Twenty Feet From Stardom

The fourth Best Documentary Feature I'm reviewing is Twenty Feet From Stardom, directed by Morgan Neville. It examines, in loving detail, the world of backup singers, featuring prominently Darlene Love, Merry Clayton, Claudia Lennear, Tata Vega, Lisa Fischer, and Judith Hill.

The film has all sorts of big gets to talk about this--it opens with Bruce Springsteen, and later has Mick Jagger sitting down for a chat, as does Sting and Stevie Wonder. But mostly it's the singers themselves who discuss their work.

Told in roughly chronological form, it begins with the introduction of black women singers, who were far more hip than the usual white singers (one clip is shown with Perry Como and some women who appear to be waxworks). Darlene Love was one of the biggest, with her group The Blossoms. They appeared on everything from "The Monster Mash" to "He's a Rebel," which they "ghost" sang--the record was credited to The Crystals, but Love and the Blossoms actually sang it.

Love was under contract to the mercurial Phil Spector, who controlled her career. She eventually quit and was cleaning houses for a living, but when she heard her song "Christmas (Baby Please Come)" on the radio in one of the houses, she decided to revive her career as a solo artist, and was eventually elected to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

The film then chronicles how British rock performers, like Joe Cocker and The Rolling Stones, used black backup singers to sound more black. Merry Clayton, a popular session singer, was the female voice on the Stones' "Gimme Shelter," which she performed after being roused from bed, in curlers. Claudia Lennear was the inspiration for the song "Brown Sugar," and Lisa Fischer has been on every Stones tour since 1989.

Clayton and Fischer have both had solo careers. Clayton recorded three albums, but none sold well. Fischer, who has an absolute dynamite voice, won a Grammy, but she says she waited too long for a follow up. She's still an in demand backup singer, working with Sting, as well as the Stones.

Other people interviewed are the Waters family, who have done everything from the theme to Growing Pains to Michael Jackson's Thriller to songs in The Lion King. Judith Hill, one of Michael Jackson's singers, made a name for herself by performing "We Are the World" at his memorial service.

What's interesting about this film is that it delves into what separates backup from lead singers. Some have broken out into stars on their own, such as Sheryl Crow and Luther Vandross (he was a backup singer for David Bowie's "Young Americans"). But over and over we hear that to make it as a solo artist, there is a certain amount of ego involved, a knack for self-promotion. Fischer, it is said, doesn't have that ego. Some of the backup singers are perfectly content with their role.

The film is marvelous, mostly for the music, but I liked how Neville took a subject that is aural and made it interest visually, using a lot of camera tricks without being showy. This film is a strong contender for winning the award in ten days.