Merry Clayton (born December 25, 1948) – Keep Your Eye On The Sparrow (1975)

The title track to the legendary backing vocalist's final LP on Ode, this soul/funk masterpiece was produced by Eugene McDaniels and co-written by Dave Grusin.

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Merry Clayton is a singer who is best known for her work as a backing vocalist in the 1960s and 70s, although she had a solo career and released several albums of her own. She famously sang with Mick Jagger on “Gimme Shelter,” considered by many to be the Rolling Stones’ all-time greatest song.

Born on Christmas Day in New Orleans, Clayton was named for the holiday greeting. Her father was a Reverend at the city’s New Zion Baptist Church, where she sang gospel. She was nicknamed “Little Haley” because parishioners thought she sounded like a young Mahalia Jackson.

Her family moved to Los Angeles when she was in middle school. There she sang in the adult choir at Mt. Moriah Baptist Church before she was even a teenager. Her talent was obvious, and she was secretly allowed to sing in the choir during Grace Memorial Church of God & Christ’s Sunday night gospel radio shows.

She met the members of the Los Angeles female vocal group The Blossoms (Darlene Love, Fanita James, and Jean King) who took her under their wing and treated her like a little sister. After school, they started bringing her along to recording sessions, which led to her debut single, the superb jam “I've Got My Eyes On You” b/w “The Doorbell Rings.” It was released in 1962 on L.A. soul label Teldisc Records.

Bobby Darin signed Clayton to Capitol Records at age 14, and her mother made him promise to correct her homework before agreeing to the contract. She recorded the duet “Who Can I Count On?” with him in January, 1963.

Her first single for Capitol was the original version of “It’s In His Kiss,” released in June, 1963. It was written by Rudy Clark, a staff writer at Darin’s production company, produced by Jack Nitzsche, and featured Wrecking Crew drummer Hal Blaine and the Blossoms on backing vocals. The single did not chart, but was covered by Betty Everett six months later who took “The Shoop Shoop Song (It's in His Kiss)” to #1 R&B in early 1964.

Clayton’s follow up to “It’s In His Kiss” was the phenomenal “Nothing Left To Do But Cry” written by prolific Tulsa, Oklahoma-born songwriter David Gates, with the upbeat “Usher Boy” on the flip. Recorded when she was still 14, it was released the week after her fifteenth birthday in late December, 1963, almost exactly sixty years ago.

She went on to become one of Ray Charles’ backing singers as a member of the Raelettes from 1966-68, after being recommended by Charles’ organist, her family friend Billy Preston. Clayton sang backing vocals for many other artists during the sixties, including Joe Cocker, Phil Ochs, Burt Bacharach, and Tom Jones.

When the Rolling Stones couldn’t get Bonnie Bramlett to sing with Mick while recording their 1969 classic “Gimme Shelter” in Los Angeles, they called Clayton in the middle of the night, waking her up. She showed up to the studio with her hair still in curlers and laid down her vocals in just a few takes. A sad postscript to this moment, however, is that Clayton was four months pregnant at the time and suffered a miscarriage the very next day. She attributed it to the strain it took to achieve her powerful vocal performance.

After the Stones’ 1969 album Let It Bleed was released with “Gimme Shelter” as its opening track, Clayton signed to Lou Adler’s Ode Records label. She re-recorded her own version of the track, which was included on her debut solo album Gimme Shelter in 1970, produced by Adler and arranged by Gene Page. One of its highlights was her gospel-flavored “I Ain't Gonna Worry My Life Away,” which she co-wrote with her friend Billy Preston.

Adler also produced her second album, which was self-titled and released in 1971. Singer/songwriter Carole King wrote and arranged three songs for it, including the love anthem “Walk On In” and the beautiful cut “After All This Time.” Clayton sang with King on her inspirational anthem “Way Over Yonder,” from King’s classic 1971 album Tapestry. The following year, Clayton released another of King’s songs as a single, the heartfelt jam “Oh No, Not My Baby” (1972), again produced by Adler.

One of the recording sessions for the track was filmed, featuring King on vocals and piano alongside Clayton, with David T. Walker on guitar and Wilton Felder of the Crusaders on bass. It hit #30 R&B and #72 on the Billboard Hot 100, and earned Clayton a Grammy nomination for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance.

Later in 1972, Clayton appeared on Ellis Haizlip’s PBS show SOUL! and performed a full set’s worth of material.

In 1975, she released the first charting version of “Keep Your Eye On The Sparrow,” a song co-written by Morgan Ames and Dave Grusin and used as the theme song to the TV show Baretta with vocals by Sammy Davis Jr. Her version was produced by the great Eugene McDaniels, peaked at #42 R&B and #45 on the Hot 100, and became the title track to her final LP on Ode Records. The song was later recorded as a semi-instrumental by Rhythm Heritage. Released as a single, their “Baretta’s Theme” hit #20 on the Hot 100 in the spring of 1976. But Clayton’s version was a soul/funk masterpiece.

Clayton was one of the unsung backing vocalists profiled in the 2013 Oscar-winning documentary 20 Feet from Stardom. Sadly, the year after its release, Clayton was critically injured when she was involved in a car crash in Los Angeles on June 16, 2014. She had to have both her legs amputated at the knees as a result. But it did not stop her from continuing to sing and record, and she released her latest album Beautiful Scars in 2021.

Happy 75th Birthday to the great Merry Clayton.

Further info:

MerryClayton.com

“The Unstoppable Merry Clayton,” The New York Times, March 29, 2021.

“Merry Clayton Interview: 'Beautiful Scars' Album,” Rolling Stone, March 31, 2021.

“Merry Clayton: 'Gimme Shelter left a dark taste in my mouth',” interview by Robert Ham, The Guardian, April 8, 2021.

“How Merry Clayton's voice served Ray Charles, the Rolling Stones, and then herself,” USA Today, February 28, 2022.

“How Merry Clayton turned 'Gimme Shelter' by the Rolling Stones from good to legendary,” KSAT, February 24, 2023.

#soul #funk #RollingStones #CaroleKing #MerryClayton