The Sweet Inspirations

The Sweet Inspirations are an American R&B girl group from Newark, New Jersey, founded by Cissy Houston who are mostly known for their work as backup singers on studio recordings for other R&B and rock artists but who are also a Grammy-nominated recording act in their own right.

The group's origins went back to the late 1950s when the Gospelaires, a group which included siblings and future soul stars Dionne Warwick and sister Dee Dee Warwick as well as Sylvia Shemwell and another future soul star Doris Troy and was an offshoot of the Drinkard Singers, began a professional career as session vocalists. Cissy Houston later replaced Dionne in 1961 with Troy later being replaced by Myrna Smith in 1962 while Dee Dee was eventually replaced by Estelle Brown in 1963.

From 1963 until 1967, the group, known informally as "The Group", would back up several important artists in the soul, pop and rock genres, most prominently Aretha Franklin, Solomon Burke, Otis Redding, Jimi Hendrix, Van Morrison, Dusty Springfield and Elvis Presley. In February 1967, they formally renamed themselves the Sweet Inspirations and signed with Atlantic Records, achieving minor and major success on the pop and R&B charts.

Their biggest hit was aptly titled "Sweet Inspiration", which reached the top 20 of the Billboard Hot 100 and later earned them a Grammy Award nomination, notably making them just the third all female vocal group in history to earn a Grammy nomination. They were also known for their rendition of "I'm Blue", which was the b-side of "Sweet Inspiration" and later was sampled famously by Salt-N-Pepa's hit "Shoop". Following their first couple of months performing with Presley in Las Vegas, Houston left the group to raise her family and forge a successful solo career while the rest of the group carried on with Presley and as a recording act.

The Sweet Inspirations were inducted into the second class of the National Rhythm and Blues Hall of Fame in 2014.

The history of the Sweet Inspirations started at the New Hope Baptist Church in Newark, New Jersey during the 1950s where Emily "Cissy" Drinkard was the Minister of Music leading several youth choirs. Among the young singers she mentored were her preteen nieces Dionne, Dee Dee, Judy Guions and Sylvia Shemwell and their friend Doris Troy. By 1954, Judy had joined Cissy Drinkard's sibling gospel group the Drinkard Singers. Both Judy and Sylvia had been adopted by Cissy's sister Lee, another member of the Drinkard Singers and mother of Dionne and Dee Dee.

By 1958, Dionne, Dee Dee, Sylvia Shemwell and Doris Troy agreed to form the group the Gospelaires and eventually opened for the Drinkard Singers, finding success at the Apollo Theater in 1959 and were at this point being managed by Cissy's then-boyfriend John Russell Houston Jr. That year, while at the Apollo, a record label scout approached them backstage looking for background singers for a session for a musician named Sam "The Man" Taylor to which the Gospelaires agreed to sing on. Following that session and another with The Drifters, the group became professional session vocalists. By September 1961, John Houston Jr. convinced Cissy to join a session for Ronnie Hawkins after Dionne began working with Burt Bacharach, which led to Cissy Drinkard, who would later go by the name of Cissy Houston, officially joining the group. Within a couple of years, Dee Dee and Troy all left the group. Houston eventually replaced them with Myrna Smith, a New Hope choir member, and 17-year-old Estelle Brown, which formed the nucleus of the Sweet Inspirations.

The group was in high demand among producers, publishers, artists, and songwriters in the early 1960s and backed recordings made by the Warwick sisters and Troy, backing Dionne on her debut hit, "Don't Make Me Over" and on Troy's only hit, "Just One Look" as well as Solomon Burke's "Cry to Me", and Garnet Mimms' "Cry Baby" and eventually began a long tenure backing Aretha Franklin, later singing background on Franklin's hits such as "Chain of Fools", "(You Make Me Feel Like A) Natural Woman", "(Sweet Sweet Baby) Since You've Been Gone", "Ain't No Way", "Think" and "I Say a Little Prayer".