Five classic artists who were too good to be backing singers
You gotta start somewhere, right? It’s easy to forget just how stratospherically remote the chances are to reach the stars in any creative field, let alone the dog-eat-dog world of the music industry.
So much can scupper one’s trajectory to fame. Bad video, dodgy contracts, label drops, and being held to ransom at the mercy of inept promotions can all quash whatever potential an artist has at nabbing Billboard gold.
The fact is, if you’re in a recording studio laying down a vocal track for a musical big name, or on tour as part of a backing singing troupe, and it’s paying your rent, you’ve made it. It’s closer to the sun than most fellow hopefuls ever dream of, and you can give yourself a massive pat on the back for clearing the bills in with that silky caramel voice of yours.
Still, a few do find their session credits or tour crew experience as a launchpad to bigger prizes, they were either hungry enough to clamour for or wandered into amid a haze of humb luck happenstance. Whatever the case, we take a look at the backing singers who ended up as some of rock and pop’s most mainstream names.
Five classic artists who were too good to be backing singers:
Cher
She’s still going. Turning 80 this year and letting rumours of a One Last Ride tour percolate among her dedicated fans, Cher stands tall as pop’s ultimate survivor, burnished in the 1960s’ semi-counterculture and strutting confidently through disco, hairsprayed power ballads, and pioneering autotuned electropop. To this day, no other solo artist but Cher has nabbed a number one on the Billboard charts in seven consecutive decades.
Back in 1962, songwriter and promoter Sonny Bono was working for Phil Spector when he first crossed paths with a 16-year-old Cher, eventually bringing the fame-hungry singer into the Wrecking Crew fold for backing vocal work. Before long, Cher counted session work on mammoth hits like The Righteous Brothers’ ‘You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’ and The Ronettes’ ‘Be My Baby’, leading to her 1964 debut single ‘Ringo, I Love You’ with Spector on the production credits. Only a year later, Sonny & Cher would double up on ‘I Got You Babe’ and score a Hot 100 chart topper.
Luther Vandross
There’ll be little argument as to who stands as the 1980s’ most titanic male soul singer. Hitting the ground running with 1981’s ‘Never Too Much’ debut, Luther Vandross’ velvety bellow would mark him as a beloved figure of the Black R&B world, rubbing shoulders with the likes of Marvin Gaye and Bill Withers in the soul hall of fame.
Yet, Vandross was no overnight success. Putting the years in since the late 1960s, a TV debut on the very first episode of Sesame Street, singing the alphabet with the Listen My Brother group, would lead to a glittering CV of backing vocal sessions with some of rock and pop’s crème de la crème; Chaka Khan, Diana Ross, Stevie Wonder, Donna Summer, and Roxy Music all enjoying his silky croon on key cuts. Most notably, Vandross would provide backup on David Bowie’s Young Americans, roping in old Listen to My Brother member Carlos Alomar and triggering a years-long collaboration between the pair.
Michael McDonald
Standing as one of the key voices of the 1970s soft rock era, Michael McDonald’s blue-eyed soul offered a smooth pop riposte to an army of music fans left cold by punk and heavy metal. As well as enjoying a prolific solo career across the next decade, McDonald will always be defined by his time in two bands, the big one fronting The Doobie Brothers during their classic heyday.
The other was the snarky jazz-rock duo, Steely Dan. McDonald formed part of the pair’s touring back-up singers two years before his Doobie day job, and lent his high-end croon to all their albums between Katy Lied and Gaucho while also juggling vocal duties during both bands’ trajectory to the charts.
Sheryl Crow
Among the 1990s explosion of women singer-songwriters that straddled the indie world while scoring mammoth pop numbers, Sheryl Crow certainly gave the likes of Alanis Morrisette or Liz Phair a serious run for their money. Hailing from the US’ Midwest, Crow’s rootsy country-rock sound and sharp lyrical pen would win the singer over 50million unit sales, as well as the ‘Tomorrow Never Dies’ Bond theme that’s yet to be topped.
Only a few years earlier, Crow was a budding artist cutting vocal tracks for McDonald’s and Toyota commercials, then graduating to recordings supporting everybody from Stevie Wonder, Belinda Carlisle, and Don Henley. Most famously, she’d join the team for Michael Jackson’s 1987-1989 Bad World Tour, typically playing a duet for ‘I Just Can’t Stop Loving You’.
Phil Collins
You gotta wonder whether Phil Collins even held the faintest glimmer of expectation of just how Billboard-conquering a pop force he’d balloon to across the 1980s. Long before …But Seriously and No Jacket Required’s MTV domination, however, Collins was behind the drumkit for British prog heavyweight Genesis from 1971’s Nursery Cryme, lending backing vocals but very much behind the conceptual flair of frontman Peter Gabriel and his endless theatrical wardrobe.
Collins’ burgeoning pop captaincy was beginning to rear its head before Gabriel’s split in 1975. Already lending a lyrical hand to much of the material as well as leading on ‘For Absent Friends’ and ‘More Fool Me’, Collins’ stepping up to the mic for A Trick of the Tail would see Genesis steered into a more commercial art-rock direction and launch his mega solo stardom, going on to sell over 100million records worldwide and a mainstay of the decade’s mainstream charts.
