Merry Clayton (born December 25, 1948) is an American soul and gospel singer. She contributed vocals to numerous tracks and worked with many major recording artists for decades, including a duet with Mick Jagger on the Rolling Stones song "Gimme Shelter". Clayton is prominently featured in 20 Feet from Stardom, the Oscar-winning documentary about background singers and their contributions to the music industry.

Clayton was born in Gert Town, New Orleans, Louisiana, and was given the name "Merry" because she was born on Christmas Day. She is the daughter of Eva B. Clayton and the Reverend A.G. Williams, Sr.

Clayton was raised in New Orleans as a Christian, and spent much of her time in her father's parish, New Zion Baptist Church. After moving to Los Angeles, she met members of the Blossoms, who convinced her to pursue a music career.

Clayton's voice as a backing singer can be heard on songs by Pearl Bailey, Phil Ochs, Burt Bacharach, Tom Jones, Joe Cocker, Linda Ronstadt, Carole King, Tori Amos and on several tracks from Neil Young's debut album. Clayton is often credited as having recorded with Elvis Presley but her name does not appear in Elvis's sessionographies.

Clayton began her recording career in 1962, at the age of 14. She first sang "Who Can I Count On?" as a duet with Bobby Darin, on his album You're the Reason I'm Living. In 1963, she recorded the first released version of "The Shoop Shoop Song (It's in His Kiss)", the same year that Betty Everett's version reached the Top 10 on the Billboard Hot 100. Early in her career, Clayton performed with Ray Charles (as one of the Raelettes). At the time, Charles was the only artist her father would allow her to see at a live performance.

Clayton is best known for her 1969 duet with Mick Jagger on the Rolling Stones song "Gimme Shelter" (on some releases her name is misspelled as "Mary"). According to Jagger, the collaboration happened partially by chance: Jagger stated that the band thought, "it'd be great to have a woman come do the… chorus." They called Clayton "randomly" in the middle of the night in Los Angeles, and she showed up to the studio "in curlers" and contributed her parts in a few takes, which Jagger remarked was "pretty amazing." Clayton performed her parts while pregnant, soon afterward suffering a miscarriage. Clayton was actually the band's second choice for the part; The Stones had asked Bonnie Bramlett to sing on the song, but Bramlett's husband Delaney Bramlett refused to let her perform with the Stones.

In 1970, Clayton recorded her own version of "Gimme Shelter", and it became the title track of her debut solo album, released that year. Her solo version peaked at No. 73 on the pop charts. Her version would be the first of five singles under her name to crack the Billboard Hot 100. That same year, she performed a live version of "Lift Every Voice and Sing" for the soundtrack for the Robert Altman film, Brewster McCloud, and also contributed vocals to Donald Cammell and Nicolas Roeg's film, Performance.

In 1971, she co-wrote the song "Sho' Nuff" about her mother.