Doris Troy, the big-voiced soul singer of the 1963 hit "Just One Look,"
whose life story was the inspiration for the long-running musical "Mama,
I Want to Sing," died on Monday in a hospital in Las Vegas. She was 67
and lived in Las Vegas.
The cause was emphysema, said Ken Wydro, her brother-in-law.
Ms. Troy's career bridged gospel, soul and rock music. After singing in
the choir of her father's church in Harlem, she began working as a backup
singer for Solomon Burke, the Drifters, Chuck Jackson and others. She
also wrote her own songs, and one of her first, "Just One Look,"
released by Atlantic and written with Gregory Carroll, became a Top 10
hit in 1963. The next year the Hollies' version of it reached No. 2 in the
British pop charts, and it was later recorded by Linda Ronstadt, Harry
Nilsson and Bryan Ferry.
Ms. Troy's other songs for Atlantic during this period — including
"What'cha Gonna Do About It?," also recorded by the Hollies —
had more success in Britain than in America, and in the late 60's
she moved to London. She recorded an album for the Beatles' Apple
label in 1970 with a starry group of musicians from the rock world that
included George Harrison, Eric Clapton and Billy Preston.
She became a much sought after backup singer for rock bands: her
voice is on the Rolling Stones' 1969 song "You Can't Always Get What
You Want" and Pink Floyd's 1973 album "Dark Side of the Moon,"
among many other recordings. She returned to the United States
in the 1970's and settled in Las Vegas, singing in the nightclubs there.
In March 1983, "Mama, I Want to Sing," a musical based on Ms.
Troy's life, opened at the Heckscher Theater in Harlem. Written by
Ms. Troy's younger sister Vy Higginsen and Mr. Wydro, who is
Ms. Higginsen's husband, the show told the story of a young woman
named Doris Winter who sings in a gospel choir and becomes an
international pop star.
The next year Time magazine called it one of New York's 10
best stage offerings, and it has had an extraordinarily long life
on tour. Ms. Troy sang the role of her mother, Geraldine, from
early 1984 until 1998, toured with it throughout the country
and took it to London and Japan. The show is to begin a
20th-anniversary run on Saturday at the Williams C. M. E.
Church on Adam Clayton Powell Boulevard in Harlem.