Music serves as a universal language, yet despite billions tuning into their beloved tracks daily, countless listeners remain unaware of the concealed tales behind them - with some proving more sinister than anticipated.
The Rolling Stones have cultivated a devoted following across multiple decades and are set to embark on tour next year, spearheaded by octogenarians Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, alongside the energetic Ronnie Wood, 78.
Among the most evident testimonies to the group's extraordinary abilities is their contemporary significance and appeal, establishing themselves as a British cultural institution whilst achieving nearly 30 million monthly listeners on Spotify 61 years following their inaugural album.
Their 1969 release, Let It Bleed, is regarded by numerous critics as showcasing their finest material, although there exists substantial variety from which to select.
The previously mentioned record features timeless pieces including You Can't Always Get What You Want, the title track Let It Bleed and its renowned opening number, Gimme Shelter, among additional tracks, reports the Mirror.
It's this final song which possesses a chilling heritage focused around one of its most striking elements - what could arguably be the finest backing vocals ever recorded, delivered by Merry Clayton.
Merry's commanding contribution, which emerges from beneath the track's mesmerising rhythm, conveyed primarily through Keith Richards' exceptional guitar work, encapsulates the band's mood during that period, brooding and apparently brimming with anguish, as she echoes her haunting refrain, "Rape, murder, it's just a shot away, just one shot away".
So powerful is Clayton's wailing that, at approximately the three-minute mark of the track, you can just make out Mick Jagger cheering in the recording studio as her voice breaks from the sheer intensity of her screams.
Yet, whilst this song is now celebrated, amassing over 730million streams on Spotify and being hailed as one of the Stones' greatest masterpieces, it would lead to heartbreak for 20 year old Merry Clayton.
In November 1969, just weeks before Let It Bleed's release, a heavily pregnant Clayton received a telephone call, recalling in past interviews: "I'm at home at almost 12 o'clock at night. And I'm hunkered down in my bed with my husband, very pregnant, and we got a call from a dear friend of mine and producer named Jack Nitzsche.
"Jack Nitzsche called and said... 'Merry, are you busy?' I said 'No, I'm in bed'. He says, 'Well, you know, there are some guys in town from England. And they need someone to come and sing a duet with them, but I can't get anybody to do it. Could you come?'".
She added: "At that point, my husband took the phone out of my hand and got angry: 'This time of night you're calling Merry to do a session? You know she's pregnant!'.
"But Nitzsche succeded to bring my husband on his side. In the end, he managed to convince me: 'Honey, you know, you really should go and do this date.'".
As mentioned earlier, the recording session proved gruelling, with Merry pouring every ounce of emotion into her performance, though she would subsequently reveal it came at a devastating cost. After returning home, she tragically suffered a miscarriage, with many attributing the intense emotional stress of the session as a significant factor in her loss.
The song, which is widely celebrated, became a painful reminder of her miscarriage for Merry, and it took time for her to recover from this distress.
"That was a dark, dark period for me, but God gave me the strength to overcome it," she confessed during a 1986 interview, 17 years after recording the song.
"I turned it around. I took it as life, love and energy and directed it in another direction, so it doesn't really bother me to sing 'Gimme Shelter' now. Life is short as it is, and I can't live on yesterday."
