How Glyn Johns Used a Stairwell to Record the Eerie Vocal on 'Gimme Shelter'

The eerie, almost unearthly quality of Merry Clayton’s vocal on “Gimme Shelter” came from a simple accident of studio geography. Glyn Johns, the recording engineer, couldn’t fit Clayton into the already-cramped control room at Olympic Studios, so he set her up with a microphone in the stairwell. The