begob Wonderful exploration of the surprisingly small world of backing singers in the US music industry.One observation by Sting gets to the heart of it, when he says the difference between the talented singer and a star is down to circumstance, luck, destiny ... whatever, but that the best people deal with it. He's not being harsh, just accepting that only a very few have the completeness to achieve stardom. Or maybe he means the best are those who survive and live good lives.We're shown the greatness of heart and the bitterness of failure among those who don't have that completeness. In the end it is sad, but nothing can take away from the commitment of the performers, as their faces light up in remembrance of glory or grow blank with despair. As one guy says, If you get hooked on music you are forked! A lot of emotion, but two especially powerful moments, with the performances of Gimme Shelter: the original singer says she decided to "blow them out of this room" and the isolated track of her vocal cracks, and the later singer overwhelms a live audience.

SnoopyStyle They're the secret weapons behind most of the iconic music of their era but the public rarely knows their names. They take over the world of white backup singers and plain vanilla performances. They come from the gospel world. Darlene Love works under producer Phil Spector who uses her voice and released it as other people. These women are part of some of the most iconic songs ever.This is a lot of information and a lot of different people. There are plenty of big names and recognizable faces. It's a lot of stories and songs. The first half is more like a highlight reel of fascinating behind-the-scene snippets. There's nothing wrong with that but it does get a little repetitive. The overall flow does allow the flow of time to deliver an overall story of backup singing in general. The second half recounts some of the girls trying to make it on their own and that part is interesting.

morrison-dylan-fan With a family friend paying a Christmas visit soon,I decided to search around for a music documentary that he see during the holiday period.Picking up an old copy of a UK film magazine called Empire,I spotted a review for what sounded like a fab tune of a documentary,which led to me getting ready to meet the people 20 feet away from stardom.Outline of the documentary:Starting off in the early days of popular music,the film shows artists to largely play everything safe in their live performances,with the singers & their back-up singers (both groups of which were mostly Caucasian) giving stiled,reserved performances.As the 60's arrived,the civil rights movement in America began to make its voice heard loud and clear,with Motown and other record labels giving African-American singers the chance to unleash their voice.Whilst the singers find themselves delighted over giving dozens of soon-to-be classic songs their winning hook and fiery sass,they each soon discover how hard it is to reach the front stage. View on the documentary:Focusing a large section of the documentary on 60s Girl Groups, some of director Morgan Neville's interviewees sadly decide to take the opportunity to "re-write history", (or to put it in a more honest manner,lie!) with singer Darlene Love (whose comments in the interview led to Neville paying the rights for songs that Love did not perform on!) claiming that she performed on songs such as Da Doo Ron Ron & songs by The Crystals,with Love's Crystal "vocals" actually being those of Dolores La La Brooks.Along with some of the interviews being a bit dodgy,Neville also takes an unexpectedly restrained approach to going into the full behind the scenes details into the making of the songs.Neville keeps away from revealing the business side of the music industry, (with the nearest that the film gets being 2 of the women saying that they had to get a second job,thanks to backing-vocal work drying up) and also avoiding any mention of the excesses displayed in the 60's/70's Rock scene.Spreading an amazing soundtrack across the films 90 minute running time,Neville allows the music to shine bright like a diamond,as the soundtrack goes from pounding hard Rock to soaring melodies,with Neville displaying an amazing skill in tracking down rare solo recording of backing singers bringing now- famous songs bursting to life,with Ava Cherry, Robin Clark and Luther Vandross ripping the plastic from David Bowie's plastic Soul,and the still-pretty Merry Clayton giving a breath taking performance,which puts all of the unsung backing singers at the front of the stage.

dlmcd325 20 Feet from Stardom was about 5 background singers that never quite made it to the top but were very talented. I think this was to show people the struggle from being a background singer to being a Solo artist. Their names are Merry Clayton, Darlene Love, Claudia Lennear, Lisa Fischer, and Judith Hill. I liked how they could look back on their memories with a smile on their face. I learned that it's not easy to make it somewhere in this world but that doesn't mean it's not worth trying. It surprised me how well these ladies could sing, how talented a lot of background singers are. I would recommend this documentary to anyone.