songs where 3 or more vocalists trade off singing lead within one verse

i'm probably not phrasing the thread title very well, but i mean songs like:

Squeeze - "Tempted"
Prince - "1999"
Stevie Wonder - "You Are The Sunshine Of My Life"

obviously there's a long tradition of vocal groups that do this sort of thing all the time, duets where two voices go back and forth, and "We Are The World" type all-star collaborations where each person sings one or two lines. but i'm interested specifically in stuff like the three songs above by acts that typically have one main vocalist (and maybe background singers) but on one particular song have a few different people trading lead vocals within a verse.

oh fuck i put this on ILE didn't i -- if a mod sees this, can it be moved to ILM? i'll go make a proper mod request just in case

It's such a strange thing to do in the Stevie song, which is from a first-person "from me to you" perspective but uses three distinct voices to start. What gave him that idea?

DEVO does this in some early songs -- "Smart Patrol/Mr. DNA" is the first one that comes to mind.

my first thought was "rock lobster" but that doesn't count by the rules. i think there are a couple of songs on "combat rock" that do this (like maybe "atom tan"?) ... i'm not very good at this.

yeah totally -- "1999" and "Tempted" are pretty much in first person too! (xpost)

btw this is such a potentially narrow topic that i'm fine w/ people bringing up things that don't 100% 'count'

pavement - carrot rope

Smashing Pumpkins - "Farewell and Goodnight"
Pixies - "La La Love You"

Temptations, "Can't Get Next To You."

btw i'm pretty sure i had a 4th example in my head earlier today when i thought of this but forgot it by the time i start the thread -- interested to see if someone names it before i can remember what it was

oh yeah there have to be tons of old r&b groups that had a "lead singer" but the other dudes would jump in with a lines here and there.

per the temptations

Amazing that I can't think of a single Fleetwood Mac song.

like "papa was a rolling stone" would probably work too

Sly and the Family Stone, "I Want to Take You Higher."

yeah my caveat in the OP about vocal groups was definitely thinking of R&B groups like the Temps (or even barbershop quartets) but i'm interested in the roots of this kind of vocal arranging so i'm fine w/ those examples being brought up

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ePKS9HMrQ_s

The Human League - Fascination

Sly & the Family Stone - "Dance to the Music"

Traveling Wilburys: "Dirty World"

Lots of Bluegrass......

musicals

The Band, I imagine

Three or more vocalists within one verse?

That discounts "Tempted" and "Sunshine of my life" doesn't it?

Unlike other Squeeze songs, which are usually sung by guitarist/songwriter Glenn Tilbrook, the song's lead vocal is mainly by keyboardist Paul Carrack, though Tilbrook and producer Elvis Costello also sing for a few lines in the second verse.[1]

"You Are the Sunshine of My Life" is a 1973 pop single released by Stevie Wonder. The song became Wonder's third number-one pop single on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and his first number one on the easy listening chart.[1] The first four lines of the song are sung, not by Wonder, but by James Gilstrap and Lani Groves. The single version of the song differed from the album version with the addition of horns to the mix.

although i didn't think that was Costello, I always recognized his voice on "Black Coffee In Bed" but thought it sounded like someone else entirely on "Tempted"

Traveling Wilburys: "Dirty World"

Duh! of course! Lots of Wilbury songs qualify.

I'm sure there's a Backstreet Boys song that matches this, since all 5 of them sang lead at different times

yeah I also think the Barenaked Ladies did this a lot

except the wilburys don't really have a standard lead vocalist

same with backstreet boys

Spice Girls - "Wannabe". They probably did this in other songs too

i'm interested specifically in stuff like the three songs above by acts that typically have one main vocalist (and maybe background singers)

fair point re: BSB, although I think Nick and AJ kind of became the faces of the group

yeah and dont the Barenakeds have that one guy that looks like Greg Proopes as the main vocalist, you know, the fat one?

See for yourself

http://www.perrific.com/cds/covers/gordon.jpg

have we ever had any discussion on wtf that dreadlocked guy is doing?? like they're all making stupid faces/dodging the barenaked pepsi logo but he's just part of a different thing

Pavement - Carrot Rope

There's one instance of the Who doing this: when they played "Helpless Dancer" live in 1973, it was sung as a round, with Daltrey, Townshend, and Entwistle each singing a line. But on the record, it's all Daltrey.

Velvets, I'm Sticking With You

Moon people going to the stratosphere (Doug (I think))
Soldiers fighting with the Cong (Mo)
But with you by my side I can do anything (Lou)
When we swing, we hang past right and wrong (all)

When I saw Moe and Sterling live, Sterling took the first line.

As he did in the Velvets reunion shows... proving conclusively that he couldn't sing (still better than Lou Reed mind you)

This is true..

(although, Lou *is* better really...)

I just realized that one of my favorite songs qualifies for this thread but it hadn't occurred to me when I started it -- the second verse of John Mellencamp's "Cherry Bomb" has lines sung by a female singer, a male singer besides JM, and JM himself.

belle and sebastian legal man

every beastie boys song!

that white stripes song with holly golightly whatever the fuck its called

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-AB7RJpOjY