Top 10 Unlikely Musical Collaborations

For the release of the collaborative album, Wise Up Ghost, by Elvis Costello and The Roots on September 17, 2013, we’re taking a look at some of music’s most unlikely collaborations.

Sometimes, mixing artists known for different musical genres can lead to incredible music, chart success and mainstream popularity. Other times, not so much.

For this list, we’ve stuck to songs that have appeared on at least one album or compilation, and have only included collaborations for which the artists involved either contributed vocals or instrumental parts. We’ve excluded songs or remixes in which artists’ collaborations were added after the fact.