Clare Torry's Spontaneous Vocal Improvisation on 'The Great Gig in the Sky'

Clare Torry was a 25-year-old session singer when Pink Floyd brought her into Abbey Road in 1973. They played her the backing track, told her the song was about death, and said: “Just do whatever you feel.” She asked for a scale or a melody—they gave her nothing. So she started wailing, screaming, then gradually softening her voice over the course of a few takes. The band kept the first complete take; what you hear on the record is basically her initial, unplanned reaction to the chord changes.

The arc of her vocal—panicked cries, guttural moans, then a final, breathy release—maps directly onto the transition from fear to acceptance. She didn’t know it at the time, but the way she naturally moved from high, desperate notes into a low, almost peaceful hum mirrored the very thing the song describes. It’s the sound of someone fighting death, then letting go. She later admitted she thought the band hated it; instead, they paid her a flat £30 session fee. Decades later, she sued for songwriting credit and received a settlement.