MADELINE Bell has one of those voices you will have heard without knowing it.
She was a first call session singer in the 1960s, appearing on big hits for Joe Cocker (With a Little Help from My Friends), The Rolling Stones (You Can’t Always Get What You Want) as well as Stevie Wonder, Elton John, Led Zeppelin, Donna Summer and many others.
Born in New Jersey, her career which began in America and has seen her perform all over the world. Now in her eighties, her voice is still as supple as it always was, developing a pleasing timbre in the bass range which she used to great effect during an affecting reading of Elton John’s Your Song.
She was accompanied throughout by the equally talented Ian Shaw on vocals and piano.
As well as their skills as musicians, they were both seasoned performers, telling the attentive stories of life in the sixties, tales of modern America, as well as highlights of working as a session singer ranign from time in big studios and working on big songs and bigger albums – or even recording jingles to sell dog food or toiletries.
The songs played ranged from Bobby Parker’s You’ve Got What It Takes to a sterling and timely A Change is Gonna Come, written and recorded by Sam Cooke.
As well as blues and folk tunes, she also tackled jazz with Duke Ellington’s Take the A Train, and turned Gilbert O’Sullivan’s Alone Again, Naturally from it’s folkish origins into a heartfelt torch song, showing the power of an extraordinary voice being able to make any song better.
Madeline was also the lead singer of Blue Mink and she performed perhaps their best known song, Melting Pot.
A fitting duet of Elton John’s Hercules featured some muscularly rhythmic piano and some well thought out harmony vocals, before a concert closing That’s The Way God Planned It by Billy Preston was greeted with a well deserved standing ovation.
Madeline’s voice had grit and gravel, but also tenderness, and shows why she was in such demand at the beginning of her career and can still sell out venues decades later.
