Don Was is a producer and musician who founded the band Was (Not Was), who you may remember had a song called Walk The Dinosaur in the 1987:
But long before this 1-hit wonder Don was in a folk band that opened for Black Sabbath in 1974, for some reason. The Sabbath fans hated the band, but Don and Ozzy became good friends.
So later when Don was putting together a song called Shake Your Head he got Madonna to sing some parts on the song. But when he was putting her parts on the song he thought she did great but the song didn’t sound like what he wanted, and he needed a rock singer to fluff it up a little. So he called Ozzy.
Ozzy said yes, but when Madonna found out, she didn’t want her parts used on the same song anymore. So they got Kim Basinger to sing Madonna’s parts.
Here’s how the Madonna and Ozzy version became public though:
"The band later remixed the track for the compilation album,Now Dance 92. According to some unverified reports, the band sent Madonna’s original vocals to the remixer, Steve “Silk” Hurley, by mistake. But in his 2025Rolling Stoneinterview, Don Was said they were aware the vocals were Madonna’s. “We realized about eight years later that we had Ozzy and Madonna on parallel tracks,” he explained. “We gave it to a remixer, and he turned it into an Ozzy/Madonna duet.”
And here’s that version, if you dare assault your ears...
Sign Up
