Lately, duets have made a powerful exhibiting on Billboard’s nation charts–and specifically, male-female duets have had a second, whether or not that be each vocalists totally buying and selling off verses, or one vocalist solely contributing harmonies.
Chart-toppers over the previous three years have included the Dustin Lynch and MacKenzie Porter duet “Considering ‘Bout You,” the Jason Aldean/Carrie Underwood collab “If I Didn’t Love You,” Kane and Katelyn Brown’s “Thank God,” Kelsea Ballerini with Kenny Chesney on “Half of My Hometown,” and Cole Swindell and Lainey Wilson’s “Never Say Never,” to call just a few.
At present, the Justin Moore-Priscilla Block music “You, Me & Whiskey” is within the high 5 of the Billboard Nation Airplay chart (dated Aug. 5, 2023); additionally on the chart is the brand new Carly Pearce observe “We Don’t Fight Anymore,” that includes vocals from Chris Stapleton and the Jelly Roll/Wilson collab “Save Me.”
Maybe greater than another style, duets have a deep, storied historical past throughout the canon of nation music classics, with a number of male-female artist pairings crafting whole albums’ value of duets.
George Jones and Tammy Wynette (who had been married from 1969-1975) crafted 9 studio albums as a vocal duo, whereas Jones additionally earned hit duets with Melba Montgomery and Margie Singleton. Loretta Lynn and Conway Twitty made 10 studio albums collectively, whereas Invoice Anderson created albums of duets with Mary Lou Turner and Jan Howard.
In 1984, Jones issued the album Women’ Alternative, a set of duets with feminine vocalists. In 2013, Willie Nelson launched an analogous album of all-female duet companions with To All of the Ladies…, whereas Texas artist Aaron Watson is engaged on Cowl Lady, a set of songs that includes girls collaborators. In 2008 and 2009, CMT even hosted the competitors present Can You Duet, which introduced the duo Metal Magnolia into the highlight.
Right here, we have a look at a few of nation music’s high male-female duets through the years. These picks vary from Sixties classics to twenty first century hits, together with all the things from romance-charged, loved-up ballads, to humorous takes on long-term relationships and songs that embody the emotional weight of affection gone mistaken.
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Reba McEntire and Kenny Chesney, “Every Other Weekend”
McEntire and Chesney paired for this observe from McEntire’s Reba: Duets album, launched in 2008. The McEntire/Chesney model earned unsolicited radio airplay, however when the only was formally shipped to radio, singer-songwriter Skip Ewing’s voice changed Chesney’s.
The music depicts a divorced couple combating the logistical and emotional weight of sharing custody of their youngsters and having the youngsters swap houses “every other weekend.”
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Aaron Neville and Trisha Yearwood, “I Fall to Pieces”
In 1994, Yearwood and Neville teamed as much as recorded a duet model of this Patsy Cline basic. The music was included on the album Rhythm, Nation and Blues, an idea album that paired nation and R&B/pop singers to reinterpret nation and R&B classics. The music earned Yearwood and Neville a Grammy the next 12 months for greatest nation collaboration with vocals.
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HARDY and Lainey Wilson, “Wait in the Truck”
This haunting revenge ballad, launched in August 2022, is a uncommon addition to the canon of nation music male/feminine duets, which largely are likely to concentrate on the highs and lows of a pair’s relationship. In the meantime, this story music facilities on a person who occurs to satisfy a battered girl, and decides to take revenge on her abuser.
“You rarely hear songs like this that bring light to heavy situations that people are really scared to talk about,” Wilson advised Billboard. “I feel, in my heart, that our job is to sing about the things that people are afraid to talk about. It’s a song that definitely starts a conversation.”
Hardy wrote the music with Renee Blair, Hunter Phelps and Jordan Schmidt.
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Waylon Jennings and Jessi Colter, “Storms Never Last”
In 1981, married couple Jennings and Colter launched the duets undertaking Leather-based and Lace, spearheaded by this Colter-written single. The music portends that life’s hardships received’t outlast a powerful love. Jennings would later embrace a stay efficiency model of the music, alongside his Waymore Blues band, on his 2000 stay album By no means Say Die Stay.
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Dolly Parton and Ricky Van Shelton, “Rockin’ Years”
Written by Parton’s brother Floyd Parton, this easy love music finds a pair vowing to stay devoted and loving via life’s levels, from “rockin’ babies” to spending their twilight years in rocking chairs. Launched in 1991, the music topped Billboard’s Sizzling Nation Songs chart. In 2008, a previously-unreleased model of the music, that includes Parton in duet with George Jones, was included on Jones’s album Burn Your Playhouse Down—Unreleased Duets.
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Loretta Lynn and Jack White, “Portland, Oregon”
The Nation Music Corridor of Famer and the 12-time Grammy-winning rock artist teamed as much as make the 2004 collaborative undertaking Van Lear Rose, which White produced. Lynn had written the lyrics to the music years prior, and whereas White was visiting Lynn at her residence in Hurricane Mills, Tennessee, he discovered the lyrics she had written in an outdated pocket book.
The music was celebrated on the following 12 months’s Grammy Awards, the place it received a trophy for greatest nation collaboration with vocals, and was nominated for greatest nation music. In the meantime, Van Lear Rose received the Grammy for greatest nation album.
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Dolly Parton and Brad Paisley, “When I Get Where I’m Going”
This imagining of what an afterlife may seem like pairs Parton’s crystalline soprano with Paisley’s heat, accessible vocal tones on this Christian-country ballad. The music not solely topped Billboard’s Sizzling Nation Songs chart but additionally earned Parton and Paisley a CMA Award for musical occasion of the 12 months in 2006.
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David Frizzell and Shelly West, “You’re the Reason God Made Oklahoma”
In 1981, David Frizzell (brother of Lefty Frizzell) teamed with Shelly West (daughter of Dottie West) and hit No. 1 on Billboard‘s Sizzling Nation Singles (now known as Sizzling Nation Songs) chart. This wistful music and tribute to the Sooner State was additionally featured within the Clint Eastwood film Any Which Method You Can.
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Eric Church and Rhiannon Giddens, “Kill a Word”
Eric Church teamed with Rhiannon Giddens for this duet that grew to become a high 10 Billboard Nation Airplay hit in 2017. Written by Church with Luke Dick and Jeff Hyde, this passionate, angsty observe determines to “kill” hurtful phrases akin to “fear,” “goodbye,” “hate” and “regret.”
The music earned Church and Giddens a nomination for musical occasion of the 12 months on the CMA Awards in 2017.
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Reba McEntire and Brooks & Dunn, “If You See Him/If You See Her”
McEntire and Brooks & Dunn had been on tour collectively on the time and teamed up document this searing duet a couple of former couple who nonetheless yearn for one another. Launched in 1998, this was a two-week No. 1 on the Nation Airplay chart. A decade later they’d reunite for an additional duet, “Cowgirls Don’t Cry.”
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Brad Paisley and Carrie Underwood, “Remind Me”
In 2011, Paisley and Underwood teamed up for this sultry collab a couple of couple making an attempt to rekindle the fervour that so simply got here earlier of their relationship. “Remind Me” was the third single from Paisley’s This Is Nation Music album. Paisley wrote the music with frequent collaborators Chris DuBois and Kelley Lovelace.
By the point this music launched, Underwood and Paisley had been already well-known for his or her onstage collaboration as co-hosts of the CMA Awards, a job they held for 11 years, from 2008 via 2018.
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Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood, “In Another’s Eyes”
In 1997, Brooks and Yearwood earned a No. 2 Billboard Nation Airplay hit with this duet, written by Brooks with John Peppard and Bobby Wooden. The couple had been singing harmonies on one another’s albums through the years (together with Brooks’s “Ain’t Goin’ Down (‘Til the Sun Comes Up”) and his rendition of the Billy Joel song “Shameless”), but this marked their first full-fledged released duet. “In Another’s Eyes” went on to earn Brooks and Yearwood a Grammy for greatest nation collaboration with vocals.
Brooks and Yearwood wed in 2005, and have recorded quite a few duets through the years, together with “Where Your Road Leads,” “Squeeze Me In,” “Love Will Always Win” and “The Call.” Brooks & Yearwood additionally launched a rendition of “Shallow,” the Girl Gaga/Bradley Cooper hit from the 2018 remake of A Star Is Born.
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Reba McEntire and Vince Gill, “The Heart Won’t Lie”
Two of nation music’s most sterling voices pair on this ballad of a love and longing the years can’t diminish. The video is considered one of nation music’s basic, heart-tugging items, as McEntire portrays a Navy officer in coaching, whereas Gill performs the position of her drill teacher.
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Vince Gill and Patty Loveless, “My Kind of Woman/ My Kind of Man”
This 1999 duet from Vince Gill and Patty Loveless spotlight every vocalist’s bluegrass-influenced voice on a young ballad a couple of couple placing love earlier than “diamonds or big fancy cars.” The music received a CMA Award for vocal occasion of the 12 months in 1999.
In fact, the Gill-Loveless connection started years earlier than their official duet collaboration. Based on the documentary CMA Fest: 50 Years of Fan Truthful, Loveless stood in line to get an autograph at Gill’s sales space at Fan Truthful in 1985. Loveless would turn into a star in her personal proper. The chemistry of their voices is simple they usually supplied harmonies on one another’s information through the years.
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George Jones and Tammy Wynette, “We’re Gonna Hold On”
This Wynette/Jones duet grew to become the couple’s first No. 1 Billboard nation hit, hitting a two-week run on the pinnacle in 1973; the music was written by Jones and Earl Montgomery. Although Jones and Wynette had been married to 1 one other on the time, the tumultuousness of the connection was obvious, because the couple almost divorced across the identical time that “We’re Gonna Hold On” was launched. They’d reconcile for a time, earlier than divorcing in 1975.
Jones and Wynette continued to have quite a few hits all through and even after their married ended. They grew to become identified for collaborations together with “(We’re Not) The Jet Set,” “Golden Ring,” “Near You” and “Two Story House.”
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Tim McGraw and Religion Hill, “It’s Your Love”
Launched in 1997, this steamy love ballad from married couple and nation artists Tim McGraw and Religion Hill topped Billboard’s Sizzling Nation Songs chart for six weeks. Billboard later named “It’s Your Love” because the No. 1 nation hit of 1997.
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Brad Paisley and Alison Krauss, “Whiskey Lullaby”
In 2004, this stirring duet between Paisley and Krauss reached No. 3 on the Sizzling Nation Singles and Tracks (now Sizzling Nation Songs) chart.
The hit, written by Invoice Anderson and Jon Randall, depicts a pair whose separation leads the person to drink himself to loss of life, whereas the girl follows swimsuit after he dies, out of an abundance of loss and self-guilt. The pairing of Paisley’s earthy voice and Krauss’s ethereal, whispery soprano heightens the dramatic storyline of the music. “Whiskey Lullaby” was honored with the CMA’s music of the 12 months honor in 2005.
Randall would later embrace a model of the music on his 2005 album Strolling Among the many Residing.
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Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers, “Islands in the Stream”
The Bee Gees wrote this now-iconic music, initially intending for it to be recorded by an R&B artist. Nonetheless, Rogers heard the music and initially tried to document it solo, earlier than bringing Parton in so as to add her vocal to the music. The outcome was exemplary, with the 2 effervescent artists combining their energetic vocals, intertwining harmonies all through the vast majority of the music to create a flirtatious, dramatic observe that has turn into of music’s most enduring recordings.
The music stayed atop Billboard’s Sizzling 100 chart for 2 weeks in 1983.
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Johnny Money and June Carter, “Jackson”
By 1967, Johnny Money and The Carter Member of the family June Carter had already had successful collaboration together with “It Ain’t Me, Babe,’ while Cash had also earned a top 20 hit with “Busted,” that includes The Carter Household.
However this sassy collaboration highlighted the simple chemistry between the 2 musicians, and reached No. 2 on the Billboard nation chart. “Jackson” additionally garnered Money and Carter a Grammy win for greatest nation & western efficiency duet, trio or group (vocal or instrumental). Money and Carter would marry a 12 months later, and the long-lasting nation music couple would proceed to document hit duets together with “If I Had a Hammer” and “If I Were a Carpenter.”
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Loretta Lynn and Conway Twitty, “After the Fire Is Gone”
This 1971 hit grew to become Lynn and Twitty’s first No. 1 duet collectively, spending two weeks on the pinnacle of Billboard’s Sizzling Nation Singles (now Sizzling Nation Songs) chart, and successful a Grammy for greatest nation vocal efficiency by a duo or group–marking Twitty’s sole Grammy win.
Twitty and Lynn would document quite a few duets collectively, incomes No. 1 hits for collaborations together with 1971’s “Lead Me On,” 1973’s “Louisiana Woman/Mississippi Man,” 1974’s “As Soon as I Hang Up the Phone” and 1975’s “Feelins’”.