on New Year’s Day 1962. They only attempted three originals at the session: Hello Little Girl, Like Dreamers Do and Love Of The Loved.
The Merry Christmas Song | Pink Floyd (1969)
A favourite of mine from Pink Floyd’s sophomore studio album, A Saucerful of Secrets, is Corporal Clegg — the only song in the band’s discography to feature all four members singing a lead vocal, and one of only two to feature drummer Nick Mason taking lead bits solo — which he does on the verses. Another Floyd song featuring Mason singing lead is the 1967 single Scream Thy Last Scream, during which he doubles Syd Barrett’s sped-up vocals, but at normal speed. Mason’s voice is also heard — through a myriad of effects — speaking the lone line of lyric in One Of These Days, from 1971’s Meddle, and you can hear his spoken voice on both Learning To Fly and Signs Of Life from 1987’s A Momentary Lapse of Reason. But his one true lead vocal is this uncharacteristic Xmas song, which was recorded during a radio performance on the BBC in 1969.
Foxy Lady | The Cure (1979)
Robert Smith was, and presumably still is, a huge fan of Jimi Hendrix. Weird then that the only Cure song he doesn’t sing lead vocals on is this cover from Three Imaginary Boys. Instead, the vocals are by bassist Michael Dempsey. The reason for this? The song was actually a recorded soundcheck, and wasn’t supposed to be on the album at all. The band managed to have it removed from the U.S. version of the record.
She Just Satisfies | Jimmy Page (1965)
Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page never took a lead vocal during any of the band’s recordings, but he did have a handful of fairly prominent backing vocals as you can hear — on Thank You from Led Zeppelin II (1969), The Battle of Evermore, from Untitled / Led Zeppelin IV (1971), and on Hey Hey What Can I Do, which was the B-side of The Immigrant Song (1970). If you want to hear Pagey sing lead, you need to grab his rare 1965 single. Jimmy also plays guitar and bass, while Bobby Graham plays drums. Graham, by the way, was secretly one of the greatest drummers the U.K. ever produced — a session player who was actually the drummer on You Really Got Me, Tired Of Waiting and All Day And All Of The Night by The Kinks, Gloria and Baby Please Don’t Go by Them, and Downtown by Petula Clark.
The Nazz Are Blue | The Yardbirds (1966)
Like Page, his pal Jeff Beck was not known for lead vocals. His two solo lead vocal credits are fan favourites, though due to their rarity and charm. It’s just so weird to see Jeff Beck doing something he’s not mastered. Both of those came out in 1967 — Hi-Ho Silver Lining and Tallyman — and they’re both likely better known for their flipsides, Beck’s Bolero and Rock My Plimsoul, respectively. During his time in The Yardbirds, Beck took one lead vocal on The Nazz Are Blue, from Roger The Engineer (aka The Yardbirds).
Ramblin’ On My Mind | John Mayall’s Blues Breakers (1966)
With Page and Beck here already, we can’t leave out Eric Clapton. The only way he fits into this list is as a member of John Mayall’s Blues Breakers. On their classic 1966 album, dubbed Beano, Clapton contributes his first studio lead vocal and his only lead vocal with that band. It happens on a cover of Robert Johnson’s Ramblin’ On My Mind.
I Don’t Wanna Fight | Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers (1999)
Echo is the only Tom Petty album to feature lead vocals by anyone other than Tom. In this case, it’s guitarist Mike Campbell, who wrote this track. So you could also say Echo is the last Petty album to feature anyone other than Tom singing. It was also their last with bassist Howie Epstein, who died of a heroin overdose four years later, and their last collaboration with producer Rick Rubin.
Willesden Green | The Kinks (1971)
Just try to find a Kinks song not sung by Ray or Dave Davies. This certainly is the only one sung by bassist John “Nobby” Dalton, who was Pete Quaife’s replacement in the band from 1969-’76. Nobby brings it on this track from the Percy soundtrack — a film about a man who gets a penis transplant.
Slang Of Ages | Steely Dan (2003)
When I heard Walter Becker’s 1994 solo album, 11 Tracks of Whack, it made me wonder why the Steely Dan guitarist and co-songwriter never got more than one lead vocal in their entire catalog. This is a band with one primary vocalist: Keyboardist and co-songwriter Donald Fagen — but they also employed a vocalist for a a year. David Palmer was around for parts of two albums in 1972-’73, most notably singing lead vocal on two tracks — Dirty Work and Brooklyn (Owes The Charmer Under Me) from Can’t Buy A Thrill. But Becker sang just one lead vocal — on the band’s swan song, 2003’s Everything Must Go.
All I Have Are Memories | The Byrds (1968)
Drummer Kevin Kelley wrote All I Have Are Memories, but it was left off the original release of Sweetheart Of The Rodeo. It first showed up in instrumental form as a bonus track on the 1997 CD version. It wasn’t until the 2005 “legacy edition” that the version with Kelley’s sole Byrds lead vocal was made available.
After Hours | The Velvet Underground (1969)
The closing track on The Velvet Underground’s eponymous third album represents drummer Moe Tucker’s only real lead vocal on one of the band’s songs. This was the first album after John Cale was fired from the band in 1968. His replacement Doug Yule shares a spoken-word vocal with Lou Reed and Tucker on one other song from this album, The Murder Mystery. There is one more near-example: I’m Sticking With You, which was recorded around this time, but not released until the compilation VU in 1985. Even still, Tucker only sings the intro.
Little Caesar | KISS (1989)
Drummer Eric Carr finally got to sing a lead vocal on the last KISS album he recorded before he died two years later. He’d co-written plenty of songs — even from the very beginning on Music From The Elder (1981). Carr also got to take a lead vocal at concerts on fan favourites his predecessor Peter Criss used to sing, like Black Diamond and Beth. But his first studio lead vocal is this, the penultimate track on Hot In The Shade.
How Many Say I | Van Halen (1998)
It was kind of a joke to name the album Van Halen III, because it’s certainly not a group effort and so much had changed since Van Halen II 20 years earlier. The band became one of the biggest in the world, lead vocalist David Lee Roth left for a solo career, Sammy Hagar was brought in for three albums as his replacement, Roth agreed to return, and then didn’t — so Extreme lead vocalist Gary Cherone was brought in. Meantime, bassist Michael Anthony was on the outs and only plays on three tracks and drummer Alex Van halen is on the album in name only, as it turns out he was dealing with personal issues and the bulk of the drumming and bass was performed by Eddie Van Halen. The album’s closing track — an uncharacteristic piano ballad — features Eddie’s lone lead vocal on a Van Halen record.
Marigold | Nirvana (1993)
Not only is Dave Grohl well established as a vocalist; he’s a household name and instantly recognizable by most rock fans. But, back when he was the drummer in Nirvana, the dominant voice was obviously that of Kurt Cobain. Grohl did have one lead vocal during his time with the band, on a song which was released as the flipside of Heart Shaped Box. Grohl penned the song himself and actually recorded a version as a solo artist in 1991. Under the pseudonym Late!, Grohl included the track — then titled Color Pictures Of A Marigold — on his 1992 indie cassette, Pocketwatch. This version was recorded while Nirvana were making Nevermind. He re-recorded Marigold in 1993 with Steve Albini. Foo Fighters also included it on their 2006 acoustic live album Skin And Bones.
Everytime | Hüsker Dü (1987)
Bassist Greg Norton contributed to the band’s songwriting as often as he could, but says his songs never seemed to make it much further than B-sides or deep cuts — especially as the songwriting of his bandmates, drummer Grant Hart and guitarist Bob Mould, got stronger and stronger with each album. That pair had a dynamic which often gets compared to the one Lennon and McCartney had in The Beatles. Making Norton the George Harrison of the group. Like Lennon-McCartney, Mould and Hart tended to sing lead on their own songs, leaving little opportunity for Norton. One exception is Everytime, the B-side of Could You Be The One? — the big single from 1987’s Warehouse: Songs And Stories. That’s the studio version, but the best version is the live one from The Living End, or similar live versions on YouTube.
Make Believe | Pixies (1990)
Pixies drummer David Lovering was initially dead-set against singing, and was finally convinced to add vocals to La La Love You on their 1989 album Doolittle (he also plays bass on Silver, the album’s second-last track). But, Lovering found he really enjoyed singing, which led to his one and only lead vocal on a Pixies track, the B-side of the Velouria single. It’s a song he wrote about his obsession with Debbie Gibson.
Must Do Something About It | Wings (1976)
Before he ran off to become a born-again Christian, Joe English was the third guy to call himself the drummer in Wings — fourth if you include Paul McCartney. English, who was actually American, could sing and was given a lead vocal on Speed Of Sound, when Wings were at their peak. Every member of the group got a lead vocal on the album, including Linda McCartney, whose Cook Of The House was her only lead vocal as a member of the group. I’m only including English’s track because Linda actually sang lead on Seaside Woman, a Wings single from 1977 issued under the name Suzy & The Red Stripes.
Visions | Eagles (1975)
It wasn’t due to a lack of trying or a lack of interest, but this is the only Eagles song to feature lead vocals from guitarist Don Felder. Smack dab in the middle of the second side of the band’s breakthrough album One Of These Nights, Felder co-wrote the track with Don Henley not long after joining the group the previous year.
Such A Shame | The Bee Gees (1968)
The video for this has GOT to be the principal inspiration for Spinal Tap’s Listen (To The Flower People). Such A Shame was on the hit album Idea and features Vince Melourney’s only lead vocal while he was the guitarist for The Bee Gees from 1967-1969. Hard to imagine a Bee Gees song with someone not named Gibb singing.
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Area Resident is an Ottawa-based journalist, recording artist, music collector and re-seller. Hear (and buy) his music on Bandcamp, email him HERE, follow him on Instagram and check him out on Discogs.
