2 Duets From Grunge’s Golden Era of the 1990s That Still Give Us Chills Today

Grunge had taken over the airwaves in the 1990s, and many of the biggest hits of the era featured just one lead vocalist. I have to admit, I struggled to find proper duets from the 1990s that fit the grunge label; they were in short supply back in the day, it seems. But the duets I did find are absolutely incredible. Let’s take a look!

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“Hunger Strike” by Temple Of The Dog from ‘Temple Of The Dog’ (1992)

“Well I don’t mind stealin’ bread from the mouths of decadents / But I can’t feed on the powerless when my cup’s already overfilled.”

This is definitely the best grunge duet out there, and it comes straight from two of the most recognizable voices in the genre. Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam and Chris Cornell of Soundgarden formed the short-lived supergroup Temple Of The Dog back in 1990 and released just one self-titled album. On that album are countless gems, but “Hunger Strike” is likely the most famous among them. Cornell and Vedder sound absolutely incredible together. Give it a spin yourself, and you might just want to listen to the album in its entirety.

“Ring Them Bells” by Heart and Layne Staley from ‘Desire Walks On’ (1993)

“Ring them bells ye heathen from the city that dreams / Ring them bells from the sanctuaries cross the valleys and streams.”

So this one is a bit iffy for a list of grunge duets from the 1990s. Desire Walks On, like much of Heart’s other work, is a very hard rock album with little in the way of grunge elements. But on the track “Ring Them Bells”, Ann Wilson, Nancy Wilson, and Layne Staley of Alice In Chains perform a duet that sounds absolutely incredible. I’ll include it on this list if only to give Alice In Chains fans some ear candy they might have missed. His voice really suited this song beautifully, even if it differed from his typical sound quite a bit.

Fun fact: “Ring Them Bells” was originally a Bob Dylan song from the 1989 album Oh Mercy. It has been covered by quite a few other musicians, too, from Joan Baez to Sufjan Stevens to Gordon Lightfoot.

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