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When it comes to collaborations, some things go together like bread and butter - but others can come as a surprise.

From musical duets to television crossovers, there have been countless unexpected link-ups over the years, with some more successful than others. ���˿��� Bitesize takes a look at three unlikely collaborations that no one saw coming.

Miss Piggy and Ozzy Osbourne

“Ozzy Osbourne? Boy, did I open the wrong door?”, announces Miss Piggy in the beginning of the pair’s cover of Born to Be Wild - a fitting opening to a highly unexpected musical collaboration.

In 1994, Ozzy and Piggy put their spin on Steppenwolf’s '60s classic for the album Kermit Unpigged. Ozzy later included the song on his 2005 album Prince of Darkness.

Throughout the song, Ozzy, known for being the lead vocalist of the heavy metal band Black Sabbath, sings the track, while Miss Piggy ad libs over the top.

This wasn’t Miss Piggy’s first celebrity duet. In 1978 she joined Elton John on a cover of Don’t Go Breaking My Heart for the closing number of The Muppet Show.

In 2008, Miss Piggy’s on-again off-again boyfriend Kermit the Frog would have his own surprising collaboration when he teamed up with Adidas to release a line of merchandise.

EastEnders and Doctor Who

In 1993, two of the ���˿���’s most beloved television shows collaborated for a special crossover episode. Dimensions in Time was a 13 minute episode broadcast over two days for Children in Need. It aired to celebrate Doctor Who’s 30th anniversary, following the show’s four-year hiatus.

The episode saw the return of the third, fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh incarnation of the Doctor, including Tom Baker and Peter Davison.

The story follows the Doctor as he and his companions are trapped in a 20-year time loop in Albert Square at the hands of his nemesis the Rani. The cast find themselves jumping between the years 1973, 1993 and 2013.

The special crossover included 3D elements and two alternate endings were filmed, with viewers voting which version they wanted to see. It was watched by over 13 million viewers on both of the two days.

Doctor Who didn’t return to screens until 2005, when it was revived by Russell T Davis.

EastEnders and Doctor Who would meet again in the 2007 episode Army of Ghosts, which featured a scene with landlady Peggy Mitchell. In the cameo, Peggy confronts a ghost and hits the uninvited guest with the classic line, ‘Get out of my pub!’.

Lana Del Rey and Liverpool FC

“You’ll Never Walk Alone” has become the club anthem for many football fans across the world - with Liverpool FC being synonymous with the track.

But the song had somewhat of a makeover in 2020, when global pop star Lana Del Rey recorded an acapella rendition of the track. The cover was released as part of the soundtrack for The End of the Storm, a documentary that takes a look at Liverpool’s 2019-2020 Premier League winning season.

The ballad was originally part of a 1940s musical theatre show called Carousel on Broadway. It was later covered by artists such as Frank Sinatra and Elvis Presley and is often sung on the Last Night of the Proms. But it wasn’t until the Merseyside band Gerry and the Pacemakers covered the song in the 1960s that it became associated with the club and was adopted as its official anthem, and the song title as its motto.

In 2013, Lana visited Anfield stadium for a game against Tottenham Hotspur where she announced she was a fan of both Liverpool and Celtic. In an interview with the official Liverpool FC website she said: “The people in Liverpool are so friendly and the stadium’s really impressive.”

This article was published in March 2024