Merry Clayton-Who Knew?

[Needs More Cowbell]

What I always had known was the story behind The Rolling Stones hiring a female R&B singer, Merry Clayton, to lend her voice on the recording of their classic track "Gimme Shelter". Here's a short video of the event and her vocals stripped away

I recall hearing on the radio a year later Merry Clayton's version of that song on her own solo album

Now for what I recently learned

A personal favorite classic from 1964 was Betty Everett's "Shoop Shoop Song (It's In His Kiss")

It was Betty's one and only big hit but it was iconic, covered by dozens of performers who also scored high on the charts with that song(Cher, Linda Ronstadt).

But now I learned that Betty's version was also a cover. And yes indeed, it was Merry Clayton, back in 1963, who first recorded the song

Merry was 15 years old when she sang that song. She joined Ray Charles as one of his Raelettes and backed up many other performers during the 1960's. Another classic song she sang back-up to was Lynyrd Skynyrd's Sweet Home Alabama

Bart Simpson was also a fan of the song

 

[joker1961]

What I always had known was the story behind The Rolling Stones hiring a female R&B singer, Merry Clayton, to lend her voice on the recording of their classic track "Gimme Shelter". Here's a short video of the event and her vocals stripped away

I recall hearing on the radio a year later Merry Clayton's version of that song on her own solo album

Now for what I recently learned

A personal favorite classic from 1964 was Betty Everett's "Shoop Shoop Song (It's In His Kiss")

It was Betty's one and only big hit but it was iconic, covered by dozens of performers who also scored high on the charts with that song(Cher, Linda Ronstadt).

But now I learned that Betty's version was also a cover. And yes indeed, it was Merry Clayton, back in 1963, who first recorded the song

Merry was 15 years old when she sang that song. She joined Ray Charles as one of his Raelettes and backed up many other performers during the 1960's. Another classic song she sang back-up to was Lynyrd Skynyrd's Sweet Home Alabama

Bart Simpson was also a fan of the song

awesome review @Needs More Cowbells. . .Thanks

 

[Needs More Cowbell]

Merry Clayton is still with us, now aged 69. She was one of the highly sought after backup singers during the 60's and 70's.Plenty of noteworthy accomplishments such as:

Performed as the Acid Queen for the London stag play of The Who's Tommy in 1972
Sang backup for Ringo Starr's hit single "Oh My My' in 1973
Sang backup on 2 songs for Coldplay's 2015 CD A Head Full Of Dreams
Was a cast member in the final season of the TV show Cagney & Lacey
Her brother is the percussionist for the group Little Feat-Sam Clayton
Sang the lead for the song "Yes" for the movie Dirty Dancing
Appeared on several tracks for Neil Young's first album
Other notables she sang backup with on their albums include Carole King, Joe Cocker, Tom Jones and Linda Ronstadt

Unfortunately there was tragedy in her life. As mentioned in the video clip, she was pregnant when she recorded the Gimme Shelter track. She soon suffered a miscarriage

In June of 2014, Merry was severely injured in an auto accident. Both her legs needed to be amputated