You and Your Sister: The Greatest Sister-Brother Partnerships in Music

As founding members of the Athens, Georgia-based band the B-52’s, Cindy and Ricky Wilson helped to fill a lot of dance floors during the course of the late ’70s and early ‘80s, earning acclaim from countless critics as well as a few legends...including, most notably, John Lennon, who famously told Rolling Stone that he’d heard “Rock Lobster” in a club in Bermuda, noted the vocal resemblance to the work of his wife, Yoko Ono, and decided it was time to get back into the studio. (“I said to me-self, ‘It’s time to get out the old ax and wake the wife up!’”) When Ricky succumbed to AIDS in 1985, it was an understandable blow to the rest of the band, but particularly Cindy, since he’d opted not to tell her (or Fred Schneider or Kate Pierson, for that matter) about his illness. Over the years, however, she came to terms with his all-too-early departure. “I had the chance to have this really cool brother, and he was amazing soul, and we did this amazing thing: being in this crazy band together, getting to tour the world,” she told Yahoo! Entertainment in 2023. “You know, as far as a sister/brother thing, that's pretty hip." -- Will Harris

Billie Eilish and Finneas O'Connell might be the most powerful songwriting duo in modern pop. They also happen to be brother and sister. The pair recently took home their second Oscar for the Barbie movie track “What Was I Made For?” This came after the composition earned the siblings Song of the Year and Best Song Written for Visual Media trophies at the 2024 Grammys. Fans are itching to hear Eilish’s next album, which will almost certainly be another major hit. The singer reported that the mastering process is complete in a social media post last month. -- Noah Zucker

One of the most important electronic acts of the 2000s, Swedish siblings Karin and Olof Dreijer gained an unexpected degree of international exposure in the mid-aughts, when José González’s cover of their song “Heartbeats” was suddenly everywhere. In truth, several tracks from the duo’s sophomore album Deep Cuts could have easily been global hits, but that wasn’t really the Dreijer siblings’ m.o.: uninterested in the trappings of stardom, they wore masks during their (rare) live performances, and once sent two people in gorilla costumes to the Swedish Grammy Awards in their place. They made their anti-commercial intentions even clearer on 2006 masterpiece Silent Shout, a beautifully unnerving album of dark fairy tale melodies and glacial soundscapes. The Knife dissolved after 2013’s Shaking the Habitual, but Karin continues to push the musical envelope with their solo project, Fever Ray. -- Andrew Barker

Swedish brother-sister-sister-and-another-bloke act Ace of Base comprised of siblings Jonas, Linn and Jenny Berggren, along with Ulf Ekberg. After initially forming as part of a school project, in 1994 they became genuine megastars thanks to the 26 million-selling debut LP The Sign, which also spawned three Billboard Mainstream Top 40 No. 1’s, with “All That She Wants," “The Sign” and “Don’t Turn Around”. If their heavily-diluted take on reggae-pop was seen as saccharine by some and inoffensively pleasant by others, then Ekberg’s past as a skinhead and alleged member of a neo-Nazi group called Commit Suicide was difficult to swallow by anyone… and the band never really recovered once that news got out. -- Dominic Utton

While the ramshackle blues-rock of the Fiery Furnaces' 2003 debut Gallowsbird's Bark earned them comparisons to the White Stripes – except, you know, actually related – Matthew and Eleanor Friedberger soon proved themselves to be much, much weirder than that. From the absurdist prog-pop sprawl of Blueberry Boat to, uh, getting their grandma to narrate a spoken-word concept album about her own life, this willfully eccentric brother-sister duo was never afraid to follow their most fanciful flights of imagination down whatever bizarre tangents they might lead. Both went on to pursue successful and rewarding solo careers during the band's nine-year hiatus, but they're at their best when they're egging each other on like two kids running away together to join the circus. -- Peter Helman

Though only Sly Stone got his first name on the marquee, the band was thoroughly a family affair. Featuring guitarist Freddie Stone, Rose Stone on vocals and piano, and baby sister Vet Stone on backing vocals, the groundbreaking San Francisco outfit laid the groundwork for modern funk and several sub-genres of R&B with such landmark albums as There’s a Riot Goin’ On, Stand and Fresh in the late ‘60s and early ‘70s. The band eventually disintegrated thanks to Sly’s erratic behavior and drug abuse – Freddie would go on to become a minister, while Rose would forge a successful second career as a backing singer for Elton John, Michael Jackson, Robbie Williams and others – but its legacy has never wavered. -- A.B.

With an iconic voice that hid a devastating eating disorder, Karen (along with her brother Richard) came to define the easy-listening sound of the 1970s. Initially their October 1969 debut Offering was not a success, until the Lennon/McCartney cover of “Ticket To Ride” was re-released the following year. In 1970, both “(They Long to Be) Close To You” and “We’ve Only Just Begun” gave the public Karen as an angel, with a three-octave contralto vocal range that a generation didn’t know it had been craving. Offering a different side of the duo, 1971's "Superstar" was stark song that Karen made her own. Written by Bonnie Bramlett and Leon Russell, Karen’s dark one-take delivery from the vantage point of a celebrity-stalking groupie was in direct contrast to her clean-cut, almost child-like persona. And although she received help for anorexia nervosa, the years of extreme dieting took a toll on her system. She died on Feb. 3, 1983 of cardiac arrest. -- Amy Hughes

The Jacksons could be the most iconic American musical family of the 20th century. They’re a high-achieving bunch, but Michael and Janet were clearly the two most talented members. The King of Pop’s career with the Jackson 5 was already underway when Janet was born in 1966. (Of course, Michael was seven at the time.) The siblings didn’t work together often, but they did collaborate on the 1995 track “Scream” on Michael’s ninth album HIStory: Past, Present and Future, Book I. Both siblings were popular enough to score headlining Super Bowl halftime slots, but Michael’s performance went much better than Janet’s, which included an unfortunate on-air wardrobe malfunction. -- N.Z.

No Doubt became one of the biggest bands of their era thanks to the Diamond-selling 1995 album Tragic Kingdom, though few of the band’s millions of new fans likely knew just how much turmoil had preceded that big break. Initially featuring keyboardist Eric Stefani and the tandem vocals of John Spence and Eric’s younger sister, Gwen Stefani, No Doubt was dealt a tragic blow nearly at the outset when Spence died from suicide. The group soldiered on with Gwen as lead vocalist, but struggled to find an audience for several years after signing with Interscope Records, and Eric began growing disenchanted with the group’s direction. (It didn’t help that there was a bit of Fleetwood Mac romantic drama thrown into the mix, courtesy of Gwen’s splintering relationship with bassist Tony Kanal.) In one of the most ‘90s career pivots imaginable, Eric quit No Doubt prior to the release of Tragic Kingdom to become an animator on The Simpsons, but not before collaborating with Gwen on two of the band’s foundational singles: “Sunday Morning” and “Don’t Speak,” the latter of which became the group’s first No. 1 hit. -- A.B.

The Irish siblings’ combination of comely looks, pop-meets-traditional melodies and did we mention comely looks (?) may have seen them nicknamed “The Phwoarrs”... but it also brought them huge success in the '90s and early 2000s, with each of their first four albums peaking at either No. 2 or No. 1 in the British charts and their 2000 single “Breathless” not only reaching the U.K. top spot, but also breaking into the Billboard Top 40. After extended breaks to raise families, a comeback is apparently on the cards, though given Jim’s apparent love of a bats--t conspiracy theory, it may be a case of “good luck with that.” -- D.U.

They’re not exactly the Donny and Marie of the alt-folk set, but as the kids of noted singer-songwriter Loudon Wainwright III, it should come as no surprise that both Rufus and Martha Wainwright have forged their own individual careers in the music business. There isn’t necessarily a great deal of crossover between the careers of the siblings, but with that said, it’s also not unheard of for them to pop up on each other’s recordings on occasion. Rufus guested on her self-titled sophomore LP, arranging the vocals on “Don’t Forget” and contributing backing vocals to “The Maker,” then he turned up as a featured vocalist on “The George Song,” a track on her 2008 album, I Know You’re Married, But I’ve Got Feelings Too. Similarly, Martha can be heard on “April Fools,” “In My Arms,” and “Sally Ann,” all on Rufus’ self-titled 1998 debut. -- W.H.

The Mississippi-born Roebuck “Pops” Staples wasn’t necessarily looking to forge one of the defining family acts in 20th century American music when he first recruited his children Pervis, Mavis, Cleotha and Yvonne to sing with him at Chicago-area churches in the late 1940s. But over the next several decades, that’s exactly what the Staple Singers became, tackling everything from gospel to Civil Rights anthems, Stax soul, rock and roll, and even a sexy Curtis Mayfield-penned love jam. (The latter really should have been a jarringly odd tune for a bunch of siblings to sing with their dad, but in the group’s hands it became something entirely joyful.) Lone brother Pervis was in-and-out of the group over the years, and eventually Mavis became the family’s breakout star — as the group’s only surviving member, she’s currently enjoying her well-deserved status as a national treasure, with everyone from Prince to Jeff Tweedy, Jon Batiste, the Band, Damon Albarn, Run the Jewels and (especially) Bob Dylan having eagerly lined up to work with her. -- A.B.

Founded in 1984, this pop group may have been formed in Berlin, but their line-up featured three Australians – Alf Klimek and his twin siblings Jayney and Johnny – alongside three Germans: Stephen Gottwald, Andreas Schwarz-Ruszczynski, and Uwe Hoffman. It was Alf and Jayney, however, who handled the vocals for the group, which means that if you’re familiar with their two hit singles, “We Are What We Are” and “Holiday,” then you’ve heard the voices of this brother-and-sister pairing. Although the Other Ones broke up in 1990, Jayney, Alf, and Johnny notably reunited in the band You Pretty Thing, scoring a major hit in Germany with the single “Push It” in 2008. -- W.H.

You can't talk about Len without talking about "Steal My Sunshine." One of the 1990s' weirdest and most enduring pop hits came from a Canadian brother and sister doing a bizarro-world "Don't You Want Me" over an insistently burbling sample of Andrea True Connection's 1976 disco hit "More, More, More," intended mostly as a lark. Despite the single’s unexpected success, Len wasn’t built for stardom, and at the height of their fame, Marc and Sharon Costanzo quite literally turned their tour bus around and walked away from it all. They released a couple more lower-profile albums before eventually calling it quits for good, but their partnership remains a curious and oddly charming relic of an era primed for peak nostalgic impact. -- P.H.

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The Osmond family has spawned more than a few singers over the years, as evidenced by the existence of the Osmonds, but that group was always filled with the brothers: the classic lineup featured Alan, Wayne, Merrill, and Jay, and it was gradually expanded to include Donny and Jimmy. In 1974, however, Donny – who’d already had considerable success as a solo artist with such top-10 singles as “Go Away Little Girl” and ‘Puppy Love” – teamed up with his little sister, Marie, to score a couple of top-10 hits of their own with “I’m Leaving It Up to You” and “Morning Side of the Mountain.” What they’re arguably best remember for, however, is their ‘70s variety show, Donny and Marie, which led to a feature film (Goin’ Coconuts), a talk show (also called Donny and Marie), and even a 2010 reunion album called – what else? – Donny & Marie. -- W.H.

This trio from Mississippi saw their star rise in 2009, then fall back down to earth with the announcement of a hiatus in 2023. The Perry siblings – Kimberly (lead vocals), Reid (bass, vocals) and Neil (mandolin, bouzouki, vocals) – first came to the attention of Garth Brooks’ manager Bob Doyle. Their debut single “Hip To My Heart” went to No. 2 on Billboard’s Country Charts, while the follow-up “If I Die Young” topped out at No. 1. A Grammy award came their way in 2015 for their rendition of Glen Campbell’s “Gentle On My Mind.” The trio leaned more in the direction of pop with the independently released Coordinates EP in 2018, overseen by Rick Rubin. This sharp turn was not a success. In June 2023, Kimberly released her solo EP Bloom. -- A.H.