Morgan Neville charts the history of the worlds least famous singers in the worlds most famous songs.
Documenting the history of the ‘backing-singer’ in popular music. The film primarily focuses on Darlene Love, Merry Clayton and Lisa Fischer, who are legends within the music industry but are little known outside of it.
The first question posed in the film is, “Do backing singers want fame?” The answer invariably is, yes. The second and more interesting question is, “Why don’t they achieved it?” The answer to this question is where the heart of the film lies.
Darlene Love’s story of her initial optimism signing with Phil Spector, only to become a victim of ‘Ghosting’ and being trapped in a deal she could not break free of is probably the most heartbreaking of the personal tragedies revealed in this movie. Merry Clayton’s story is somewhat more elusive. Using backing singing as a stepping stone to stardom, after putting everything in place, the voice, the band and the deal, solo success still eluded her. Then there’s the supernatural Lisa Fischer, whose soul is as beautiful as her voice. Having been the backing singer for Luther Vandross for the 22 years and The Rolling Stones backing singer since 1989, Fischer did taste genuine solo success in 1992 winning a Grammy but wasn’t able to capitalise on it.
Through these personal stories a variety of subjects are touched upon. Racism, sexism, the civil rights movement and technology making them redundant all are mentioned, but the film does not go into deep analysis of them. Rather it focuses on how these ladies view themselves, their career and how they feel they fit into the industry and the world around them.
It’s surprising how little bitterness remains considering how poorly they have been treated. Fischer seems to have dealt with this issue the best, genuinely content with the pursuit of her art rather than with the pursuit of fame.
The film fails to answer why fame eluded them, but that’s because there is no simple answer. Why was Luther Vandross able to go from singing backing vocals for David Bowie to having a successful career, but Lisa Fischer was not? Why was Sheryl Crow able to go from singing backing vocals for Michael Jackson but Judith Hill is still struggling to break through after performing at his funeral?
Sting gets closest to it.
“It’s not a level playing field, it’s not about fairness, it’s even not about talent. It’s circumstance, it’s luck, it’s destiny. But the best people deal with that.”
After all they have contributed to popular music it is fitting that these talented ladies have finally been given their moment in the spotlight.
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