A music documentary with a glossy sheen and a warm heart, 20 Feet From Stardom tells the stories of some of popular music's most accomplished backup singers, including those who have shared the stage with the likes of Bruce Springsteen, The Rolling Stones, Stevie Wonder and Michael Jackson. While names like Darlene Love, Lynn Maybry and Merry Clayton may be almost completely unknown, classic soul, pop and girl group songs from 'Walk On The Wild Side' to 'Da Doo Ron Ron' and 'Gimme Shelter' would have been infinitely lesser without them.
Possessed with the ability to perform vocal pyrotechnics which would blitz most Idol contestants, many of these backup singers yearn for their own moment in the spotlight, but as Springsteen observes "that walk to the front (of stage) is a difficult one". Though their ambitions of breaking out of the shadows of stardom were often frustrated by the whims of a notoriously fickle industry, the selfless contributions they made were immense and their stories are rarely less than compelling.
Though primarily an upbeat affair, Morgan Neville's film is unafraid of tackling more emotionally complex terrain as he covers the backstory of Phil Spector's monstrous exploitation of backing singers and the politics around Lynyrd Skynyrd's 'Sweet Home Alabama', which featured African-American backing singer Merry Clayton contributing to a track intended as a rebuttal to Neil Young's anti-racist 'Southern Man'. There's also a note of lament for the perceived declining importance of backup singers, as technology evolves to make their prodigious vocal talents a luxury when Auto-Tune and studio wizardry can produce the same result.
As well as collating priceless archival footage performances of the film's stars with the likes of The Talking Heads, Paul Simon and Elton John, the documentary has corralled some of its subjects together for some perfectly shot performances of some of their greatest works. Although it has been decades since their prime in some cases, their voices are as sweet as ever, and when they join forces to belt out the evergreen 'Lean On Me', the results are simply spine-chilling. Neville's ambitions of pushing these overlooked but hugely talented musicians into the full blare of the spotlight is beautifully realised.
