The Midnight Session That Gave 'Gimme Shelter' Its Haunting Edge

The most famous scream in rock history happened after midnight in a Los Angeles studio, with a pregnant woman who’d just been woken up. Merry Clayton was called in at 1 a.m. to overdub background vocals on “Gimme Shelter.” She was nine months pregnant. She recorded her part in one take, her voice cracking on “rape, murder” — that crack was kept because it felt too real to fix. The song’s layered, atmospheric sound already had Keith Richards’ open E chord ringing through an amp turned up to ten, Charlie Watts’ loose shuffle, and a general sense of decay. Clayton’s vocal pushed it into something apocalyptic.

The gospel choir overdubs were added to thicken the texture even more. Jack Nitzsche, the Stones’ longtime arranger, brought in a small group of soul singers to layer harmonies beneath Clayton’