Step Up to the Microphone

aka: Step Up To The Mic

The lead vocalist of a band steps aside to offer another band member (an instrumentalist or backing singer) A Day in the Limelight, singing the lead for at least the duration of a whole song. Usually occurs when the lyrics of the song in question were written by this particular band member.

In some cases, this can become a permanent promotion to lead singer: the lead vocalist departs and rather than finding a new singer, one of the remaining band members takes the mic.

Note that, historically, having someone “step up to mic” rather than employing a full-time singer has sometimes been considered the norm; in the Big Band era, singers weren’t entirely considered real musicians, but were often supposed to be instrumentalists taking a brief spotlight moment. See the note on Bing Crosby below.

Compare and contrast with Vocal Tag Team.

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Examples:

Promotion to lead singer

• A particularly successful example: after Peter Gabriel left Genesis in 1974, the role of lead singer was filled by the band's drummer Phil Collins (who had previously provided backing vocals and sung lead on a handful of Genesis songs), after numerous auditions for an outside replacement came to nothing. Collins stuck as lead vocalist and would go on to become one of pop music's most successful solo artists.
• Another very successful example: when Syd Barrett left Pink Floyd, the rest of the band sans drummer Nick Mason took over on lead vocals^note Though he did speak the only lyric in "One Of These Days"; first, it was keyboardist Rick Wright, who sang back-up in their early years, then guitarist David Gilmour, who replaced Syd, and then bassist/lyricist Roger Waters, with him and Gilmour switching back and forth depending on the album. Gilmour became lead singer after Waters left.
• Another one: when Cazuza, leader of Brazilian band Barão Vermelho, left, guitarist Frejat took over the vocals.
• When Jens Ryden, the lead singer of Naglfar, left the group, bassist and backup vocalist Kristoffer Olivius took over on lead and a new bassist was recruited. Opinion is split on who is best.
• Tokyo Yankees vocalist Soichiro Umemura died in 2007. Instead of disbanding, guitarists Nori and Yoshi now share vocal duties.
• Hey Violet had their lead vocalist, Julia Pierce, leave and Rena Lovelis - their bassist - became the vocalist
• The Beach Boys: Mike Love and Brian Wilson started out as the two main lead vocalists, but as time grew on, the other members began singing more leads as they became better singers (partially as a result of picking up the slack after Brian Wilson retired from touring).
  • Carl Wilson was notable for this. After only occasionally singing lead from 1962-1965, he beautifully sang "God Only Knows", and from then on, he began singing lead on many of their famous singles, such as "Good Vibrations", "Wild Honey", "Darlin'", "I Can Hear Music", "Good Timin'", and "Kokomo". When Brian quit touring, he took on most of his lead vocals too.
  • Al Jardine also took on lead vocal duties, starting with the Number One hit "Help Me Rhonda". Some of his later songs, such as "Lady Lynda", "California", and covers of "Cottonfields", "Come Go With Me", and "Peggy Sue" also became huge international hits.
  • Dennis Wilson sang on "Do You Wanna Dance?", and in the early '70s, when he hurt his hand and couldn't play drums, began singing and playing piano regularly on stage and in studio.
  • Bruce Johnston sang lead on several songs from the fan-favourite Sunflower and Surf's Up albums, including the international hits "Bluebirds Over The Mountains" and "Tears in the Morning" and fan-favourite "Disney Girls", a live staple.
  • Blondie Chaplin, who briefly joined the group in the early 1970s, is most remembered for his lead vocal on "Sail On Sailor" from Holland. Ricky Fataar too sang lead on a few songs from that era.
  • On the 50th Anniversary Reunion Tour, David Marks, the rhythm guitarist from their first four albums (and childhood friend of the Wilsons) took over lead vocals on "Getcha Back", singing it in the style of Dennis Wilson, who Mike Love wrote it in memory of.
  • John Stamos, who did some touring work with the band in The '80s, notoriously sang lead on a re-recording of "Forever" from the 1992 album Summer in Paradise.
• The Doors:
  • It's a little-known fact that the band continued on for two more albums after Jim Morrison's departure, with vocal duties split between guitarist Robby Krieger and keyboardist Ray Manzarek. They only scored one minor hit during this period ("The Mosquito"). These albums have long since gone out of print, and Krieger and Manzarek continued to disown them well after the band broke up.
  • From the Morrison years, Krieger has lead vocals on exactly one song: "Runnin' Blue" from The Soft Parade.
• After lead singer Ian Curtis' suicide, the rest of Joy Division carried on as New Order. Bernard Sumner had the most distinctive voice, but he also had to play keyboards and lead guitar and found it unable to do three things at once. The band's first album, Movement (1981), featured bassist Peter Hook singing both "Dreams Never End" and "Doubts Even Here" as a result. By that time, they had recruited Gillian Gilbert to play keys and additional guitar, leaving Sumner free to sing lead.
• When Peter Wolf quit The J. Geils Band in 1983, the band soldiered on for two more years with keyboardist Seth Justman on vocals.
• Nick D'Virgilio of Spock's Beard is another Phil Collins-esque "drummer makes good" story: he stepped in for the departing Neal Morse, and served as lead vocalist for the band's next four albums.
• In The Band's early days, Richard Manuel was their primary singer (and songwriter), with relatively minor contributions from the Vocal Tag Team of Levon Helm and Rick Danko. As Manuel's personal and substance-abuse problems worsened, however, Helm and Danko gradually took over the vast majority of singing duties.
• Fictional example: In Degrassi: The Next Generation, when Peter left Studz due to his drug addiction, Sav became the lead singer.
• Rhythm guitarist Joan Jett took over as lead singer of The Runaways after Cherie Curie left.
• Tony Banks started his largely unsuccessful solo career not singing, however, he did turn to it for the entirety on his second record The Fugitive. He proceeded to step away from the microphone and returned to rely on guest singers (with the exceptions of "Big Man" and "Hero For an Hour" from Bankstatement and Still respectively).
  • A very similar situation happened with his Genesis bandmate Mike Rutherford, who sang lead vocals on Acting Very Strange, his own second record. He realized in retrospect that playing guitar came to him more easily than singing, so when he formed Mike + the Mechanics soon afterward, he hired dedicated lead singers for the group and focused strictly on guitar work in the actual songs.
  • Steve Hackett, on the other hand, has been the primary lead vocalist on all of his post-1981 solo albums other than Feedback 86 and the two Genesis Revisited albums. Before he took over as lead vocalist, he sang one song on each of his first three albums. Also, when performing live from 2013-2018, Hackett would sing most of his solo songs and Nad Sylvan would sing Genesis songs and some of Steve's early solo works, but drummer Gary O'Toole would sing lead on "Blood on the Rooftops" and "Fly on a Windshield/Broadway Melody 1974" whenever they showed up in the setlist.
• When Jamie Graham was fired from British thrash metal band Sylosis, lead guitarist Josh Middleton took on the role of vocalist as well and continues to do so to this day. This also led to clean vocals being almost completely dropped from their sound as Josh isn't very confident about doing them (this is possibly lampshaded on his Lighter and Softer solo album, as there are no vocals on it at all).
• This has happened to Annihilator's Jeff Waters THREE TIMES (from 1985-6, 1994-7 and from 2015 onwards). The fact that he is the band probably has a lot to do with this.
• Guitarist Brendon Padjasek was the vocalist on Structures' final album Life Through A Window.
• This happened to Country Music band Exile twice. After original lead singer Jimmy Stokley quit, guitarist J. P. Pennington was promoted to co-lead vocalist alongside new member Les Taylor. When Pennington and Taylor quit in 1989, existing bassist Sonny LeMaire and new guitarist Paul Martin alternated. This arrangement continued until Pennington rejoined in the mid-90s.
• Mono Inc.'s Martin Engler was promoted from drummer to lead singer following original lead and namesake Miky Mono's departure in 2006, whilst Katha Mia was recruited for drums.
• After long time singer/guitarist for CKY left the band for seemingly good to start his own version after a long period of drama, long-time guitarist Chad I Ginsburg became the band's singer.
• When Dou Wei left Chinese Rock band Black Panther (Heibao) in 1991, keyboardist Luan Shu took over as lead singer, until he left in 1994.
• When Ralf Scheepers left Gamma Ray 1994 while attempting (and failing) to join Judas Priest, the lead guitarist and band leader Kai Hansen stepped into the vocals. In Hansen's case, he had had experience as a frontman in his previous band Helloween during its early years.
• After Kasabian fired lead singer Tom Meighan in 2020 shortly before he plead guilty to domestic assault, he was replaced as lead singer by the band's guitarist and primary lyricist Serge Pizzorno.
• This happened to The Wurzels after the death of their founder, lead singer and songwriter-in-chief Adge Cutler in 1974. Pete Budd, who'd joined the band as a banjo player two years previously, stepped up and has been the lead singer ever since.
• Nothing More initially had a problem keeping a lead singer. After their third frontman in five years left, drummer Jonny Hawkins took over the position starting from the group's third album, The Few Not Fleeting. After Hawkins took the mic, the band started seeing success - in fact, the first two albums have since been ignored by the band.
• When lead singer Alex Varkatzas left Atreyu in 2020, bassist Marc McKnight and drummer Brandon Saller took over as lead singers, with Kyle Rosa replacing Saller on drums.
• Following Trevor Strnad's sudden death in late 2022, rhythm guitarist Brian Eschbach stepped up to lead vocal duties for The Black Dahlia Murder.
• When Geoff Bullock, lead vocalist for the Australian worship band Hillsong, abruptly left the group due to a then-undiagnosed case of bipolar disorder days before the recording of their 1996 Shout to the Lord album, the group ended up promoting Darlene Zschech - writer of the album's title song - to lead vocalist. Despite the abruptness of the change, the recording went smoothly and the album was a success in Australia while also becoming Hillsong's first album distributed in the United States when popular worship music label Integrity Music acquired U.S. distribution rights^note also marking a first for Integrity as the first album produced or distributed by the label with a woman as the main singer.
• Jimmy Eat World's lead vocalist was originally Tom Linton. Between their first and third albums, Linton's vocal duties were diminished from all but one song on their debut to roughly half the songs on *Static Prevails* to one song ("Blister") on *Clarity*. Jim Adkins thereafter completely took over lead vocals except for the song "Action Needs An Audience", released over 11 years later.
• At the turn of the 21st century, the band having gone through several singers, Misfits bassist (and only constant member) Jerry Only took over as lead vocalist.

A Song In The Limelight

• As mentioned above, this was supposed to be the norm in the Big Band era, except perhaps where the singer was hired as a decorative ornament. Amusingly, Bing Crosby, who is nowadays considered one of the great voices of the 20th century, was hired by bandleader Paul Whiteman as a singer in his early days, but to preserve the illusion that he was just one of the guys stepping up, he was required to pose with a violin — with rubber strings so he couldn’t accidentally make inconvenient noises.
• Information Society:
  • Their Breakthrough Hit, "Running," was sung by short-time member Murat Konar instead of by frontman Kurt Harland.
  • On their 1990 album Hack, bassist James Cassidy sang lead vocals on "Can't Slow Down", "Mirrorshades", and "If Only".
• Perhaps the most bizarre and morbid example of this trope. "Baby's Heartbeat" on John Lennon and Yoko Ono's Unfinished Music No. 2: Life with the Lions is a recording of the heartbeats of their unborn child, who would die in miscarriage.
• Speaking of The Band, Robbie Robertson sang lead vocal on only a handful of their songs, including "Out of the Blue" from their concert album The Last Waltz. This is an unusual example, as Robertson wrote the bulk of The Band's material but rarely sang lead due to having a poor voice. He had improved considerably by the time he belatedly started his solo career in the mid 80s.
• Christian Nu Metal band Love and Death has Empty, where lead guitarist and backup vocalist JR Bareis gets two verses as lead vocalist in a Linkin Park style back and forth with normal vocalist Brian "Head" Welch. Also qualifies as Soprano and Gravel.
• Similarly, Noel Gallagher of Oasis usually did not sing lead despite writing the bulk of the group's material. His brother Liam Gallagher was lead vocalist. Noel sings lead on only a few Oasis tracks, including the hit "Don't Look Back In Anger" and also "The Importance of Being Idle".
• The Beatles: Ringo Starr got to sing one song on every album (except on "A Hard Day's Night" and "Let It Be") and even wrote two songs of his own. George Harrison also sang at least one song on every album, typically covers of existing songs on early albums, and later his own compositions.
• Collective Soul's lead vocals are typically performed by Ed Roland. He also tends to write most of their music and lyrics. On Dosage, now ex-lead guitarist Ross Childress wrote the music and lyrics to "Dandy Life", and also sings lead vocals. Years later, Childress's replacement Joel Kosche would write and sing lead on "I Don't Need Anymore Friends" from Afterwords.
• Doves: Jimi Goodwin is the lead singer, but the twins - Andy and Jez Williams - have sung lead on assorted tracks throughout the years.
• Flogging Molly: "Cruel Mistress" and "Queen Anne's Revenge" were sung by bassist Nathan Maxwell.
• Five Iron Frenzy: "Beautiful America" and "Second Season" were sung by trombonist Dennis Culp.
• Franz Ferdinand: Jeremy Fraser and Van Tango are sung by Nick McCarthy.
• Fugazi has both Ian MacKaye and Guy Picciotto yelling/growling on vocals, but later albums also included their bassist, Joe Lally, on the microphone.
• KISS: "Beth", sung by Peter Criss and "Shock Me" by Ace Frehley.
  • Criss is an odd example, as he was the clear Garfunkel of the group, despite being regarded as the best singer of the four, giving a great performance on "Black Diamond", otherwise known as the only Kiss song any of their detractors will actually admit to liking. This is most likely due to fact that he rarely wrote any of the songs he sang lead on.
• The Rolling Stones: Bill Wyman sings lead on "In Another Land" (which he wrote), while Keith Richards does so on a number of songs ("Happy", "You Got The Silver", "Before They Make Me Run", etc).
• The Who: "My Wife", "Boris the Spider", "The Quiet One" and others, sung by John Entwistle; "Bell Boy" and others, sung by Keith Moon; numerous songs sung by Pete Townshend.
• Arcade Fire: Win Butler sings lead on most songs, but his wife Régine Chassagne generally takes the lead for 2-3 tracks on each album.
• As Tall as Lions: Their last album had bassist Julio Tavarez sing lead on "You Can't Take It with You" and "Duermete", while guitarist Saen Fitzgerald took the mic for "Sleepyhead".
• Court Yard Hounds are essentially The (Dixie) Chicks Minus the Face, with Emily Robison on lead vocals, but giving Martie Maguire a song in the limelight with "Gracefully".
• Cream - "Blue Condition" and "Pressed Rat and Warthog", sung and spoken by Ginger Baker. Additionally, "Outside Woman Blues", "Strange Brew" and "Crossroads" were sung by Eric Clapton. Clapton split lead vocals with regular vocalist Jack Bruce, on "Sunshine of Your Love", as they alternate the lines of the verses and sing together on the chorus.
• Drive By Truckers is fronted by the tag team of Mike Cooley and Patterson Hood, but after Jason Isbell left, his ex-wife Shonna Tucker, the band's bass player, stepped up to the mic for a song or two per album that she wrote. She also sings lead on the cover of "Where's Eddie" on Go-Go Boots. Before Isbell's departure, she sang the second verse of the band's cover of "Like a Rolling Stone", which appears on The Fine Print rarities compilation.
  • On Gangstabilly, their first album, original bassist Adam Howell sings "Late for Church", which he co-wrote with Patterson Hood. Notable for being the only co-written lyric on a DBT album, and because otherwise Howell, like most of the musicians on the first two albums, is otherwise The Pete Best
  • All other original songs by the band have been sung by the writer (Hood, Cooley, Rob Malone, Isbell, or Tucker), with the exception of two Hood songs: "Wallace" from Southern Rock Opera, sung by Malone; and "Till He's Dead or Rises" from English Oceans, sung by Cooley
  • In live shows bassist Mike Patton will occasionally sing a cover of The Ramones "The KKK Took My Baby Away"
• Guns N' Roses: "So Fine", sung by Duff McKagan. Also from those albums, "14 Years", "Dust N' Bones", "You Ain't the First" and "Double Talkin' Jive" are sung by Izzy Stradlin'.
  • Also, during Rock in Rio III in 2001, guitarist Robin Finck sung "Sossego", by Brazilian singer Tim Maia.
• Iona's songs are almost always sung by Joanne Hogg when there are vocals at all, but Troy Donockley sang lead during the vocal section of "Wind Off the Lake", with Joanne only providing backup and a wordless vocal section at the end of the song.
• You'd never know it due to the difficulty of telling his voice apart from Jason Wade's, but Lifehouse bassist Bryce Soderberg sang lead on "Wrecking Ball", and also on "Bridges" when the band performs it live.
• Midnight Oil: Drummer Rob Hirst sings lead vocals on two songs from Red Sails in the Sunset.
• Meshuggah's Psykisk Testbild and Contradictions Collapse had lead guitarist Fredrik Thordendal perform lead vocals on half the songs.
• The Pixies: "Gigantic", sung by Kim Deal. And "La La Love You", sung by David Lovering.
  • Kim Deal and David Lovering also took the lead on a pair of b-sides, "Into The White" and "Make Believe" respectively. Black Francis wrote the latter, but had David Lovering sing it because the lyrics are based on an in-joke about Lovering having a crush on 80's teen idol Debbie Gibson. And there was a period where Kim Deal would sing live performances of "In Heaven (Lady In The Radiator Song)", though earlier in their career it was always sung by Frank Black.
  • "All I Think About Now", sung by Paz Lenchantin, Kim Deal's eventual replacement in the bassist/backing vocalist role. Interestingly, the song is about Kim Deal: Paz wrote the music and Black Francis wrote the lyrics based on her suggestion of making the song a "thank you letter" to Kim.
• The Smashing Pumpkins: "Blew Away" and "Take Me Down", sung by James Iha, and "Daydream", sung by D'Arcy.
  • "Go" from the internet-only Machina II features vocals by James Iha as well.
  • "Farewell And Goodnight" features all four band members taking a turn on lead vocals.
• The White Stripes: "In the Cold, Cold Night", "Passive Manipulation", and "St. Andrew", sung by Meg White.
• R.E.M.: "Texarkana", "Near Wild Heaven" and "Superman", sung by Mike Mills. The latter has backing vocals by Michael Stipe, who refused to do the lead since he wasn't excited about covering the song.
• Most songs by the Strawbs were sung by Dave Cousins, but John Ford sang "Part of the Union" which he co-wrote with Richard Hudson. Cousins was slightly miffed when "Part of the Union" became their biggest hit.
• U2: "Numb", sung by The Edge (who is otherwise normally a backing singer). Also "Van Diemen's Land".
  • Bassist Adam Clayton performs a spoken word verse during "Your Blue Room", his only vocal contribution to date on a U2 album (well, technically a Passengers album). He also provided vocals on a B-Side called "Endless Deep" during the band's "War" era.
  • The Edge also does lead vocals for the first part of "Seconds".
  • Averted by drummer Larry Mullen, Jr., whom Bono has joked is too handsome to be allowed to sing on record.
• Weezer's Red Album gave everyone a song in the limelight: Drummer Patrick Wilson sings "Automatic", guitarist Brian Bell sings "Thought I Knew" (a reworking of a song by his side-project The Relationship), and bassist Scott Shriner sings "Cold Dark World" and the bonus track "King".
  • Two Cover Versions also qualify: a version of "The Weight" included as a Red Album bonus track has everyone in the band take a verse. Meanwhile, "Paranoid" from The Teal Album has Brian Bell on lead vocals again - apparently it was down to which member could do the best Ozzy Osbourne impression.
• All but one children's album released by They Might Be Giants to date has included a song written and performed by bassist Danny Weinkauf: "Where Do They Make Balloons", "Number Two", "I Am A Paleontologist", and "Elephants". Guitarist Dan Miller also provided "Infinity" for their third one.
  • Also, drummer Marty Beller does lead on "Alphabet Lost and Found", "Speed and Velocity" and co-lead vocals on "High Five!" with child singer Hannah Levine.
  • Also, songs on various albums not sung by any member of the band; they're usually done by John Flansburgh's wife Robin Goldwasser, but others take turns, including the aforementioned Hannah Levine on "One Dozen Monkeys", Margaret Seiler on "Boat of Car", several of the "Fingertips" segments are sung by others, "O, Do Not Forsake Me" by the band Hudson Shad ^note since it's an acapella song, no members of TMBG appear on the studio version - John Flansburgh wrote and sang a demo version but thought it would sound more interesting with a guest vocalist, and John Linnell had suggested Hudson Shad, and "Mr. Xcitement" and "Your Mom's Alright" by Mike Doughty. And that's just the tip of the iceberg...
• Pearl Jam's "Mankind", written and sung by Stone Gossard. There's also "Whale Song", a Protest Song against whale hunting written and sung by drummer Jack Irons (with Eddie Vedder singing backup for the chorus).
• Relient K gave every band member - even brand new drummer Ethan Luck - a song in the limelight on their odds-and-ends collection The Nashville Tennis EP. Also, the hidden track "Good King Wenceslaus" on their Christmas album has each member imitating choirboys singing in falsetto, except for one who can't hack it and attempts to sing bass instead. Hilarity Ensues.
• Jonas Renkse Music/Katatonia
• Nirvana's "Marigold", written and sung by Dave Grohl — actually a Cover Version / rearranged version of "Color Pictures of a Marigold" by Dave's solo side project Late!. It's also the only officially released Nirvana song that Kurt Cobain had no participation in (Krist Novoselic played bass and Dave Grohl played everything else). Despite the fact that it was an obscure B-Side, the song even started getting some radio airplay once Foo Fighters were growing in popularity.
  • Krist sings "Get Together" in the intro of "Territorial Pissings", but just for laughs. Though, when asked about it later, he said that it was meant to make listeners ask themselves what happened to the ideals of The '60s.
• Likewise, once Dave Grohl got his own band, drummer Taylor Hawkins got to sing "Cold Day in the Sun" on the second disc of In Your Honor. He also sings it, while drumming, on several live DVDs and CDs the Foo Fighters have released. He came out from behind the drum kit to perform "Whole Lotta Love" with Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones on the Wembley Stadium DVD (Grohl took his place at the drum kit). Guitarist Chris Shiflett sang covers of Jawbreaker's "Kiss the Bottle" and The Ramones' "Danny Says", both of which were used as b-sides to various singles.
• Ann Arbor pop band Tally Hall has given the mic to keyboardist Andrew Horowitz once per album, with "The Whole World and You" on Marvin's Marvelous Mechanical Museum and "You" on Good & Evil. He wrote both the songs in question.
• Eddie Van Halen sings "How Many Say I" on the album Van Halen III.
  • Also in Van Halen, former bassist and backing vocalist Michael Anthony was known to sing "Somebody Call Me A Doctor" during concerts.
  • On their 1995 tour, Mike and Eddie shared lead vocals on the second verse of "Why Can't This Be Love?".
• Depeche Mode usually has Martin Gore singing lead on at least one song per album. ("Somebody", "Blue Dress", "One Caress", et al.) What's interesting is that he writes 99% of their songs; him singing is usually a stylistic choice rather than because the song was too personal.
• While Tim Armstrong (later of Rancid) had a pretty prominent backing vocal part in most Operation Ivy songs, the one time he got to sing lead was on "Bad Town".
• The Cure's cover of "Foxy Lady" was sung by then-bassist Michael Dempsey because Robert Smith was against the idea of doing cover songs at the time.
• Robin Finck of Nine Inch Nails live lineup sings large portions of Shit Mirror and Gave Up during live shows these days.
• Early Flaming Lips song "Can't Exist" was sung by former drummer Richard English. Much later Steven Drozd would sing "Pompeii am Götterdämmerung", although his part wasn't originally intended to be the lead vocal. Wayne Coyne was going to sing over Drozd's multi-tracked, choir-like vocal part, but the band decided the song would sound better without this.
• Lead guitarist Stu G of Delirious sang the verses of "Inside Outside", although Martin Smith still sang the chorus.
• Wings:
  • Denny Laine sang "The Note You Never Wrote", "Time to Hide", "Children, Children", and "Deliver Your Children".
  • Jimmy McCulloch sang "Medicine Jar" and "Wino Junko".
  • Joe English sang "Must Do Something About It".
  • Linda McCartney sang "Cook of the House".
• Björn Ulvaeus sang lead on one or two songs on each of the early ABBA albums, though "Does Your Mother Know" and "Two for the Price of One" were his only lead vocals on any of the later albums. Benny Andersson had one lead vocal in the band's entire career, "Suzy Hang-Around".
• Queen: Brian May and Roger Taylor sing lead vocals on several songs throughout the band's discography, especially during the '70s. John Deacon, meanwhile, only ever provided backing vocals during live shows and never sang a note in the studio. He always said in interviews that with three strong vocalists in the group, there wasn't much need for him to do any singing. His bandmates' favourite prank was to make his microphone louder than theirs during concerts.
• All four members of Sloan take turns on lead vocals, generally on the songs they themselves have written.
• Same goes for The Moody Blues - with a notable exception from the drummer Graeme Edge, who does speak in some of his songs.
• Black Sabbath: "It's Alright" and "Swinging the Chain" are sung by drummer Bill Ward.
• Muse: "Save Me" and "Liquid State" were written and sung by bassist Chris Wolstenholme, both songs deal with the bassists struggle with alcoholism. Wolstenholme was reluctant to sing them himself, but Matt Bellamy (their normal vocalist) insisted on him singing them since the songs were very personal.
• Pink Floyd: drummer Nick Mason sings two B-sides, "Scream Thy Last Scream" and "The Merry Xmas Song". Mason also gets credit for delivering the only lyric ("One of these days I'm going to cut you into little pieces") from "One of These Days", although his voice is pitch-shifted.
• Green Day: for full songs, drummer Tré Cool sings "Dominated Love Slave" and "All By Myself", and bassist Mike Dirnt sings b-side "Governator"; for suites, American Idiot has one part of "Homecoming" sung by Cool ("Rock N' Roll Girlfriend") and one by Dirnt ("Nobody Likes You"), and 21st Century Breakdown has Dirnt singing half of "American Eulogy" ("Modern World"). Dirnt also gets an interlude in the Tre! track "Sex, Drugs and Violence."
• Adrian Smith sings lead vocals on "Reach Out" for Iron Maiden. Possibly parodied by an "attempt" at making drummer Nicko McBrain sing. (the original song, just for comparison).
• Some Alabama album cuts feature bassist Teddy Gentry or guitarist/fiddler Jeff Cook on lead vocal instead of Randy Owen. Owen and Cook also get one line each in the bridge to "Mountain Music", and all three reprised their vocal roles when Brad Paisley sampled "Mountain Music" in "Old Alabama". Drummer Mark Herndon rarely even played in-studio, never mind singing.
• Michigan comedic musical group Da Yoopers usually gave the vocals to drummer Jim "Hoolie" DeCaire, guitarist Joe Potila, or Potila's replacement Jim Bellmore. Keyboardist Lynn Bellmore (formerly Lynn Anderson and Lynn Coffey) also sang at least one song per album, with all except "Nudsie's Wedding Reception" on Yoopy Do Wah being a song written from a female perspective. But nearly everyone who has ever been an official member has handled at least one vocal. Prominent examples include:
  • First bassist Jim Pennell sang "Smeltin' USA" and "Chiquito War".
  • Second bassist Joe DeLongchamp sang "Camp Fever" and "Drinking Resort".
  • Third bassist Doc Bradbury sang "Transplant Song", "Free Beer", and one verse of "Heikki Lunta" on Yoopy Do Wah, plus "Grandpa Got Run Over by a Beer Truck" on One Can Short of a Six-Pack.
  • Percussionist Jerry Coffey sang "Super Dooper Yooper Love Machine", plus two lines on "Night Crawler Boogie" and a duet with Lynn on "Ridin' da Cotton Pony". He also sang "30 Pound Diaper" in concert for several years, but after he quit, it became the only song to be sung by fourth bassist Reggie Lusardi (who also did the studio version on 21st Century Yoopers in Space).
  • Billy Bob Langson and Pete "Casanova" LaLonde, who usually only handled the sketch comedy routines in concert, sang parts of "Armchair Quarterback" with Lynn.
  • Dan Collins, who was briefly a rhythm guitarist in the late 90s, sang "Yooper Cowboy Dan".
  • They've even had a few guest vocalists:
    • On Culture Shock, Bertha and Elaine Hintsala sang "Iso Sika", and Sandy Kemppa sang "Da Couch Dat Burps".
    • Jim DeCaire's son Jesse sings "Yooper Kid" on Yoop It Up. Jesse later became an Ascended Extra, providing some musical backing on later albums and serving as their sound tech. He also sang "Snow Day" on 21st Century Yoopers in Space, and "I Tried to Be a Yooper Man" on Old Age Ain't for Sissies.
    • The late-90s video compilation It's About Time, Eh! has a re-recording of "Diarrhea" (originally sung by Potila) sung by Kim Lenten. This re-recording later appeared on Songs for Fart Lovers. Lenten later returned to sing "Got My Sisu Working" and "Designated Driver's Drunk" on 21st Century Yoopers in Space, and "Living in Yooper Paradise" on Old Age Ain't for Sissies.
    • Glenn Adams sang part of "Dear Mr. Governor" on Culture Shock, along with "Sauna Song" and "Butcher Town" on Camp Fever, an interlude on "Ooga Booga" from Jackpine Savage, and "I'm Old" on Old Age Ain't for Sissies.
• Country music group Blackhawk was usually led by Henry Paul, with Van Stephenson and Dave Robbins as backing vocalists. Van sang "If That Was a Lie" on Love & Gravity, and Robbins sang "I'll Always Love You" on Spirit Dancer (which had three other members added to the band following Stephenson's death from skin cancer). Since then, the band's lineup fluctuated repeatedly, with Henry Paul as the only consistent member.
• Cheap Trick Bassist Tom Petersson has only one lead vocal in the band's discography, 'I Know What I Want' from the 1979 album Dream Police. (There does, however, exist an unreleased version of 'Voices' from the same LP with Petersson on lead.)
• Whitesnake: in the early days of the band guitarist Bernie Marsden got to sing lead on two tracks: 'Free Flight' and 'Outlaw'.
• Y&T: 'Squeeze' was sung by bassist Phil Kennemore.
• Blur: Guitarist Graham Coxon sings on three songs he wrote, "You're So Great", "Coffee and TV" and co-lead on "Tender" and the B-side "Red Necks," while bassist Alex James wrote and sang on "Far Out" and (in a Chipmunked vocal) the B-side "Alex's Song." Dave Rowntree's only vocal is on the Think Tank-era demo "Avoid the Traffic." Additionally, four members sing a verse on their cover of "The Wassailing Song", a rare 7 inch single given out to fans at a Christmastime show in 1992.
• Havalina Rail Co. has done this a bunch over the years.
  • Drummer Jeff Suri sings "One Day", "Cajun Blue", "Bullfrog", and "Keep Smil'n".
  • Percussionist Lori Hoopes-Suri sings "Winter".
  • Saxophonist Nathan Jensen sings "Paper Moon", "Prelude and Blues", and "Nathan's Song".
  • Guitarist Mercedes Stevens sings "Carlos".
  • Keyboardist Dave Maust delivers a spoken-word bit on "Space, Love, and Bullfighting Suite".
• Red Hot Chili Peppers: the song "Knock Me Down" from the album Mother's Milk has guitarist John Frusciante and lead singer Anthony Kiedis singing in unison — however, Frusciante's vocals are much more audible. Frusciante also had up to three solo numbers (usually singing slowed down shortened covers) at shows; and he sings a great deal of chorus on "Dosed" and "Right On Time", the ending of "Save The Population" and pretty much every second line of verses of the rare 2006 live renditions of "Funky Monks".
  • Also, Flea's song "Pea" from the album One Hot Minute. Flea would occasionally sing it live.
• Country music band Trick Pony usually gave lead vocals to Heidi Newfield, but guitarist Keith Burns sang lead on "Just What I Do" (their only single not sung by Newfield), and both he and bassist Ira Dean sang on several album cuts.
• "Hourglass" by At the Drive-In, sung by rhythm guitarist Jim Ward - Ward would go on to front Sparta, whose lineup mostly consisted of other former members of ATDI.
• Faces: Ron Wood sings "Ooh La La", while Ronnie Lane sings "Richmond", "You're So Rude", "Debris", and "Last Orders Please".
• While other members frequently wrote the lyrics and music to songs, the only time someone other than Mike Patton took lead vocals on a Mr. Bungle song was on "The Secret Song", sung/spoken by bassist Trevor Dunn. Strangely, this ended up happening because the band originally left Dunn out of the song entirely: The song was written and recorded without him, and when he stumbled upon the track on his own, he jokingly retaliated by secretly recording lyrics about how angry he was about being left out of the song. The rest of the group was amused enough to keep it in, then they furthered the in-joke by not listing the song anywhere on the artwork to Disco Volante.
• Fugazi mostly have Ian MacKaye and Guy Picciotto as a Vocal Tag Team, but bassist Joe Lally takes the lead for the songs "By You", "Recap Modotti", and "The Kill".
• Unwound: "Side Effects of Being Tired" and "December", which appear on their penultimate and final albums, respectively, are sung by bassist Vern Rumsey instead of usual vocalist Justin Trosper.
• Madness. Suggs sings most songs, but Cathal Smyth and Lee Thompson also take the lead on occasion; the latter's usual live Song In The Limelight is Razor Blade Alley from One Step Beyond Album.
• The Mighty Mighty Bosstones' b-side "Chocolate Pudding" has saxophonist Tim "Johnny Vegas" Burton on lead vocals.
• Originally, the country band Lonestar had frontman Richie McDonald and bassist John Rich alternate lead vocals; Rich sang lead on several album cuts ("Heartbroke Every Day", "I Love the Way You Do That", "Does Your Daddy Know About Me", "Ragtop Cadillac", and "Paradise Knife and Gun Club" on their first album; "John Doe on a John Deere" and "What Do We Do with the Rest of the Night" on their second) but of these, only "Heartbroke Every Day" was a single. (Coincidentally or not, this song charted at the same time that McDonald made a guest appearance on Mindy McCready's "Maybe He'll Notice Her Now".) Since Rich's departure for Big & Rich, Lonestar has not had an official bassist, and McDonald has been the sole lead vocalist (barring 2008-2011, when he left and Cody Collins replaced him).
• Guster usually has a singing switching between Ryan and Adam. However, fourth member Joe has his own song, "I Hope Tomorrow Is Like Today", where Ryan and Adam sing back up vocals. During live shows, the band also occasionally does a "Chinese Fire Drill", where everyone switches instruments and roles and plays a song, badly.
• There's a couple examples of this on Steely Dan's debut album Can't Buy A Thrill: "Midnite Cruiser" is sung by drummer Jim Hodder. "Dirty Work", "Brooklyn (Owes the Charmer Under Me)" and part of "Turn That Heartbeat Over Again" are sung by David Palmer, who was hired as the band's "lead singer" for live shows because the band's actual lead singer/songwriter Donald Fagen suffered from stage fright. Fagen and his songwriting partner Walter Becker eventually completely took over the band and retired from public performance, and fired the auxiliary members, which meant that after the first album, all other recordings in the band's catalog were sung by Donald Fagen.
  • Actually, Donald Fagen didn't want to sing as he thought the band would get more airplay with a professional-sounding vocalist. This is proven by the fact they have guest vocalists on their early demos long before they played any shows, not to mention their first single "Dallas", sung by Jim Hodder (which doesn't appear on an album). Donald sang on all the songs from their second album onwards to give the albums a sense of unity, but he got David Palmer and Royce Jones to perform vocals on the Countdown To Ecstasy and Pretzel Logic tours. They only sacked the extra vocalists when they became a studio-only band for The Royal Scam.
  • Walter Becker, who didn't do much singing aside from the odd backing vocal as he was more involved with the band's instrumentation, gets a long-awaited lead vocal on "Slang of Ages" from 2003's Everything Must Go.
• Mercury Rev's "Hudson Line" had guitarist Grasshopper take lead vocals instead of Jonathan Donahue.
• Linkin Park is well known for its Vocal Tag Team of Chester Bennington and Mike Shinoda, although Shinoda himself became famous for his rapping in tandem with Chester's wide-ranged, versatile singing, which could range from anywhere from clean to Harsh Vocals to a full-blown Metal Scream. While 'Minutes To Midnight' featured much less rapping from Shinoda, he got an entire song to himself in "In Between" and has been singing quite a bit more on songs since then.
  • In a later and straighter example, lead guitarist Brad Delson got some vocals in "Until It Breaks" from Living Things, from the third verse 'til the end.
• Goo Goo Dolls have John Rzeznik and Robby Takac. Rzeznik is known for being the voice behind hits like "Name" and "Iris", but until close to that point, Takac was actually the lead vocalist as the band had mainly punk influences, with Rzeznik getting a song — usually a ballad — in the limelight every so often. Since the band found more mainstream success, it's been the other way around. Rzeznik has taken over as the main lead vocalist, but Robby Takac still sings lead on at least two or three songs per album.
• Poison's song "I Hate Every Bone In Your Body But Mine" features lead vocals by guitarist C.C. DeVille.
• Original Ramones bassist Dee Dee Ramone sings lead vocals on several songs. (He was the band's lead singer in the early days, but bowed out of that role when he discovered he couldn't sing and play bass at the same time). After Dee Dee retired from performing with the band, his replacement, C.J. Ramone, handled vocal duties on at least one song from each of their last three albums.
• The song "Can You Imagine", from Yes' 2001 album Magnification and the song "The Man You Always Wanted Me To Be" from their 2011 release Fly from Here feature lead vocals by bassist Chris Squire. Also, there are two bonus tracks on the deluxe edition of 90125 in which guitarist Trevor Rabin sings lead, and he does additional vocals for "Changes", among other songs from his tenure. Fly From Here also features a two-part harmony between Benoit David and Steve Howe, and "Tempus Fugit" from Drama is mostly a two-part harmony between Trevor Horn and Chris Squire.
• Original Jethro Tull guitarist Mick Abrahams sang lead on the song "Move On Alone" from their 1968 debut album This Was. The two acts of their 1973 opus A Passion Play are separated by a musical spoken-word piece entitled "The Story of the Hare Who Lost His Spectacles", narrated (and towards the end, sung) by bassist Jeffrey Hammond.
• Mötley Crüe played around with this trope a bit on their Generation Swine album, which features one song sung by Nikki Sixx ("Rocketship") and another by Tommy Lee ("Brandon"). Also, Nikki's vocals are so prominent on the songs "Beauty" and "Find Myself" that Vince's contributions to those tracks could be taken for backup vocals.
• The Corrs is a four-part band of three sisters and a brother. The youngest, Andrea, is the lead singer, but the other two sisters, Sharon the violinist and Caroline the drummer, are just as talented singers. The most prominent example of them singing lead is the song No Frontiers, including the one time they sang that song during Andrea's wedding.
• Billy Howerdel is the founding member of A Perfect Circle, but mainly sticks to lead guitar and backing vocals. However, he does sing lead on their covers of Devo's "Freedom Of Choice" and Depeche Mode's "People Are People". There's an acoustic version of "Orestes" with his lead vocals that was released as a b-side, but that may not count, since it was a solo demo recorded before the rest of the band got together.
• Creedence Clearwater Revival's Mardi Gras was their final album and the only one to feature any members other than John Fogerty writing or singing songs. In fact, Stu Cook and Doug Clifford get three songs each, with Fogerty only contributing three originals and one cover. The circumstances that resulted in this actually ended up being relevant to why the band broke up not long after release; the individual members tell conflicting stories — Cook and Clifford claim that Fogerty threatened to quit the band if they didn't write and sing songs, while Fogerty claims the two demanded more individual contributions and then shifted blame onto him once they overstretched their abilities — but either way, it was an arrangement nobody was happy with.
• Bob "Bob 1" Mothersbaugh from Devo sung the lead vocals to their semi-cover of "Secret Agent Man". Jerry Casale explained that he was chosen for the song because he is the most "everyman" looking member of the group.
• Jamie Murphy did this on every Space album except Suburban Rock 'n' Roll; he had five songs on Spiders, three on Tin Planet (one of which he shared with Franny Griffiths), four on Love You More Than Football, and various B-sides. Yorkie sang lead vocals on 'Lost In Space' and 'Supersonic Jetplane'. Even the keyboard players got a vocal in the limelight, Franny on 'I Am Unlike A Lifeform You've Ever Met' and Ryan on 'Happy Clowns'.
• Alison Krauss & Union Station sometimes gives Dan Tyminski or Ron Block the lead vocal. It can be quite disconcerting to listen to a song by a band with that name, then hear a male voice singing.
• Rascal Flatts is usually fronted by Gary LeVox, but a few cuts in their discography have had the other two members (bassist/keyboardist Jay DeMarcus and guitarist Joe Don Rooney) share the lead, such as the album cuts "Long Slow Beautiful Dance" (from their self-titled debut) and "A Little Home" (from Changed). They've also done this with two Christmas releases: "God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen" (from the 2001 multi-artist No Wrapping Required: A Christmas Album) and a cover of "Mary, Did You Know?" (a digital-only release from 2010; also performed on ABC's CMA Country Christmas special in 2011).
• Brooks & Dunn are an interesting variation. Their albums featured a fairly even split between Ronnie Dunn and Kix Brooks on lead vocals, but out of their fifty singles, only six were sung by Kix: "Lost and Found", "Rock My World (Little Country Girl)", "You're Gonna Miss Me When I'm Gone" (their only #1 hit on which he sang lead), "Mama Don't Get Dressed Up for Nothing", "Why Would I Say Goodbye", and "South of Santa Fe". The last of those was released in 1999, a good 10 years before they split up, and supposedly withdrawn just shy of the top 40 because program directors were saying that they didn't want another Kix song. And on most of the other 44 songs, Kix is either barely audible (perhaps because they tended to use studio backing vocalists as well) or just plain non-existent. Only two songs in their catalog have them both singing lead: a cover of "Folsom Prison Blues" for the 1994 charity album Red Hot + Country, and "Born and Raised in Black and White" from 1998's If You See Her.
• The Velvet Underground had three lead singers on rotating duty - Lou Reed and Nico on the first album, Lou and Doug Yule on the last two - but bass/piano/viola player John Cale ("Lady Godiva's Operation", "The Gift") and drummer Maureen Tucker ("After Hours", "I'm Sticking With You") also got to sing two each.
  • During their 1993 reunion tour, John Cale handled vocals on songs where Nico originally sang lead (Nico having died in 1988).
• Noel Redding of the Jimi Hendrix Experience got to sing a song of his own on both Axis: Bold As Love ("She's So Fine", with backing vocals by Mitch Mitchell) and Electric Ladyland ("Little Miss Strange").
• Journey usually had at least one member stepping in for the lead singer.
  • During the early era with organist Gregg Rolie as lead singer, Neal Schon sang on several tracks.
  • After Steve Perry joined the band, Rolie continued to contribute the occasional lead vocal until his departure.
  • Rolie's replacement Jonathan Cain sings lead on the unreleased track "All That Really Matters."
• Sister Hazel is somewhere between this trope and Vocal Tag Team with Drew Copeland, who sings at least one song per album (except the first) at lead vocals. Also, guitarist Ryan Newell did all the vocals for "Christmas Time Again", on their Christmas album, Santa's Playlist.
• Aerosmith's Joe Perry sings lead vocals on a few of their songs. He also sings twinned harmonizing vocals with Steven Tyler in "Combination".
• OK Go's Tim Nordwind sings "C-C-C-Cinnamon Lips". So far this is the only song of theirs not to have Damian Kulash on lead vocals.
• On the first Dinosaur Jr. album, J Mascis and Lou Barlow actually had something of a Vocal Tag Team approach. All other albums featuring Barlow have him only singing lead on one or two songs. When Barlow was out of the band (throughout the 90's), no one other than J Mascis would sing lead - now that the original lineup is back together, Lou Barlow still gets a couple of tracks per album.
  • There is one non-Lou Barlow example, which was a B-Side: "Better Than Gone", written and sung by Don Fleming. Fleming was never considered a proper member of the band, but contributed bass, guitar, and backing vocals on the album Green Mind.
• Johnny Hickman usually gets one to three songs on any given Cracker album, or else doesn't sing lead at all (though he also sings lead on various B-Side or compilation tracks). Also, "What You're Missing" is notable for giving everyone in the then-current lineup a Piss-Take Rap style verse.
• Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers were known to do this, mostly in concert. Tom sang nearly all of the songs but on occasion he stepped aside and let one of the Heartbreakers sing lead.
  • On the second Mudcrutch album, every other member of the band writes and sings a song.
• For the Max Webster song "A Million Vacations", lead vocals were provided by drummer Gary McCracken rather than usual singer Kim Mitchell.
• On the UK release of Yeah!, Def Leppard's album of cover songs, the Queen song "Dear Friends" is sung, punk-style, by bassist Rick Savage.
  • A song recorded for the album, but not included, was Phil Collen singing a laid back, funky version of The Police's "Roxanne".
• While most of their original songs are written by either Chris White or Rod Argent, Colin Blunstone generally plays the role of lead singer in The Zombies. Odessey and Oracle had some exceptions though: Rod Argent sang lead on "I Want Her She Wants Me", while Chris White sang "Butcher's Tale (Western Front 1914)" and a verse of "Brief Candles".
• XTC are usually based around the Vocal Tag Team of Andy Partridge and Colin Moulding. However, Go 2 had Barry Andrews, keyboardist for their first two albums, sing "My Weapon" and "Super-Tuff".
• Heart normally features Ann Wilson as the lead singer with her sister Nancy on the guitar. Nancy, however, has performed lead vocals on several songs, most notably "These Dreams", Heart's first #1 single.
• Country Music duo Sugarland usually has Jennifer Nettles sing lead, but guitarist/mandolinist Kristian Bush shared the lead vocals on "These Are the Days" (from their second album Enjoy the Ride), "Love" and "Come On Get Higher" (from their third album Love on the Inside), "Maybe Baby" (from their Christmas album Gold and Green), "Guide You Home" (from the Act of Valor soundtrack), and their live cover of The Dream Academy's "Life in a Northern Town" from 2007 (which also featured Jake Owen and all four members of Little Big Town sharing the lead). They have also inverted this as several songs do not have Kristian singing even the backing vocals (most notably the single "Stay", although Bush at least plays guitar on it).
• The Breeders' "I Just Wanna Get Along" had Kelley Deal on lead vocals instead of her sister Kim — allegedly, Kim Deal thought that if she sang the song, it would be too obvious as a Take That! to the former frontman of her previous band. The Cannonball EP features bassist Josephine Wiggs taking the lead on two songs — "900", which she wrote, and "Lord Of The Thighs", an Aerosmith cover.
• Sufjan Stevens handed lead vocal duties to Shara Worden (who sang backing vocals on some prior albums) on "Impossible Soul". Well, it was only for the second movement of the song, but that second movement was long enough to be a standalone song ("Impossible Soul" is a long song).
• During the tours supporting their self-titled album, Metallica bassist Jason Newsted would sing "Seek and Destroy" and "Whiplash". Very rarely, the entire band has swapped instruments for "Am I Evil?", with Lars Ulrich on lead vocals.
• Parodied on Robby Roadsteamer's "I'm Falling Down (And I Don't Want To Get Back Up)" - guitarist Pete Tentindo sang and wrote the song, but Robby sabotages it by adding "backing vocals" that mock the lyrics (as would be in character for him) - we never even get to hear the end of the song, as it gets derailed by a staged in-studio argument. Played straight several times on the album I'll Be At Your Funeral - Pete Tentindo gets two songs ("A Lifetime In A Dream" and "I'm Falling Down" again, this time without in-character interruptions), Nick D'Amico gets one ("Maggie Poo"), and a few other songs have everyone else in the band singing a line or two.
• Rilo Kiley's first album Take Offs and Landings had guitarist Blake Sennett sing four of its fifteen songs (including a Hidden Track). After this, he'd only get one or two lead vocals per album (only their last studio album, Under the Blacklight, is sung entirely by usual lead singer Jenny Lewis).
• Crowded House drummer Paul Hester sings lead on "Italian Plastic", "I'm Still Here" and "Skin Feeling".
• The Monkees have over 150 songs on their "official" releases (not counting rarities compilations, demos, jam sessions, or the 1976 reunion-in-all-but-name album); Peter Tork has lead vocals on only 15 of them, 6 of which he shares with his bandmates. It doesn't help his numbers that he was absent from the group for 3 albums. (Since the group wasn't allowed to play on their first album and Tork had no vocals at all on that record, he would have been left off of the album entirely if Michael Nesmith hadn't snuck him in to record a guitar part for one of Nesmith's songs.)
• Dethklok has "Kill You", which is sung by the Pickles the Drummer while Nathan was resting his voice (and having a sandwich).
• Reel Big Fish does this in concert with Where Have You Been, with lead singer/guitarist Aaron Barrett urging a different member of the band each time to sing the final line. Additionally, the album Cheer Up features Drunk Again, a slow ballad sung by trumpeter/back-up vocalist/back-up guitarist/whatever Scott Klopfenstein. Some editions of the disc even have a lead-in where, again, Aaron tells him to get up and sing.
• Only two of Fockewolf's songs were sung by producer Robert Wilhelm; "Accidents With Scalpels" and "Frail Doll".
• Most Sonic Youth songs are sung by Thurston Moore or Kim Gordon, but Lee Ranaldo usually has one or two songs on lead vocals per album.
• Front 242's 05:22:09:12 Off album was mostly sung by Christine "99" Kowalski, with Jean-Luc de Meyer confined to only a few tracks.
• Petra handed off the mic twice in their long (by Christian Rock standards) history: 1982's "Disciple" was a duet between lead singer Greg X. Volz and bassist Mark Kelly; and "Breathe In", one of only two new songs on their 2000 album Double Take, was written and sung by lead guitarist Pete Orta.
• Dream Theater keyboardist Kevin Moore sings the first two verses of "Space-Dye Vest." Somewhat of a bizarre example, as James LaBrie's vocals are still in the mix, but it sounds like only one vocalist (the singer is clearly not LaBrie alone, but is also in a much higher register than Moore's solo recording of the song)
  • Starting with 2002's Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence, drummer Mike Portnoy would contribute harsh-sounding co-lead vocals to a song or two every album, providing a Soprano and Gravel contrast to LaBrie's higher, operatic range. Notable examples are "Constant Motion", in which the two split the vocals almost 50-50, and "A Nightmare To Remember", where he attempts a death growl in one verse.
  • The Wither EP features a version of the title track sung by guitarist John Petrucci and a demo of "The Best of Times" sung by Portnoy
• The supergroup Flying Colors is fronted by Casey MacPhearson with some additional singing by Neal Morse, but Mike Portnoy sings "Fool in My Heart" from their debut. In concert, Portnoy also sings the Dream Theater song "Repentance," which he wrote for the band as part of his Twelve-Step Suite.
• Most of Florida Georgia Line's songs have Tyler Hubbard on lead vocals, but "Dirt", "Anything Goes", and "May We All" (which also features Tim McGraw) have a few lines sung by Brian Kelley instead. Brian also sings "While He's Still Around", "Island", and "Sittin' Pretty" by himself.
• Eyes Adrift primarily had Curt Kirkwood on lead vocals, but Krist Novoselic takes the lead for the songs "Inquiring Minds", "Dottie Dawn & Julie Jewel", and "Pasted".
• The Wilkinsons usually had Amanda Wilkinson on lead vocals, with her brother Tyler and their father Steve on backing vocals. However, Tyler sang lead on several album cuts and shared the lead with Amanda on the single "Jimmy's Got a Girlfriend", while Steve sang the closing track on both of their first two albums.
• REO Speedwagon bassist Bruce Hall takes over lead vocals from usual frontman Kevin Cronin on seven songs ("Back on the Road Again, "Let's Be-Bop", "Someone Tonight", "Hey Wait A Minute", "After Tonight", "Accidents Can Happen" and "Born To Love You". He shares lead duties with Cronin on "Girl With The Heart Of Gold".
• The Ash B-Side "Grey Will Fade" was written and sung by then-guitarist/backing vocalist Charlotte Hatherley - She also played every instrument on the studio version other than drums (played by Ash's drummer, Rick McMurray) and sang her own backing vocals. Ash's usual vocalist, Tim Wheeler, had high praise for the song and encouraged her to make music on her own; A re-recorded version of "Grey Will Fade" subsequently became the title track to her first solo album.
• Korean rock band FT Island's Lee Jaejin, who is the bassist and subvocalist, sings a few of their songs by himself, "Rock'n'Roll" and "Yume", instead of the main vocalist Hongki. There's also "Friends" which is technically sung by Jaejin and Seunghyun but Seunghyun mostly just backs him up.
• CHVRCHES has keyboardist Martin Doherty sing lead on "ZVVL", "Under the Tide", "You Caught the Light", "High Enough to Carry You Over", "Follow You", and "God's Plan" instead of normal frontwoman Lauren Mayberry.
• Motörhead guitarist Eddie Clarke sings lead vocals on Step Down, on the album Bomber.
• Hacktivist has a variation of this. The band is built around the dual-rap approach of emcees Jermaine "J" Hurley and Ben Marvin. However, whenever a song calls for singing, guitarist Tim "Timfy James" Beazly can come in for clean, melodic singing vocals. On their debut album Outside the Box, he gets an entire song to himself with "The Storm II".
• In small-scale musical theatre productions, the pianist will occasionally be called upon to sing a number or two. (Contrary to the trope name, the pianist will remain seated and there may be no amplification at all.) For instance, the pianist in Closer Than Ever turns the torch song "There" into an unexpected duet with the singer seated on the piano, supplies a third male voice to "Fathers of Fathers," and also contributes to a few ensembles such as the beginning "The Sound of Muzak."
• The hit recording of "Laura" by Woody Herman and His Orchestra was one of the few where Herman himself provided the vocals.
• Among McBride & the Ride songs, guitarist Ray Herndon sang "Baby, I'm Loving You Now" and "Just the Thought of Losing You", and drummer Billy Thomas sang "Hangin' In and Hangin' On". Everything else was handled by Lead Bassist Terry McBride.
• Australian Crawl rhythm guitarist Guy McDonough sings lead on "Errol" and "Oh No Not You Again".
• Country Music duo The Kinleys usually had Heather Kinley on lead vocals with twin sister Jennifer on harmony, but this was reversed for "I Need You Now".
• The majority of Chicago's songs on their first eleven albums were handled by the triumvirate of Terry Kath, Peter Cetera, and Robert Lamm; however, trumpeter Lee Loughnane sang Kath's "Song of the Evergreens" as well as his own "Together Again" and "This Time", while trombonist James Pankow sang "You Are On My Mind" and "Till the End of Time".
• Zac Brown Band has a few examples: their debut album has guitarist John Driskell Hopkins singing most of "It's Not OK", and keyboardist Clay Cook sings part of "Last but Not Least" on Uncaged. Also, the band has occasionally covered "Baba O'Riley" in concert with Brown and Cook alternating the lead vocals.
• Most of Joey + Rory's singles had Joey Feek singing lead. However, both of them alternated on "This Song's for You" (featuring Zac Brown Band) and Rory sang "Josephine".
• Brent DeBoer, drummer and backing vocalist of The Dandy Warhols, sung lead on "This Is The Tide".
• Unlike other Bauhaus albums, which had Peter Murphy as sole vocalist, Burning from the Inside includes one song ("Who Killed Mr. Moonlight") sung by David J. and another ("Slice Of Life") sung by Daniel Ash. Peter Murphy had fallen ill prior to the recording sessions, leaving the rest of the band to do much of the writing and recording on their own. This example could be a borderline case for the "both" category: David J. and Daniel Ash would later trade off lead vocal duties in Love and Rockets, a group whose core lineup consisted entirely of former Bauhaus members.
• The Big Big Train album Grimspound featured two tracks on which David Longdon, for the first time, shared lead vocals:
  • "A Mead Hall in Winter", with drummer Nick D'Virgilio (see above)
  • "As the Crow Flies," with violinist Rachel Hall
• Most of the songs by 4 Runner were sung by Craig Morris, but their 2002 a cappella rendition of "What Child Is This?" begins with all four members singing a line before going into a four-part vocal arrangement with Craig on lead.
• Solo artist variant: Chris Stapleton's wife Morgane is a backing vocalist in his road band. In concerts, he is known to give her the mic for a rendition of "You Are My Sunshine".
• Most songs by the Desert Rose Band were sung by Chris Hillman (formerly of The Byrds), but Herb Pedersen took at least one lead vocal per album, most prominently on "Hello Trouble".
• The Break-Up's "Your Dark Brown Eyes" has Shane Allen Hall sing lead in lieu of Severina X Sol.
• Vince Clarke sings on Yazoo's "Happy People" rather than Alison Moyet, notably the only time he's sung lead on a song by any of his projects; in Yazoo he usually writes songs and provides most of the instrumentation but doesn't sing. Moyet said she refused to sing it because after a few tries she found she "couldn't genuinely bring anything to it", but Clarke still liked it and decided to sing it himself.
• Gorillaz have done this a few times: Noodle (the guitarist/backing vocalist) sings lead on the song "DARE" (which she wrote), Murdoc (the bassist) sang/whisper-rapped on the song "White Light," and the voice whispering "Let Me Out" in the titular song is the drummer, Russel.
• Galaxy Hunter's 2018 remake of "Running High" has Monika Novak perform lead vocals, while frontman Zbigniew Danielewicz does backing vocals.
• Highway 101's lead vocals usually went to Paulette Carlson, but bassist Curtis Stone shared the lead vocal with her on their cover of Dire Straits' "Setting Me Up".
• Covenant's "False Gods" is sung by Daniel Myer instead of Eskil Simonsson.
• The Partridge Family: Keith is the usual lead singer, but Shirley sings lead on "Whale Song".
• Wilco bassist John Stirratt sings lead vocals on one song, "It's Just That Simple" from A.M.. It is the only song to not be sung or co-written by bandleader Jeff Tweedy.
• Midland's second album Let It Roll features bassist Cameron Duddy singing "Lost in the Night" and guitarist Jess Carson singing "Roll Away" instead of usual lead vocalist Mark Wystrach.
• Iconic Israeli band Kaveret - for their first two albums, all songs were written by songwriter Danny Sanderson, and sung by lead singer Gidi Gov. For the third album, the other members of the band demanded more input; each member (lead guitarist Yitzhak Klepter, rhythm guitarist Efrayim Shamir, keyboardist Yoni Rechter and bassist Alon Oleartchick) each contributed their own songs and sang lead on them too.^note Drummer Meir Fenigstein rarely sang, but performed most of the speaking parts on the band's sketches and more comedic songs. While it made for a more eclectic album than the other two, it also signaled the band's breakup, but also the start of no less than six highly successful solo careers.^note Before Sanderson and Gov started their solo careers, though, they would form two more bands in which they were the driving songwriter/vocalist force, with less opinionated (and one might say less talented) musicians supporting them.
• Hawkwind: Lemmy sang lead on "Silver Machine" and "Motorhead", the latter of which lent its name to the band he started after leaving the group.
• Karl Bartos sings lead vocals for Kraftwerk's "The Telephone Call".
• Fall Out Boy bassist Pete Wentz usually only provides backing vocals and the occasional metal screams, but in certain songs, most notably "Get Busy Living or Get Busy Dying (Do Your Part to Save the Scene and Stop Going to Shows)" and "20 Dollar Nosebleed", he recites his own poetry as interludes.
• Night Ranger: Drummer Kelly Keagy sang lead vocals on the band's Signature Song "Sister Christian".
• TJ Osborne is usually the lead singer of Brothers Osborne, but John sings the second verse of "I'm Not for Everyone".
• The Police usually had Sting on vocals, but a couple of tracks over their albums featured either Stewart Copeland ^note "On Any Other Day," "Does Everyone Stare" or Andy Summers ^note "Mother" and the spoken-word portion of "Be My Girl-Sally" as lead or joint lead vocals. At one point, Andy had to step up to the bass as well — Sting flat-out refused to participate in the recording of "Behind My Camel", and so he took over recording the bass part as well as the guitar.
• Sunrise on the Sufferbus by Masters Of Reality featured Ginger Baker on drums - Ginger also had a sung/spoken lead part on "T.U.S.A.", his lament on Americans' inability to serve a good cup of tea.
• Linda, Paul McCartney's wife, performed along on some of his albums and during his tours, despite not being musically gifted at all.
• Ray Manzarek sang lead on "Close to You", from The Doors’ 1970 live album Absolutely Live.
• Glove drummer Brie Denicourt sings lead on "Modern Toy".
• While Travis Barker, drummer for blink-182, has been heard speaking on tracks in previous releases, he sang for the first time in the title track "One More Time" alongside Mark and Tom.
• David Foster generally sticks to producing and lets other artists sing his compositions, or he just makes instrumentals. However, he picks up the mic in a romantic duet with Olivia Newton-John titled "The Best of Me" and he sounds absolutely lovely.

Both

• Bobby Bare, a country music star of the 1960s through early 1980s, invited his family to perform on his 1974 album Singin' in the Kitchen (Bobby Bare and Family), of which the title track reached No. 29 on the country charts in 1975. The album was one of several projects Bare worked on in conjunction with author and satirist Shel Silverstein. The girl pictured at the far left on the album cover was Bare's daughter, Cari, who died less than two years after the album's release.
  • Bare also worked with other family members on various other songs and album tracks. His 1974 hit "Daddy, What If?" was a tender duet with his 6-year-old son, Bobby Jr., which was a No. 2 country hit^note (a feat that made the younger Bobby the youngest artist ever to have a top 5 country hit ... a record that likely will not be broken for a long time) and just missed the top 40 of the Billboard Hot 100, and he had a top 30 country hit with his wife, Jeannie, with "Vegas" in early 1977.
• The Newsboys. When John James left, their drummer Pete Furler took his place as lead singer. The first album with Pete on lead vocals was, appropriately enough, titled Step Up to the Microphone. Now Furler has left and been replaced by Michael Tait. Phil Joel has several "Songs in the Limelight" - a few of the band's hits such as "Woo Hoo" and "Entertaining Angels", as well as lesser-known tracks like "Breathe (Benediction)". Many American fans probably didn't know this, as it was difficult to tell Joel's New Zealand accent apart from the Aussie accents of John James and Peter Furler (who themselves sounded quite like each other).
• Steven Page was the lead singer of Barenaked Ladies until Ed Robertson sang the verses their 1998 hit "One Week", and the two shared the role from then until Page left, but every other band member has had sung lead at one point or another — Andy Creeggan on a couple tracks from Maybe You Should Drive, Jim Creeggan on a few songs as far back as Born on a Pirate Ship, Kevin Hearn on "Hidden Sun" from Maroon, and even Tyler Stewart on "Allergies" (making Snacktime! the only album in which all 5 members get a lead vocal). The practice continues now that Robertson is the de facto lead singer. In addition, vocal duties for Page's old songs have been divided among the remaining members of the band.
• Jesse Valenzuela was the original lead vocalist of Gin Blossoms but then switched roles with guitarist Robin Wilson who has since been the primary vocalist for the band. Valenzuela though has since performed lead vocals on a couple of tracks.
• The Kentucky Headhunters have taken both versions of this trope:
  • For the first two albums, Ricky Lee Phelps was the lead vocalist, and his brother Doug played bass. Both of them quit before the band's third album, which featured new lead vocalist Mark S. Orr. Orr was poorly received by the other band members and the fanbase, so Doug returned to take over on lead vocals, a role he has held ever since.
  • The other side of this trope comes in on Songs from the Grass String Ranch, which had rhythm guitarist Richard Young take the lead to the verses of "Louisianna CoCo" (Doug still sings the chorus) and drummer Fred Young (Richard's brother) on "Dry-Land Fish". Richard began taking lead vocals with increasing frequency on every subsequent album, to the point that they can be considered a Vocal Tag Team. That's a Fact Jack! features two more songs sung by Fred ("Cup of Tea" and a cover of Rick Derringer's "Cheap Tequila"), and lead guitarist Greg Martin sings "Shotgun Effie" (they had previously cut the song in 1973 when they were known as Itchy Brother, and Greg sang on that version too).
• Little Texas also held both variants:
  • Under the group's original lineup, Tim Rushlow was the lead vocalist. However, their first three albums have at least one song each sung by keyboardist Brady Seals, including "My Love", their only #1 hit and the only single under the original lineup not to be sung by Rushlow. Rhythm guitarist Dwayne O'Brien got a couple turns on their third and fourth albums, along with their cover of "Peaceful Easy Feeling" for the multi-artist compilation Common Thread: The Songs of the Eagles.
  • Following a seven-year hiatus, O'Brien and the other remaining members (drummer Del Gray, lead guitarist Porter Howell, and bassist Duane Propes) reunited in 2004 with new lead vocalist Steven Troy, as both Rushlow and Seals were in other groups at the time and Huskins was attempting to start a record label. But at a producer's insistence, they got rid of Troy after a very short period and promoted Howell to lead vocalist, as heard on their 2007 album Missing Years.
• Restless Heart went through both variants:
  • Larry Stewart was usually the lead singer, but their third album Big Dreams in a Small Town features one song each sung by bassist Paul Gregg ("El Dorado") and drummer John Dittrich ("Calm Before the Storm"), while Gregg and Stewart split the lead on "Carved in Stone".
  • After Stewart left in 1992, The Band Minus the Face split vocal duties among Dittrich, Gregg, and keyboardist Dave Innis, with guitarist Greg Jennings as the odd man out. Most notably, Dittrich sang their biggest post-Stewart hits, "When She Cries" and "Tell Me What You Dream". Following a 10-year hiatus (barring a brief reunion of everyone but Innis in 1998 for a couple new tracks on a Greatest Hits Album), they reunited in 2004 for Still Restless, which still had Stewart on most of the lead vocals, but gave two songs to Dittrich ("Looking Back" and a cover of The Beatles' "The Night Before") and one to Gregg ("Yesterday's News").
• The final track on Don Caballero's Punkgasm features two notable versions of this trope as the final track features drummer Damon Che on guitar and vocals. Notable as Che primarily plays drums and Punkgasm is the first Don Cab album to feature vocals.
• Steve Lukather, David Paich and (less frequently) Steve Porcaro occasionally provided lead vocals on some Toto songs. After frustrations relating to their inability to maintain a consistent lead singer after Bobby Kimball left the group, Lukather decided it would be easier if he filled the position, and stayed there for close to ten years before Kimball returned to the fold.
• The Frozen Autumn first featured Arianna as a guest vocalist on the title track of their second album, Fragments of Memories, before she became a regular member of the band starting with Emotional Screening Device.
• On their self-titled first album, Yuck had Daniel Blumberg as the main vocalist, with guitarist Max Bloom only singing the song "Operation". Then Blumberg left the band, and Bloom took over vocal duties for the followup, Glow And Behold.
• Squeeze's songs are normally song by Glenn Tilbrook, but primary lyricist Chris Difford does lead vocals on the minor song "Love Circles" and the much better known "Cool for Cats".
• Nick Oliveri of Queens of the Stone Age got his song in the limelight in his hilariously creepy rendition of "Quick and to the Pointless" off Rated R. He later sang on "Auto Pilot" and "Tension Head" on the same album, and "You Think I Ain't Worth a Dollar, But I Feel Like a Millionaire","Six Shooter", "Gonna Leave You", and "Another Love Song" on Songs for the Deaf.
• Steam Powered Giraffe, in its original professional format, had the robots Rabbit (Bunny Bennett), The Spine (David Michael Bennett), and The Jon (Jon Sprague) forming a Vocal Tag Team, with Mr. Reed stepping up to the microphone for "Steam Man Band", its reprise, and "Prelude to a Dream/Make Believe". When Jon left the band in 2012, drummer Sam Luke was promoted to robot, taking on the persona of Hatchworth the Robot and joining the Bennetts in the Vocal Tag Team.
• British Punk Rock pioneers The Clash usually had Joe Strummer do the vocals; however, guitarist Mick Jones occasionally sang lead (usually once for every four or five songs each album). While Strummer was better known, Jones sang lead on some of their most recognizable tunes (most notably "Train in Vain" and "Should I Stay or Should I Go?"). When Jones was fired from the band along with Topper Headon, they released Cut the Crap, which has been disowned by the listeners and the band. Also, on occasion they both shared lead vocals, namely "Remote Control", "Hate & War", "Rudie Can't Fail", "Spanish Bombs", "Clampdown", "Something About England", "Charlie Don't Surf", "Atom Tan", and "Death is a Star".
• Sandinista! gave one song to two of the other members each; "Ivan Meets G.I. Joe" sung by Topper Headon and "The Crooked Beat" sung by Paul Simonon. Simonon also sang lead in a duet with Kosmo Vinyl in "Red Angel Dragnet".
• A case of different bands but the same singers: Dave Hemmingway initially joined The Housemartins as drummer, but it was usual for all the band to provide backing vocals (their only number 1 hit, before Hemmingway joined, was completely a cappella). Hemmingway went beyond backing vocals for the song "Build", singing the chorus on his own. The Housemartins split soon after, and lead singer Paul Heaton began assembling a new band, The Beautiful South. Hemmingway was the only other Housemartin to join him there, but Heaton asked him to do so as permanent co-vocalist, leaving his drum-kit behind.
• Eric Bloom may be the "official" lead vocalist for Blue Öyster Cult, but in their original configuration all five members took turns on the microphone, most typically guitarist Donald "Buck Dharma" Roeser and drummer Albert Bouchard (both of whom also wrote or co-wrote the lion's share of the band's music). In fact, the three BOC songs you'll typically hear on "Classic FM" radio - "Don't Fear the Reaper", "Godzilla", and "Burnin' For You" - are all Roeser lead vocals.
• Legendary trumpeter Herb Alpert, who had become famous as the leader of the Tijuana Brass (and also the co-founder of the band's record label), scored his first number one single with "This Guy's in Love With You", which despite being recorded during the heyday of the Brass was credited solely to Alpert. The song featured him uncharacteristically singing lead vocals.
• Bassist Billy Greer of Kansas stepped up for a song on 2000's Somewhere to Elsewhere (and much later for a song on 2016's The Prelude Implicit). After Robby Steinhardt left the band a second time, Greer took his place as the second lead vocalist, supporting Steve Walsh, and later Ronnie Platt.
• S Club 7:
  • They had a downplayed example in the Seeing Double period. Jo O'Meara was suffering from back problems, meaning she wasn't able to perform live with the others. An alternate version of the "Alive" single was recorded with Rachel on lead vocals, and that was the one that was performed. However Rachel's version of the song was never officially released as a single.
  • Bradley gets to be the lead singer on "Don't Stop Movin'", although Jo does sing the third verse.
  • Rachel likewise takes the reigns for "Natural".
  • Each of the members has one or two songs where they take lead vocals. Jon has "Sunshine" and "Someday, Somewhere", Tina has "I'll Be There For You" and "Secret Love", Paul has "Love Train" and "Good Times", Hannah has "Dance Dance Dance" and "Hey Kitty Kitty". These didn't get released as singles but did get featured performances on episodes of the TV series.
• Atomic Kitten - their final single was "Someone Like Me", giving Liz McClarnon lead vocals. This is partly because of real-life issues. Natasha Hamilton was battling depression during the Ladies' Night album and often no-showed publicity events. One gig from this period had Natasha no-showing after a fight with the other two, and Jenny Frost likewise became sick right before the show. So at some points, Liz was literally singing by herself while Jenny had to rush offstage to vomit into a bucket.
• The Cardigans originally had Peter Svensson as lead vocalist and Nina Persson mostly on backing vocals — but her one song in the limelight, "Rise & Shine", proved the most popular of their early material, prompting an A&R manager who heard their demo to recommend promoting her to full-time lead singer. They did, and the rest is history.
• Decoded Feedback's cover of The Normal's "Warm Leatherette" was performed solo by keyboardist Yone Dudas. After her split with lead singer Marco Biagiotti, she continued the project as a solo act.
• Dance Gavin Dance had guitarist Will Swan contribute Harsh Vocals on the album Happiness, as usual screamer Jon Mess had briefly left due to health problems. Even after Mess returned to the band for their next album, Swan still contributes rap verses on certain songs.

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