Best Backup Vocals Performance
 

Usually background vocalists for rock acts remain anonymous, and so are unsung elements of the band's sound. But sometimes these singers are called on to do something special, and end up being the most memorable part of the song. Here are the two best examples of this:

The Rolling Stones' 1969 musical protest of rampant violence in the world, Gimme Shelter, is punctuated at the end by Merry Clayton's very powerful solo on the chorus,
"War, children, it’s just a shot away
It’s just a shot away
It’s just a shot away
It’s just a shot away..."

Her emotion-packed delivery adds the urgency the song requires, and indeed sends chills down the spine. Clayton, a former gospel singer, later had a recurring role on TV's Cagney & Lacey.

But an even more stunning performance can be found on Pink Floyd's classic Dark Side of the Moon (1973). Rick Wright's song about death, The Great Gig In the Sky, needed something celestial, while overwhelmingly sensual. Album engineer Alan Parsons brought in session singer Clare Torry, whom they instructed to sing without forming words, and to sound as if she were having an orgasm. What Torry did with little more than "whoa-oh, oh, OH oh oh OH oh oh" was orgasmic indeed, lifting the listener on angelic wings for an ethereal flight across time and space.
Torry, an EMI staff songwriter fresh out of school, had only just started doing vocal sessions, but after she was given the basic concept of the vocals desired, was told to just go out and "do her thing," so what she produced came directly from her soul. Unfortunately for her, this "Great Gig" was just another staff duty to her, and her employers. "If I'd known then what I know now," she said, "I would have done something about organising copyright or publishing. I would be a wealthy woman now. The session fee in 1973 was £15, but as it was a Sunday I charged a double fee of £30... which I invested wisely, of course."

Anyone want to praise the work of another background singer or undercredited vocalist?

Flo and Eddie did marvelous work with T. Rex.

http://www.theturtles.com/disc4.html

i sing when i go to concerts

Yes, the Fluorescent Leech and Eddie were great with Zappa on 200 Motels, too. Those Turtle-esque harmonies really made songs like Daddy, Daddy, Daddy and Do You Like My New Car. Hard to believe they ended up doing songs for The Care Bears.

Youssou N'Dour in Peter Gabrial's In your eyes is probibly the best backup that comes to my mind.

I had the good fortune to see Youssou N'Dour live a couple of years ago. He was truely an incredible performer.

Ah, well now I know the HISTORY of my All-Time #1 FAVE song from "The DARK SIDE OF THE MOON"

I can't TELL you HOW MANY vinyl copies of that album I just plain W-O-R-E O-U-T from repeated playing....ESPECIALLY of THAT tune*...but suffice it to say that when the CD version is in my machine, "T.G.G.I.T.S." is the track that my "repeat" button is programmed on!

(* N.B. - Have ya EVER feasted yer aural receptors on the QUADROPHONIC remix version, issued in 1974? Available aas import only: HARVEST Q4-SHVL-814...a vinyl pressing set me back $100 back in 1995...but it was WORTH it! Soooooooooooooooooooo may different musical passages & riffs that DO NOT show up in the "standard" version..."T.G.G.I.T.S." in particular!)

That said, thanks for not TOTALLY stealing my thunder on the subject of "Best Backup Vocal Performances" for THAT album! :D

Though I had kinda planned to give CLARE TORRY a mention...(By the way: Did you know that her vocal WASN'T recorded all in ONE take? That the performance overall was culled from a number of various and sundry "takes"....and then the best ones, as judged by PARSONS & WRIGHT pieced together in post-production..

Kinda burst me "But you promised me a DISNEYLAND!" bubble when I first read that fact in the mid-1990's. :( )


Anyhow, mention must be made of the OTHER stellar background vocalists that contributed their talents to "The DARK SIDE OF THE MOON" -- in particular, the tunes "TIME", "BRAIN DAMAGE", & "ECLIPSE": The combination of DORIS TROY, LIZA STRIKE, & BARRY ST. JOHN was an ensemble that has NEVER been surpassed, rivalled, or equalled....EVER SINCE!

Huh?
Did you have a thread on this topic somewhere?

Ah, I had PLANNED to....


But as an old MOTOWN song sez: Ya BEAT Me to the PUNCH! :D