In 1985, working for the Daily News in New York City,  I was sent to photograph rehearsals for the musical ‘Leader of the Pack’ starring Darlene Love (above centre), Ellie Greenwich and Annie Golden (above L) – listening to Darlene sing ‘Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)’ in that studio was a mind blowing experience.

Now Darlene Love is in the new movie ’20 Feet from Stardom’ –  the inspiring, heartbreaking documentary about the most memorable voices in the world of backup singers who performed with world-famous musical acts, but mostly are not household names. Darlene Love was speaking at the screening on friday – groomed as a lead singer by Phil Spector, her un-credited voice was used in top hits of the ’60s like ‘He’s a Rebel’ – she says “It’s pretty debilitating to the spirit to see somebody else on television lip-syncing to the song you recorded”. In 2011 she finally got recognition she deserved when she was inducted into the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame.

The film also features Merry Clayton who tells the story of being summoned  to a recording studio in the middle of the night, pregnant and with her hair in curlers, to record the incendiary vocal track with those immortal lines “Rape, murder! It’s just a shot away” on my all time favorite Rolling Stones song “Gimme Shelter.” Merry says “I said to myself, ‘I’m going to blow them out of this room,’ ”and she did.