Backing vocals are a most excellent accompaniment to many a piece of music. Whether it’s in bands (think Mamas & the Papas) or classical music, opera or whatnot.
Singing itself is very appealing. It’s something most of us would like to do, we think, but many of us are severely lacking in talent for it. We certainly are.
It’s just down to luck, really, but even if you’re gifted with a mighty set of lungs there’s no guarantee of musical success. As this 2013 documentary about backing singers proves. It’s 20 Feet From Stardom.
20 Feet From Stardom as a Tribute to Most Excellent Backing Singers
Directed by Morgan Neville, this is an intriguing documentary film about the lives of backing vocalists. You know the ones—often women, they’re in the background offering powerful support to an (often male) lead singer.
We saw it recently with the re-release of Talking Head’s 1984 concert film Stop Making Sense. In that, backing singers Ednah Holt and Lynn Mabry gave a hell of a performance and really add an enormous amount to the film.
Lead singer Cillian Murphy… sorry, David Byrne has provided many interviews saying how fantastic they were. And both singers do appear briefly in 20 Feet From Stardom.
Fantastic singers right there, but a solo career of their own didn’t emerge and they’re primarily best known for this 40 years ago.
And that’s what 20 Feet From Stardom explores.
The lives of all manner of backing vocalists who’ve supported the likes of The Rolling Stones, David Bowie, Tom Jones, Bruce Springsteen etc.
We meet Claudia Lennear, who worked with Tina Turner to kickstart her backing singer career. With her good looks, she also attracted the attention of Mick Jagger (you might have heard of him) and various other geezers.
She dated Mick Jagger for a bit, who spends quite a bit of the documentary lusting over her appearance in the ’60s and ’70s.
Bloody hell she can sing, though, and her backing vocals on The Rolling Stones’ Gimme Shelter are now iconic.
For her efforts, Lennear was inducted into the Rhode Island Music Hall of Fame in 2019.
Judith Hill also features extensively in the documentary. When this documentary was made in 2013 she was 29. An excellent singer, and boasting the looks to go with that, she highlights what the film is all about—how come someone like this isn’t famous?
What does it take to go beyond being a “mere” backing singer?
In her 20s she worked with the likes of Michael Jackson (you might have heard of him, too), Prince, and Josh Groban.
With Jackson, she was actually his duet partner on the single I Just Can’t Stop Loving You (2009) shortly before his death.
The film helped bring attention to her career and her debut album, Back in Time, launched in 2015.
The documentary offers an important focus on what is accomplishment. Too often in modern life “success” is viewed as mass recognition and wealth.
However, backing singer Lisa Fischer noted:
“I reject the notion that the job you excel at is somehow not enough to aspire to, that there has to be something more. I love supporting other artists … Some people will do anything to be famous. I just wanted to sing.”
20 Feet From Stardom showcases a cast of charismatic and talented singers, most of whom love their jobs.
The documentary is great fun and shows the various singers having a great time at their job, but there is that lurking, poignant underlining of sexism and racism from previous decades. Issues that curtailed careers and restricted great opportunities.
Why, for example, isn’t Bruce Springsteen just a backing singer for Claudia Lennear? Why wasn’t someone with a voice like Lennear’s given a record contract of her own?
Too often these women have just been the good looking thing in the background.
Despite that side of things, the documentary is primarily a joyous time. It’s intriguing and it’ll make you think a little bit more next time you see some backing vocalists in action.
The Production of 20 Feet From Stardom
The film won the Oscar for Best Documentary. It was quite relatively successful, making $5.8 million off its $1 million budget.
There have been projects like this in the past. In 2012 there was the book The Wrecking Crew: The Inside Story of Rock and Roll’s Best-Kept Secret.
There was also In the Shadow of the Stars (1991), a documentary about the San Francisco Opera and the lives of chorus singers and what they get up to.
Then you can think of TV shows like Stars in Their Eyes here in the UK and audiences are clearly keen on this idea of the underdog musician.
The almost famous brigade and how it must be, apparently, agonising to come so close yet be so far away from the ultimate success.
Or maybe it’s an empowering thing.
We all have talents, whatever they may be, and most people will remain unrecognised. Yet by bringing attention to the almost haves viewers get an opportunity to reflect sympathetically on their perceived successes and failures in life.
