# In the footsteps of Merry Clayton **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 28, 2007, 4:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-footsteps-of-merry-clayton/389807 "2007-01-28T04:27:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![EddyTeddyFreddy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eddyteddyfreddy/32/18796_2.png) [@EddyTeddyFreddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EddyTeddyFreddy)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2007, 4:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-footsteps-of-merry-clayton/389807/1 "2007-01-28T04:27:51Z")
“Gimme Shelter” came on the radio as I was driving home tonight and, as I always do, I cranked up the volume. Not just because to me it’s one of the Rolling Stones’ best songs ever, but also – hell, primarily – for Merry Clayton’s superb backup vocals, especially that incredible high note she hits on the word “murder”. Damn, how many times have I heard that song? Hundreds? And still she gives me the shivers. It’s a great song, and the Stones do a great job on it, but I firmly believe it wouldn’t be anywhere near so great without Merry Clayton. Which got me to wondering: What other songs would have been less memorable, or downright mediocre, if it hadn’t been for the backup singer(s)? Nominees, Dopers? ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2007, 4:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-footsteps-of-merry-clayton/389807/2 "2007-01-28T04:33:26Z")
I agree…_Gimme Shelter_ is the best **Stones** song ever. My nomination: _[The Battle of Evermore](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Battle_of_Evermore)_ - **Led Zeppelin**. Harmony vocals by Sandy Denny, she of **Fairport Convention** and **Fotheringay**. Sandy makes the song. ---
**Author:** ![EddyTeddyFreddy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eddyteddyfreddy/32/18796_2.png) [@EddyTeddyFreddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EddyTeddyFreddy)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2007, 4:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-footsteps-of-merry-clayton/389807/3 "2007-01-28T04:38:02Z")
[QUOTE=silenus] I agree…_Gimme Shelter_ is the best **Stones** song ever. My nomination: _[The Battle of Evermore](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Battle_of_Evermore)_ - **Led Zeppelin**. Harmony vocals by Sandy Denny, she of **Fairport Convention** and **Fotheringay**. Sandy makes the song. [/QUOTE] Huh. The only version of that song I’ve heard is the one recorded by Heart – and then only the last part of it, as I always seem to tune into it on the radio just as it’s ending – so frustrating! But not frustrating enough to make me track down whatever Heart album it’s on. 😉 Anybody from Fairport Convention is going to improve whatever song they’re singing, though, so now I must hie me thither to get that version. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2007, 4:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-footsteps-of-merry-clayton/389807/4 "2007-01-28T04:39:22Z")
“The Battle of Evermore” by Led Zeppelin with backups vocals by Sandy Denny, though it’s virtually a duet. “The Great Gig in the Sky” by Pink Floyd with Clare Torry. Her contribution was so great that, after a lawsuit, she will henceforth have co-writer credit. “Hit the Road, Jack” by Ray Charles with the Raelettes. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2007, 4:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-footsteps-of-merry-clayton/389807/5 "2007-01-28T04:40:26Z")
Ummm…it’s on _Led Zeppelin 4_. You mean you don’t have that album? :eek: ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2007, 4:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-footsteps-of-merry-clayton/389807/6 "2007-01-28T04:41:03Z")
ETF, you may be the ONLY person of our generation without at least one copy of Led Zeppelin’s Fourth! ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2007, 4:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-footsteps-of-merry-clayton/389807/7 "2007-01-28T04:49:40Z")
I’ve always said that Merry Clayton wails on “Gimme Shelter” like Mick was still in bed with her. 🙂 For comparison, how about the beautiful job is the end of Roxy Music’s “Avalon” where Yanick Etienne provides a soaring, heart-stopping wail of ecstasy, almost by accident. [http://mixonline.com/mag/audio\_roxy\_musics\_avalon/](http://mixonline.com/mag/audio_roxy_musics_avalon/) > [@](#): > > Ferry had stayed up that Saturday night and composed what would be the lyrics to “Avalon.” Then, happenstance would provide “Avalon” with one of its most memorable elements: the interpretive vocal contributions of Yanick Etienne. Sunday was usually a down day at the Power Station, so the studio would let local Haitian bands come in to do demos when there wasn’t much happening. It was then that Davies and Ferry, on a coffee break in the hallway, heard Etienne singing. > > “Bryan and I could hear this girl from the Haitian band next door singing, and we thought, ‘Wow! What a voice! We’ve got to get her singing some backing vocals on “Avalon.”’ That was Yanick Etienne, who didn’t speak a word of English. She came in with her boyfriend/manager and we described to him what we wanted and she sort of sang the choruses and the [word] ‘Avalon’ — the great sound that is on there. Then we said, ‘Can she try and do something free at the end?’ and we ran the end of the track and she did absolutely nothing. So I said, ‘No, we want her to sing anything that she would want to sing, totally free.’ So the second time we ran the tape, she sang exactly what you hear on the record at the end. > > “Bryan then went straight out and re-sang his vocal properly, because he was so inspired by Yanick’s singing. I remember Bryan’s manager walked in the room and Bryan was just finishing his vocal. We were doing the playback and I’d never seen the look on his eyes before. He went, ‘Jesus f\*\*\*\*\*\* Christ! That is incredible!’ Well, we knew it was a really high point of the evening. I remember going, ‘Wow! We have really created something special here.’ That is how I felt. Then we mixed it the next day with Bob. > > “It was one of those turnaround things, where the original track was just about to be thrown in the can. And then suddenly, we did a completely different version of the song that just made the record for me,” Davies concludes. “I thought, ‘That’s it. That completes the record!’ I remember we had dinner a couple nights later, and I asked Bryan, ‘What are you going to call the album?’ and he said, ‘I’m going to call it Avalon,’ and I thought, ‘Yeah. Of course.’” She made it the best song of their career. ---
**Author:** ![EddyTeddyFreddy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eddyteddyfreddy/32/18796_2.png) [@EddyTeddyFreddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EddyTeddyFreddy)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2007, 4:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-footsteps-of-merry-clayton/389807/8 "2007-01-28T04:51:28Z")
Hee hee! Hard to believe, isn’t it? But I came late to an appreciation of Led Zeppelin, having preferred other genres of music to rock back in their heyday. Guess I’d better break down and finally buy the album, huh? About the Raelettes – Merry Clayton was a member of them, I discovered in Googling for info on her. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2007, 5:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-footsteps-of-merry-clayton/389807/9 "2007-01-28T05:00:28Z")
Really? WOW! ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2007, 5:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-footsteps-of-merry-clayton/389807/10 "2007-01-28T05:14:49Z")
So now we know two major rock stars she slept with… ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2007, 5:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-footsteps-of-merry-clayton/389807/11 "2007-01-28T05:26:05Z")
_hurt look_ Merry was good enough to not HAVE TO sleep with her costars. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2007, 5:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-footsteps-of-merry-clayton/389807/12 "2007-01-28T05:30:48Z")
She was, indeed. Yet her affair with Mick was bruited around pretty publicly at the time and the Raylettes were known as “let Ray.” It was, like, the 60s, ya know? ---
**Author:** ![EddyTeddyFreddy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eddyteddyfreddy/32/18796_2.png) [@EddyTeddyFreddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EddyTeddyFreddy)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2007, 6:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-footsteps-of-merry-clayton/389807/13 "2007-01-28T06:32:30Z")
One thing I’ve always wondered: Did Merry intend to crack that high note, or did her voice break and she went with it? ---
**Author:** ![Caprese](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a9a28c/32.png) [@Caprese](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Caprese)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2007, 10:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-footsteps-of-merry-clayton/389807/14 "2007-01-28T10:30:50Z")
I remember reading that Merry was getting over the flu at the time of the recording. But who knows. Regardless, Gimme Shelter has been, ever since the first time I heard it at age 15, my very favorite Stones song. For backup singer(s) I would have to go with Gladys Knight’s Pips. I love her voice, but the Pips really make those songs memorable. (Not to mention their onstage moves. 🙂 ) I love those guys on Midnight Train to Georgia. “Goin’ back to find…” I really like the other songs mentioned in this thread, as well. ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2007, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-footsteps-of-merry-clayton/389807/15 "2007-01-28T14:28:29Z")
[QUOTE=dropzone] ETF, you may be the ONLY person of our generation without at least one copy of Led Zeppelin’s Fourth! [/QUOTE] No, she’s not, actually. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2007, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-footsteps-of-merry-clayton/389807/16 "2007-01-28T16:14:12Z")
Not really information I would be letting people know. 😃