When the Oscars were handed out earlier this year, I hadn’t seen many of the Best Documentary candidates. When 20 Feet From Stardom won, I was disappointed as I instinctively felt that the award should have gone to one of the more serious, hard hitting, documentaries. Having seen this film now, I have to admit that I was probably wrong!
It is a thoroughly engrossing examination of backing singers from the 1960s to the present day. The usual array of taking heads pop up to talk about their greatness – Bruce Springsteen, Sting, and Bette Midler amongst the more notable names. That you would expect from any decent music documentary that you would see on BBC4 on a Friday night.
However, two things particularly elevate this beyond the run of the mill. The quality of the archive performance clips is outstanding. From the opening clip of Talking Heads performing Slippery People, the standard barely dips. Secondly, the film makers have bee very astute in their choice of singers to concentrate on, giving us a number of different and equally compelling stories.
The most well known is Darlene Love. Her powerful voice and infectious personality is matched by Merry Clayton, who is not nearly as famous today. The one working most and hardest today is the incredible Lisa Fischer. Despite winning a Grammy she is more than happy to remain in the shadows, having a normal life, and comes across as a well rounded happy person. On the flip side to that, Claudia Lennear, gave up singing when her attempt at a solo career failed and she is living with the regret of that. The least interesting is the youngest singer, Judith Hill, but thankfully her story gets the least screen time.
Some of the detail contained in the film has been disputed, especially around which records Darlene Love sang on and what her relationship with Phil Spector was really like. However, that is probably being nit picky as that sort of debate accompanies many true stories. For example, it is not clear, and not surprising, that Spector totally screwed her over, no matter what the exact course of events were.
The highlight of the film may well appear on my favourite scenes of the year list. Clayton returns to the studio where she sang on Rolling Stones finest song, Gimme Shelter. Whilst she listens to the song she explains her contribution and when her vocals are isolated, the proud expression on her face sums up the pure joy that these singers can achieve. This has a pretty limited release but it is worth seeking out, as is the outstanding soundtrack.
Rating: 8 out of 10