20 Feet from Stardom

2

It... It's a bit

of a walk, you know,

from, you know, back by

the drummer over here.

That walk to the front is...

is complicated.

Singing background remains

a somewhat unheralded

position, you know.

So people make that leap.

So, what you guys

do on that part?

I'll help you carry on

It's almost more of

a mental leap than...

than just the

physical act of singing.

It's a conceptual leap,

and if you can comfortably

come up with it, you know,

then you may

find a spot out there.

Carry on for...

But I know

tremendous backup singers

who just aren't comfortable

in that position.

You gotta have that narcissism,

you gotta have that ego.

So shall we do it?

It can be

a pretty long walk.

One, two, three!

There's a power

to what it is that we do.

No one till right now has

publicly acknowledged it,

but people love to see

the background singers.

I mean, when you think about

Lou Reed, "Walk On The Wild Side,"

you know, that iconic song with the line

that makes a lot of people uncomfortable

because it says "colored girls. "

But what is he... what is he referencing

when he says, "And the colored

girls say do-do-do-do-do?"

The fact that there's

a power to these women

that stand on stage

and sing with these guys.

Backup singers just bring so

much more life to the situation.

When a voice opens up,

there comes the life.

That's when it's a

person-to-person connection.

What about the time

you were rolling over?

You fall on your face

and you must be having fun

Backsliding

How do you do?

You don't hold on necessarily

to your individual vocal persona.

God help us

'Cause you're trying

to get your persona

to blend and mesh with the other voices.

That's awesome.

- What's the matter with him?

- He's all right

- How do you know?

- The Lord won't mind

- Don't play no games

- He's all right

Love from the bottom

to the top

- Turn like a wheel

- He's all right

See for yourself...

There's something that

happens when you lock in with somebody

and all the harmonics ping,

and, I mean,

if you don't like that,

what do you like?

Cool down

Stop acting crazy

They're gonna leave

and we'll be on our own

I could... I could be different people,

a chameleon, you know.

It's just like you could change up.

You're never bored.

I'm a part of the sisterhood.

I got to earn this.

It wasn't just a dream that I had

I actually got to sing

these songs and sing on key.

- Like a wheel

- He's all right

- See for yourself

- The Lord won't mind

- We're gonna move

- Right now

Turn like a wheel

As a background singer,

they would like you to come in,

make things sound great,

take very little credit...

and go home quickly.

It's all right

The Lord won't mind

Right now

Turn like a wheel

Inside a wheel

Thank you, Jesus.

Thank you, Father.

I will enter His gates

With thanksgiving in my heart

I will enter His courts with praise

God gave us the ability

to create, didn't he?

- Yes, he did.

- OK.

Today we're gonna pin

this down to music.

He has made me glad

I will rejoice for He has made me glad

I see these kids doing this

slide, I said, "Oh, child. "

He think he got that

from, uh... James Brown.

I said, "Oh, that came

from one of my pastors. "

He has made me glad

I will rejoice for

He has made me glad

- My father was a minister.

- My father was a...

- My father was a...

- Pastor's daughter.

- Isn't that clich?

- That's how I was actually

- introduced to music.

- I started as a four-year-old.

All through grammar school.

I will say this is the day

You come up learning the part

that your voice actually fits in.

Nobody tells you that's how singers

learn how to do background.

Hallelujah, glory, glory.

Thank you, Lord.

Thank you, Lord.

God gave me this talent

and I intend to use it.

And that's what my life

has really been all about,

trying to make a success

of the gift that I have.

Darlene Love is the one

that's the cause of all of this.

Darlene Love and Fanita

James, The Blossoms.

They were the first black

background singers

working in the studios.

Silver and gold

Silver and gold

Everyone's searching

for silver and gold...

When we first got into recordings,

it was totally white.

You'll never find comfort

in silver and gold...

They were all white girls,

and they were very tasteful.

They could do arm movements

and they could, you know,

get in and go...

go to the microphone

and come out of the microphone,

but that was about it.

Silver and gold, everyone's searching

Suppose silver and gold

Because it was white singers.

We call them the readers.

They couldn't do nothing without

that music sitting right in their face.

People would see us walk in.

They wondered what

we were doing there.

They handed us our music and

we took it like we was pros too,

like we would really read this.

Then as you got

more into the music,

people would want background

singers that were free enough

to put feeling in what

they were singing.

Not saying that

those singers back then

didn't have feeling, but they were

committed to what

they saw on the paper.

In silver and gold

- Shimmy, shimmy to and fro

- Oh, yeah

Shimmy, shimmy to and fro...

The song that was

coming from them was so raw.

That's what it...

it was so raw, and so real,

that it was hard to deny it.

Shimmy shimmy

It's the dance of the day

Shimmy shimmy

It's new this day

Shimmy shimmy's

gonna help us too

With mama and papa

and you know who

Shimmy shimmy in my soul

Shimmy shimmy

We'll never grow old

Now this is a surprise!

This is history.

None of us have sung

together in 30, 40 years.

I was 15 when I first met them.

- Ain't that something? Fifteen.

- That's not funny.

That's not funny.

But we were really white

before you got in,

- and then you added it...

- We had a sweet sound.

She brought guts and...

that bottom gospel thing

and it made it perfect.

- Shimmy shimmy

- Oh, yeah

They made that platform theirs.

The Blossoms made it theirs,

and when they came in,

every producer in California

and everywhere else, that's the sound

they wanted. That was from The Blossoms.

All you had to do is tell them

in what direction you were headed,

and they took you there.

- See when we had to sound white?

- Yeah, uh-huh.

I met him on a Monday

and my heart my stood still

Da-do-ron-ron-ron

Da-do-ron-ron

What was unique about

The Blossoms, we could change our sound.

We worked with people

from Buck Owens to James Brown.

Yes, my heart stood still

Yes, his name was Bill

And when he walked me home

Da-do-ron-ron-ron

Da-do-ron-ron

That was perfect,

without even rehearsing.

The amazing thing about

Darlene and Fanita and Jean

is that they weren't afraid

of anybody else that did what they did.

And if that producer

asked for a particular person

that could do something,

Darlene would say,

"That's not what I do,

but I know a girl that can do it. "

And that's how she'll get in,

and that's how Merry got in.

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