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Shatner + Rollins: "illogical" says Mr Spock

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9. Bing Crosby / David Bowie: Peace On Earth/Little Drummer Boy

In 1977, 30-year-old Bowie was just coming out of an 'interesting' period of drug-snorting, cross-dressing and politically-confusing debauchery. So obviously, 74-year-old Bing recruited him to duet on his Merrie Olde Christmas TV special. Crazier still, Little Drummer Boy went to No 3 in the UK charts.

Bowie's reasoning for doing it? "I just knew my mother liked him."

10. Slash / Blackstreet / ODB: Fix

Slash has seemingly appeared on other people's records as many times as he's sparked a Marlboro, but this 1996 track with Blackstreet must be one of his oddest collaborations. Yet it kinda works. It's better than him 'helping out' Black Eyed Peas' Fergie, Ray Charles, Chic, Michael Jackson or...

11. Ne-Yo / Marilyn Manson: tbc

Get this: the R&B star behind Closer likes nothing better than listening to Marilyn Manson, and plans to record with the self-styled God Of Fuck in 2009.

"I don't think you'll ever see me in make-up" Ne-Yo will work with Marilyn Manson. But only up to a point

"I've wanted to work with him for ages and his people reached out to me when they heard," said Ne-Yo in September. "People might think it's a strange collaboration, I don't.
"You won't see me adopting his style. I don't think you'll ever see me in make-up," Ne-Yo adds, somewhat disappointingly.

MusicRadar is so looking forward to this one.

12. Pavarotti / U2 (Passengers): Miss Sarajevo

For their rather outré album as Passengers (with Brian Eno) in 1995, the Dublin quartet roped in the world's greatest tenor for this single. It might not be as odd as others in this list – Bono's father was an amateur opera singer, after all – but it certainly made for an 'interesting' tune. And it gave chances for Brian Eno to play an Omnichord, Bono to dress like an Italian market trader and the Edge to take his hat off. Truly historical.

13. Muse / The Streets: Who Knows Who

Given that Muse are massive Rage Against The Machine fans, it's perhaps unsurprising that the trio had a stab at rap-rock in 2008. But the fact that Muse turned to Mike Skinner to provide the vocals was probably slightly more unexpected; the resulting jam was a fun but unconvincing pastiche demonstrating how Rage just wouldn't work if they were English. Or if their vocalist rapped as if he was struggling to read the lyrics off the back of his hand.

14. Nick Cave / Kylie Minogue: Where The Wild Roses Grow

Minogue and Cave: "Oh no, I killed Kylie!"

Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds' 1996 album Murder Ballads features cameos from PJ Harvey and Shane MacGowan, but it was Cave's duet with Kylie that stole the headlines. The song's tale of obsession and murder was a far cry from I Should Be So Lucky. The same year the first lady of Australian pop further expanded her musical horizons, collaborating with Manic Street Preachers on two songs for her Impossible Princess album.

The Welsh band had originally approached her to sing their 1992 single Little Baby Nothing, but label wrangles meant that former porn star Traci Lords got the gig instead. Surprisingly, she didn't suck.

15. Prince / Sheena Easton: U Got The Look

Scotland's Sheena Easton got her break on a reality TV show and started the '80s singing cosy hits such as 9 To 5 (called Morning Train in the US), Modern Girl and Bond theme For Your Eyes Only. Then Prince got his hands on her, and suddenly she was asking us to "come inside my sugar walls".

Prince wrote Sugar Walls for Easton's 1984 album A Private Heaven, but it was in 1987 that the pair had a hit together in the shape of U Got The Look, completing Easton's transformation from girl next door to sex vixen. Though sung by a girl from Motherwell, lines such as "Your body's heck-a-slammin/If love is good, let's get 2 rammin" didn't totally convince.

16. Metallica / Marianne Faithful: The Memory Remains

Marianne Faithful: metal!

One-time girlfriend of Mick Jagger, Marianne Faithful is no stranger to close encounters with hairy rockers, but 1997 saw her feature on this cut from Metallica's ReLoad album. This song about a once-great celebrity driven mad by obscurity is pretty solid, with Faithful's vocal contribution adding something sinister to the band's characteristically muscular riffing.

17. The KLF / Tammy Wynette: Justified and Ancient

Previously concentrating on 'stadium house', arch duo The KLF recruited the 'first lady of country', grandma Tammy Wynette - and a Jimi Hendrix lick from Voodoo Child (Slight Return) - for this 1992 country-tinged house oddity. It went to Number 1 in Austria and New Zealand. "Mu Mu Land looks a lot more interesting than Tennessee.... But I wouldn't want to live there," observed Wynette sagely.

These 17 are surely only the beginning...

Do you know of any weirder?

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