Happy birthday Lisa Fischer

[Fudd]

WHO??

LISA FISCHER.  Backup singer for the ROLLING STONES since 1987.  One of the best singers in the world that no one has ever heard of.  She's a sultry performer with an incredibly powerful  New Orleans style voice.

http://youtu.be/mhy_17_DExU

I love this playing in my helmet when I'm riding really fast.

[The Anvil]

Good stuff. Arguably the Stone's best song.

I just did a little research because I thought I'd heard that the original vocalist on that track was Toni Tennille. Turns out I was wrong but check this out (from Wikipedia):

A higher-pitched second vocal track is sung by guest vocalist Merry Clayton. Of her inclusion, Jagger said in the 2003 book According to... The Rolling Stones: "The use of the female voice was the producer's idea. It would be one of those moments along the lines of 'I hear a girl on this track - get one on the phone.' " Clayton gives her solo performance, and one of the song's most famous pieces, after a solo performed by Richards, repeatedly singing "Rape, murder; It's just a shot away, It's just a shot away," and finally screaming the final stanza. She and Jagger finish the song with the line, "Love, sister, it's just a kiss away." To date it remains one of the most prominent contributions to a Rolling Stones track by a female vocalist.[2]

At about 2:59 into the song, Clayton's voice cracks twice from the strain of her powerful singing; once during the second refrain, on the word "shot" from the last line, and then again during the first line of the third and final refrain, on the word "murder", after which Jagger can be heard saying "Whoo!" in response to Clayton's emotional delivery. She suffered a miscarriage upon returning home, apparently due to the strain involved in reaching the highest notes.[3] Merry Clayton's name was misspelled on the original release, appearing as 'Mary'.

[RonW]

both of the singers were equal on their respective Gimme Shelter's but understandably they did question the meaning of 'backup vocalists.'

Gimme Shelter is among  m y favorite tunes to get my internal engine up and running.

♪♪  a storm is threatening my .... ♪♪
♪♪  very existence  today .... ♪♪
♪♪  if I don't find me some shelter .... ♪♪
♪♪  oh, I'm gonna fade away. ♪♪

The song was played or reintroduced on the opening scene for an episode of Hawaii Five-O last year especially for the opening notes with Fisher's harmonizing. In the past it was played on Apocalypse Now soundtrack or some other Vietnam movie. More recently the tune has been dubbed on Iraqi War footage showing a soldiers viewpoint. Black Ops, that's it.

If you don't mind, my favorite version below ....

Rolling Stones - Gimme Shelter - Live '95 Amsterdam	powered by Aeva