Merry Clayton (born December 25, 1948) is an American soul and gospel singer. She contributed vocals to numerous recordings and worked with many major artists over several decades, including performing a duet with Mick Jagger on the Rolling Stones’ “Gimme Shelter.” Clayton is prominently featured in 20 Feet from Stardom, the Oscar‑winning documentary about background singers and their impact on the music industry. Clayton was born in Gert Town, New Orleans, Louisiana, and was named “Merry” because she was born on Christmas Day. She is the daughter of Eva B. Clayton and Reverend A.G. Williams Sr. Raised in New Orleans as a Christian, she spent much of her childhood in her father’s parish, New Zion Baptist Church. After moving to Los Angeles, she met members of the Blossoms, who encouraged her to pursue a music career. Clayton’s voice as a backing singer can be heard on recordings by Pearl Bailey, Phil Ochs, Burt Bacharach, Tom Jones, Joe Cocker, Linda Ronstadt, Carole King, Tori Amos, and on several tracks from Neil Young’s debut album. She is often credited with having recorded with Elvis Presley, though her name does not appear in Presley’s sessionographies. Clayton began her recording career in 1962, at age 14. She first performed “Who Can I Count On?” as a duet with Bobby Darin on his album You’re the Reason I’m Living. In 1963, she recorded the first released version of “The Shoop Shoop Song (It’s in His Kiss),” the same year Betty Everett’s version reached the Top 10 on the Billboard Hot 100. Early in her career, Clayton also performed with Ray Charles as one of the Raelettes. At the time, Charles was the only artist her father permitted her to see perform live.
See for more.
Grandma’s Hands
Tell All The People
Bridge over Troubled Water
Love Is A Mighty River
God’s Love
The Times They Are A-Changin’
Beautiful Scars
Ooh Child Medley
Gimme Shelter
Southern Man
Yes
Country Road
It’s in His Kiss
This page contains text from Wikipedia. The content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution‑ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC BY‑SA 4.0). See: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
This text is based on the original Wikipedia article.