20 Feet From Stardom is one of my favorite movies from recent years. This 2013 Academy Award winner (Best Documentary) goes behind the scenes with some notable background singers including Darlene Love, Merry Clayton, Lisa Fischer, Judith Hill, and more. These women sang backup on some iconic songs, but their names and faces are not well-known. You'll meet them in this movie, and also hear from singers including Mick Jagger, Stevie Wonder, Bruce Springsteen, Sting, Bette Midler, and more.
The movie has some fascinating footage of 1950's background singers, who were often called "readers" because they had a great skill at reading music and hitting the notes pitch perfect. As the 1960's brought rock, pop, and soul music, background singing changed to a free form art, with more interpretation by the singers.
The heart of the movie is Darlene Love, who found success as a backup singer working with Phil Spector. Her experiences working with him, and the trajectory of her career (both highs and lows) are chronicled here. Spector manipulated her, using her voice on songs by the girl group The Crystals (a group she did not belong to), while promising her that the songs she recorded would be promoted under her name. She did have a 1960's hit with "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)."
You will also meet Merry Clayton, who had a last minute, late night call to do backups for the Rolling Stones. She left the house in her nightgown and a mink coat to record the memorable background vocals on "Gimme Shelter."
Some of the women profiled in this movie tried a solo career and returned to background singing. Some of them love background singing and harmonizing. They are all passionate about music, with great stories and songs.
If you love music, especially 1960's and 1970's, you will find this movie fascinating. It is the rare film that I finished with the immediate thought: "I am looking forward to seeing this again."
If you've seen 20 Feet from Stardom, I would love to hear what you thought of it in the comments below.
For your listening pleasure: Darlene Love sings "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)" on The David Letterman Show (2013):
I've blogged for several years. I started blogging to promote Birdhouse Books, my online business (vintage children's books and cards). That was well and good, but over time I wanted something more.
I began 2014 writing a more varied blog, including Music Monday and Friday Faves, as well as occasional book reviews, movie reviews, giveaways, and general chat. It is so much more fun! I love having a blog without limits and being free to write about a variety of topics here.
I've loved writing since I was a little girl. My first story was in first grade. I kept a diary starting in elementary school, and later a journal with longer entries. In high school I discovered poetry, and copied favorite poems from the library into spiral notebooks, writing my own poems as well.
College was all about creative writing for me; my degree was English: Creative Writing with a focus in poetry. I loved everything about it, especially the focus on words and writing.
I wrote for years after college, followed by a few years where I shockingly did not write at all. I did not feel like myself when I wasn't writing. I started a challenge to write a poem a day in 2010 and have kept that up. At this point my daily journal is basically poem after poem. I enjoy it so much and look forward to writing each evening. I believe this practice has changed my life.
My work involves finding books, researching them, and writing descriptions. I enjoy writing in this small daily way, but blogging gives me the opportunity to do something a little different and more -- actually communicating about things that I enjoy. I love getting comments here and chatting back and forth with readers. It makes my day!
In short: I blog because I love to write.
"Be Near Me" by ABC always reminds me of my college years. It is basically a song about yearning, and it is really lovely. This was the second release from British band ABC's 1985 album How to be a ... Zillionaire! Listen to this video from the show Solid Gold and travel back to the 1980's with me ...
My first Friday Fave this week is an amazing iPad app, available at iTunes: NYPL Biblion: World's Fair. This free app is all about the 1939 New York World's Fair. The app was constructed by the New York Public Library and it is beautifully done. History, art, architecture, popular culture -- it is all here. I have just started playing with this app and enjoy it so much. I hope you do, too! (Pictured above: the Futurama exhibit from the 1939 New York World's Fair.)
My second fave (and new discovery here): Edy's Outshine Fruit Bars. They are all natural frozen fruit juice bars and absolutely delicious. Perfect for a summer snack! It's been so hot and humid here this summer. I am craving a grape juice Fruit Bar right now. :-)
Wishing you a fun weekend!
This week's So You Think You Can Dance was action packed. The judging panel included Nigel Lythgoe, Mary Murphy, Adam Shankman (one of my favorite judges), Twitch (one of my favorite SYTYCD alumni), ice skater Tara Lipinski and American Ballet Theatre prima ballerina Irina Dvorovenko.
The dancers all had a short solo dance (without judges' comments), followed by choreography in different styles: Hip Hop (choreographed by Christopher Scott), Jazz (Sonya Tayeh), Ballroom (Dimitri and Anya), Contemporary (Travis Wall), and Group Round (choreographed by the competing dancers as a collective effort). This was followed by another solo dance.
The pace was fast and fan favorites left early. I was sorry to see Marie Poppins (European popper) and Caleb Brauner (quirky contemporary dancer) cut early during the choreography process.
The show was so fast paced that I found it hard to keep up! I wish the callbacks had been the full two hours with another two hour show announcing the top 20 and providing a showcase for their dancing so we could have gotten to know them better.
The top 20 was announced:
Bridget Whitman, Contemporary
Brooklyn Fullmer, Latin Ballroom
Carly
Blaney, Contemporary
Casey Askew, Contemporary
Emilio Dosal,
Popping
Emily James, Contemporary
Jacque Lewarne, Ballet
Jessica
Richens, Jazz
Jourdan Epstein, Ballet
Malene Ostergaard,
Ballroom
Marcquet Hill, Latin Ballroom
Nick Garcia, Latin
Ballroom
Ricky Ubeda, Contemporary
Rudy Abreu, Contemporary
Serge Onik,
Latin Ballroom
Stanley Glover, Contemporary
Tanisha Belnap,
Ballroom
Teddy Coffey, Hip Hop
Valerie Rockey, Tap
Zack Everhart, Tap
I was sorry to see Ja Ja (popper) and Johnny Wacks (wack style street dancer) cut. That said, I think this is a very strong Top 20. The standout for me is Ricky Ubeda, who has talent and personality to spare; he is just a star on the stage. I also really like Malene Ostergaard (ballroom), Marcquet Hill (ballroom), Stanley Glover (contemporary), and Valerie Rockey (tap).
Next week will be the first live competition show. I'm really looking forward to it. What did you think of last night's show and the Top 20 announcement? Do you have any favorites going into the competition?
