Clare Torry’s one-take vocal on 'The Great Gig in the Sky'

Clare Torry was a 22-year-old session singer when Pink Floyd called her into Abbey Road in 1973. Nobody told her what the song was about. Alan Parsons just said to imagine a vocal that could “cry and scream like an instrument.” She’d never heard the band before, but she listened to the backing track once, then went into the booth and sang the whole thing in a single improvised take.

Torry later said she wasn’t trying to sing about death or sex. She just let her voice mimic a lead guitar, bending notes and sliding between registers like a blues or gospel singer might. The result was so raw that the band barely touched it — they just added a reverb tail and left it intact. She earned a flat fee of £30 for the session, and for decades received no royalties or credit. It wasn’t until 2004 that Pink Floyd reached a settlement with her, and 2005’s The Dark Side of the Moon reissue finally listed her as co-writer.