Listen Again: Famous Artists Who Sang Background On Hit Songs
Tina Turner and the Ikettes on “I’m The Slime” by Frank Zappa
When Frank Zappa was recording his album Over-Nite Sensation he realized he needed background singers for his songs “I’m the Slime,” “Montana,” “Dirty Love” and his road manager suggested Tina Turner and The Ikettes. Ike insisted that Zappa pay the woman no more than $25 per song. When the vocals had been laid down, Tina called Ike in to listen to the music. Ike responded: “What is this shit?”, left the audio and instead of asking that they be taken off of the record entirely, he told Zappa not to credit them once they album was released. So you know they wouldn’t make money from the royalties. Ike’s arm of control was long y’all. You can listen to the Ikette background vocals in the video above. They’re extremely impressive.