Liz Lemon: Hey McLovin, mar30mar has challenged us to come up with a list of "killer" duets. For me, for you, a duet consists of two singers, not one, not three, but two. For the two singers to form a duet, they shall sing together, weaving their voices in beautiful harmony, not taking turns singing the melody. And for it to be killer ... well, what do you think?

McLovin: Hang on -- gotta make sure my choices fit the "what makes a duet" criteria first. Hmm. Yeah, I've got one that's short on the voice-weaving harmonies. Crap cakes. Well, I'm leaving it in 'cause it do be killer. Which - in my opinion - means that it provokes me to sing the girl part of the song into my hairbrush when I've got the house to myself and the stereo turned up to twelve. Even if there is no girl part. Even if there are two girl parts and I have to sing them both.

Liz Lemon: Hey thanks for giving me an opening to stick one of my first choices back on the list. I'm not gonna lie. This challenge threw me for a loop. I discovered a lot trying to come up with 5 different songs that I would be able to call "killer". One - I could have populated my entire list with songs including Johnny Cash or Emmylou Harris and involving Gram Parsons songs (but we like diversity). Two - lists of "classic duets" you might try to use to help jump start your brain ... they're full of really horrible out of date songs ("You Don't Bring Me Flowers" anyone?). Three - I'm am an obsessive-compulsive and a list isn't finished til we hit submit. Four - McLovin hates Tuesdays. Other than time - did you have any significant challenges in selecting your 5?

McLovin: Yes. I wanted to use Fleetwood Mac's "Tusk", but both girls are singing with Lindsey Buckingham, making that song a trio and my forehead sore from slapping it so hard; I could have easily thrown some more country in there -- Golden Ring by George Jones and Tammy Wynette, for example -- but didn't want to pit them against June & Johnny; and I was trying to find the perfect rap duet to add to the list, but it's pretty much de rigueur for a rap song to be a duet anyway and I ended up frying my brain. So, yes -- it's been a struggle of excellent-duet-overabundance.

You're just now discovering that I hate Tuesdays?

Liz Lemon: But they have pretty good appetizers...

So you're saying this would be easier with *more* limits - like "killer country duets" or "rap songs featuring..." Personally, I think this would be easier if we changed the category to "killer duets sent to us by mar30mar to meet the same challenge."

McLovin: Well, she did mention the Stevie Nicks/Tom Petty piece of wonderment that is "Insider" in the shuffle thread. But she def owes us four more.

I think we're ready to do this, yeah? After the jump, yo.

Killer Duets

Beck & Emmylou Harris - Sin City
Liz Lemon: Emmylou and Beck performed this song for a Gram Parsons tribute album. Emmylou sang many duets with Gram Parsons, including one beautiful song called Sleepless Nights. I came *this* close to putting the version of Sleepless Nights sung by Beck and Norah Jones on KCRW Morning Becomes Eclectic, but Emmylou together with Beck is too good to miss.

Jack Johnson & G. Love - Holiday/Who Do You Love?
McLovin: During a live on-air appearance at a New Zealand radio staion, BFFLs Jack & G. Love spanned both decades and genres in one fell swoop by covering Madonna *and* Bo Diddley in the same song. This kicks so much ass that station personnel were heard to bemoan their ass-soreness the rest of that week and halfway through the next.

Matthew Sweet & Susanna Hoffs - Alone Again Or
Liz Lemon: When mar30mar said "duets", my first thought was of this album - a duet lover's dream. Covers range from obvious harmonic candy (Monday Monday), to somewhat deeper cuts (The Beatles, And This Bird Can Fly) to wholly obscure tracks such as this one. I'm hopeful that the name of the album "Under The Covers, Vol I." implies more to come.

Johnny Cash & June Carter Cash - Jackson
McLovin: This one was my first thought when we took up Mar's gauntlet. Note to "best duet list" compilers that don't include at least *one* June and Johnny song but do include "You Don't Bring Me Flowers" on their lists: Never make another list again because you suck at it. And never let my snottiness convince you that the first directive isn't something you should abide by. "You Don't Bring Me Flowers" probably stunk the day it was released and time hasn't changed that, whereas "Jackson" has always been and shall forevermore be drenched in awesome sauce.

Ewan McGregor & Nicole Kidman - Come What May
Liz Lemon: I don't know if this qualifies as a "killer" duet on its own. It's a Moulin Rouge thing. You might not understand.

Maroon 5 & Rihanna - If I Never See Your Face Again
McLovin: Sure I understand. It's Moulin Rouge. Mostly Unrelated True Story: I considered using Nicole's duet of "Something Stupid" with Robbie Williams, but punked out at crunch time.

So when I'm singing this one into my hairbrush, I pretend I'm Adam Levine instead of pretending I'm Rihanna, because he has a guitar and she doesn't. Plus my rack looks a lot more like his than hers. I'm all about the realism when I'm pretending I'm a rock star. Except for the guitar part. I don't play guitar.

Indigo Girls - Watershed
Liz Lemon: Originally, I didn't think we should count 2 person "acts" as duets - The Everly Brothers, Simon and Garfunkel et al - and only count 2 people you don't normally hear together. But is that a rule? Am I cheating? Well hell. These 2 girls have the fine art of duet nailed so why disqualify them. There may be songs of theirs that exemplify their skillz more eloquently, but I'm probably sick of those songs. So I picked a simple one that I've always loved. Don't know why - maybe it's the joy with which they sing the line "Twisted guard rails on the highway, broken glass on the cement.... The ghost of someone's tragedy. How recklessly my life has been spent."

Guns 'N Roses & Shannon Hoon - Don't Cry
McLovin: Yes, this wasn't billed as 'Guns 'N Roses & Shannon Hoon' and yes, he's listed as 'backing vocals' on the CD, but it's a duet according to the aforementioned definition (that I totally ignored in my last selection but since it's serving my purpose now, I'm citing it.)

Much as I love this song, its music video always gave me a giant case of the eyerolls when Axl's crazy bitch ex-girlfriend comes in out of nowhere to smack around some innocent who was just talking to him at a party and -- instead of breaking it up or coming to the poor girl's rescue -- everyone else is all "Chick Fight!!"

U2 & Mary J Blige - One
Liz Lemon: I feel like I should write "I may still change this one out" next to it, since that has been the subtext of this entire past few days of planning this with McLovin. But seeing as how she put Maroon 5 on here, I'm sticking with MY hairbrush singing song. For a "featuring" artist to make me like a song by a band I loathe, it must be a pretty damn good duet.

Ryan Adams & Norah Jones - Dear John
McLovin: I would pit the lyrics of "One" against almost any other break-up song and watch in glee as it wiped the floor with it. But I do like this version with Mary J. more than the original and I totally want to crunk hairbrush-karaoke it with you. I'll even be Bono.

Speaking of pretty damn good duets, this song is the epitome of beauty and pain. It came up on one of my random shuffles once, and it's so perfect that another version of it appeared on the list of one of our Guest iPod shufflers -- and *that* one (Ryan Adams and Neal Cabral of the Cardinals) would have fit here just as well as this one does. . .if only there were a girl part I could sing into my hairbrush.