Best Parent/Child Combination (in honour of Natalie Cole)

[RickMayer]

There are so many great artists who pass on their talents to their kids! Natalie was perhaps not as recognized as much as her father but could carry a note.

Other worthy mentions are Woody/Arlo Guthrie; Bob/Jakob Dylan; Waylon/Shooter Jennings but hands down it's got to be Tim and Jeff Buckley. Least worthy for me is of course the King and his daughter Lisa Marie who put out a yawner of an album a few years back!

[bonnielaurel]

Nat "King" & Natalie Cole
Frank & Nancy Sinatra
Bob & Ziggy + Damian Marley
Ravi & Anoushka Shankar + Norah Jones
Cissy & Whitney Houston
John & Julian Lennon
Judy Garland & Liza Minnelli
Marvin & Nona Gaye
Sting & Joe Sumner
Elvis & Lisa Marie Presley
Julio & Enrique Iglesias

[PlasticRam]

Ringo & Zak Starkey

[Harold]

Olu Dara & Nas

[Jirin]

Father/grandaughter in this case but Hank/Lucinda Williams.

[DocBrown]

One big happy family:

Loudon Wainwright III ("Dead Skunk in the Middle of the Road") married Kate McGarrigle (of Kate and Anna McGarrigle, a well known French-Canadian duo)

Their children are Rufus Wainwright and Martha Wainwright. Lucy Wainwright-Roche is their half-sister by Suzzy Roche.

Martha and Lucy recorded an album in 2015, Songs in the Dark as the Wainwright Sisters.

According to RYM, the parents (Loudon, Kate and Suzzy) have collectively released 40 LPs

Between them, the three children have produced 18 LPs and 12 EPs.

[Dexter]

My best parent/child combo in music are Frank Sinatra and Nancy Sinatra's duet "Somethin' Stupid", Serge Gainsbourg and Charlotte Gainsbourg. "Lemon Incest" and Frank Zappa and Moon Unit Zappa's "Valley Girl". The first two courted controversy because of the content paired with the song being sung by a real father and real daughter, "Valley Girl" is a parody of the valley girl stereotype popular at that time and a left-field Top 40 hit for then cult fave, Frank Zappa. I guess I like my songs to be weird.

[Honorio]

Well, I'm afraid that this thread is the best evidence that talent is not hereditary. I checked the positions of the combinations you mentioned on the AM artists list and the differences between parents and sons/daughters are usually embarrassing. In only three cases the difference was lower than 1000 positions on the list.

The exceptions:
- Tim Buckley (#223) and Jeff Buckley (#180): the most obvious example of a both talented father and son, with the son more acclaimed by the critics despite a much shorter career.
- Kate McGarrigle (#1051) and Rufus Wainwright (#542): the music family, with the son also more acclaimed than his mother (and aunt). Loudon Wainwright III is #2500 and Martha Wainwright is also on the list but not ranked.
- Frank Sinatra (#84) and Nancy Sinatra (#702): probably undeserved, the distance should be wider IMO.

Other parent/child combinations that are both on the list but with a difference higher than 1000 positions:
- Bob Marley (#24) and Damian Marley (#1712): Ziggy Marley is not on the list.
- Bob Dylan (#2) and Jakob Dylan (#2058 as member of The Wallflowers).
- Woody Guthrie (#509) and Arlo Guthrie (#2570).
- Johnny Cash (#52) and Rosanne Cash (#2599): you forgot this one.
- Ravi Shankar (not ranked) and Norah Jones (#1004): if there were more world music lists out there Ravi should be definitely ranked.
- Judy Garland (#459) and Liza Minnelli (not ranked).
- Nat 'King' Cole (#341) and Natalie Cole (not ranked).
- Hank Williams (#136) and Hank Williams Jr. (not ranked): I'm afraid that Lucinda Williams (#305) is not related with Hank Williams despite Jirin's suggestion.

All the other combinations you mentioned (plus some others than come to my mind like Wilson-Phillips, Teddy Thompson or Baxter Dury) got one of them (parent or child) outside of the AM artists list.

[PlasticRam]

- Hank Williams (#136) and Hank Williams Jr. (not ranked): I'm afraid that Lucinda Williams (#305) is not related with Hank Williams despite Jirin's suggestion.

Hank Williams III is a country artist too.

[Harold]

Father/grandaughter in this case but Hank/Lucinda Williams.

Jirin, you're kidding, right? Lucinda Williams is in no way related to Hank. Her father was poet Miller Williams.

[Harold]

One big happy family:

Big, yes. Happy ... well, both Rufus and Martha have recorded more than a few songs about their father being, for lack of a better word, an asshole. Things seem to have gotten better over the past few years - Loudon and Rufus have toured together, and the whole family has performed together both before and after Kate McGarrigle's death in 2010.

One of Loudon's most famous songs was a tongue-in-cheek expression of jealousy towards his infant son, titled "Rufus is a Tit Man." I will refrain from comment about how ironic that title has turned out to be ...

Trivia: Loudon, Rufus, and Martha all appear as nightclub singers in separate scenes in Martin Scorsese's 2004 Howard Hughes biopic The Aviator.

[bonnielaurel]

Fela & Femi Kuti deserve a mention as well. Femi was one of three children of Fela's first and only official marriage to Remi. Later he married 27 more wives on the same day.

[Jirin]

Whoever told me they were related must have been wrong.

We shouldn't necessarily use acclaim as a definitive measure of talent. There are some incredibly talented technical musicians who aren't songwriters so they don't show up on the critics' lists. Or they committed to a genre that doesn't get critical attention.

[bootsy]

Olu Dara & Nas

I see you Harold.