Clare Torry

Clare Torry (2003)

Clare Torry (born November 23, 1947 in London ) is a British singer who became known for her vocal improvisation in The Great Gig in the Sky from the Pink Floyd album The Dark Side of the Moon from 1973. With over 50 million records sold, this album is one of the best-selling albums of all time worldwide.

The first years

Clare Torry came from a middle-class family and attended boarding school in Battle (East Sussex) as a schoolgirl . Since she found it difficult to cope with the conservative norms of this school, her talent as a singer and songwriter could hardly be promoted.

From the late 1960s, Torry worked as a professional musician. At first she sang many cover versions of popular hits from the hit parades. She also wrote pop songs herself, some of which were adopted by other musicians. A great financial success was not associated with it. Therefore, from mid-1972 onwards she also took on assignments as a studio background singer, a work that did not seem very attractive to her artistically, but on whose income she was dependent.

This is how she got to know Alan Parsons , the later founder of the Alan Parsons Project , who was an unknown sound engineer at the time. While Parsons later believed to remember an album by Torry with cover versions of well-known songs, including Light My Fire , the singer cannot remember ever interpreting this song. What is certain, however, is that Parsons was deeply impressed by her voice.

Recording of The Great Gig in the Sky

When Pink Floyd was looking for a studio musician to sing for The Great Gig in the Sky at short notice , Parsons recommended Torry. The engagement almost never materialized, after all an appointment was made on the same day, a Sunday evening. The instrumental part was already recorded and Torry was supposed to improvise her vocal part. She was given only rough guidelines, such as not to sing any text, to hold the notes longer or to use her voice like an instrument. Eventually the group was happy with the result, and Torry was paid the usual fee for a day's studio recording on a Sunday.

She suspected the recording would not be used because her voice was too rasping and thought no further. Only when she later discovered a large Pink Floyd poster at a record store and then read her name on the record cover did she buy the record. And she liked it.

Further activity

Clare Torry continued to work as a studio musician and background singer for numerous productions, e.g. B. for Kevin Ayers , Olivia Newton-John , Matthew Fisher , Meat Loaf and for several BBC television productions. On the album Eve of The Alan Parsons Project , she sang the 1979 song Do not Hold Back the lead vocal. In a similar way to The Great Gig in the Sky , she sang in 1984 in the song The War Song on the album Waking Up with the House on Fire by Culture Club and in 1985 in the song Yellowstone Park on the album Le Parc by Tangerine Dream . In 1987 she worked again with Roger Waters on his solo album Radio KAOS and told in an interview about the recording sessions for The Great Gig in the Sky .

In 1990 there was a public appearance with Pink Floyd, in previous years a collaboration and some live performances with the new band of Roger Waters , who had left Pink Floyd in 1985.

Recognized as the composer of The Great Gig in the Sky

For The Great Gig in the Sky , which she improvised in 1973 , she did not raise a judicial claim to royalties until 30 years later, as she had only been paid for the singing and not for the composition while working in the studio. This claim was confirmed in an out-of-court settlement in 2005, the details of which were agreed not to disclose. Since then, Richard Wright and Clare Torry have been considered joint composers of this piece.

publication

In 2006 Clare Torry released her CD Heaven in the Sky , a collection of songs from the 1960s and 1970s.

Web link

• Clare Torry in the Internet Movie Database (English)

Individual evidence (English)

1. ↑ ^{a b c d} John Harris: Interview with Clare Torry . In: Brain Damage , 2005. 
2. ^ ^{A b} John Harris: "Dark Side" at 30: Alan Parsons. In: Rolling Stone . March 12, 2003, archived from the original on July 13, 2007 ; accessed on October 6, 2014 (English). 
3. ^ John Harris: "Dark Side" at 30: Roger Waters. In: Rolling Stone. March 12, 2003, archived from the original on July 25, 2008 ; accessed on October 10, 2014 (English). 
4. ^ John Harris: "Dark Side" at 30: David Gilmour. In: Rolling Stone. March 12, 2003, archived from the original on March 12, 2007 ; accessed on October 10, 2014 (English). 
5. ↑ Clare Torry "The Great Gig in the Sky" interview video on Youtube, inserted May 12, 2017
6. ↑ Seventies Singer .  Freelance.uk, April 2005.