Review by Pamela Zoslov
Morgan Neville's enthralling
documentar
y 20 FEET FROM STARDOM
could be seen as a companion piece to the 2002 STANDING IN THE SHADOWS OF MOTOWN. Both
films tell the stories of the largely unheralded supporting players
in pop music: STANDING IN THE SHADOWS profiled
the Funk Brothers, the backing band for Motown's biggest hits, and 20 FEET shines a spotlight on the
talented background singers whose contributions have immeasurably
enhanced pop and rock hits for decades.
You
may not know their names, but you certainly know their voices –
strong, powerful, sublimely harmonizing voices, often honed in the
church and deployed to magical effect by record producers like Phil
Spector and Lou Adler in the 1960s and later adopted by rock
musicians like Mick Jagger, David Bowie, Joe Cocker and Sting, who
adulated the singers' musicianship, and the incredible showmanship of
groups like Ike Turner's Ikettes.
