Cissy Houston & The Sweet Inspirations Were Game Changing Pioneers
Episode 164 • 15th November 2024 • Queue Points • Queue Points LLC
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Speaker:

DJ Sir Daniel: Greetings and welcome to another episode of Queue Points podcast.

Speaker:

I'm DJ Sir Daniel.

Jay Ray:

And my name is Jay Ray, sometimes known by my government

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as Johnnie Ray Kornegay III and Sir Daniel, I am really excited about the

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conversation that we're about to have.

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DJ Sir Daniel: Absolutely.

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Could we, because Queue Points podcast is the podcast dropping

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the needle on black music history.

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Yeah,

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DJ Sir Daniel: feel like right about now we could use a little sweet inspiration.

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How about you?

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you know what?

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That is absolutely true.

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And I honestly miss style of singing in our music landscape.

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Like we just don't do it like The Sweet Inspirations did it anymore.

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DJ Sir Daniel: Absolutely.

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Sadly, um, Cissy Houston passed away on October 7th of 2024 at the age of 91.

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And the world, of course, is familiar with Cissy Houston as Dionne Warwick's

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aunt and the mother of a singer you may or may not have heard of.

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have, you may have heard of her.

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DJ Sir Daniel: So just a little singer, a little vocalist by the name of

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Whitney Houston, um, was her daughter.

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She, she gave birth to the voice.

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Yeah.

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DJ Sir Daniel: but the thing people need to realize is that

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Cissy Houston was her own voice.

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She mama had her own bag before Whitney came along.

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And on this episode, we're going to talk about Cissy Houston and

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The Sweet Inspirations and the legacy that they left behind.

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So Jerry,

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Yeah.

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DJ Sir Daniel: um, A lot of people don't realize that Cissy Houston was not only

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a background vocalist, but she was, like we saying, she was a part of the, a major

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group called The Sweet Inspirations, and we'll talk about their impact as a

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group, but she was also a vocal arranger.

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Yeah,

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DJ Sir Daniel: What they would call her today is she's a vocal, she

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would be called a vocal producer.

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What do you think?

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yeah.

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So that would absolutely be true.

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And um, we've seen now a lot of clips of, uh, Miss Houston, um, with got in front

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of gospel choirs, just kind of directing.

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And when you listen.

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To miss Houston saying you hear Whitney Houston and the way that she

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was able to use her vocal, kind of the vocal inflections and some of the

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playing that Whitney ultimately did.

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Um, vocally, you actually hear her mother doing those things because the

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thing that is really important about Whitney Houston's career and Whitney

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talks about this that her mother.

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coached her, right?

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DJ Sir Daniel: Yeah.

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Yeah.

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a vocal producer today, but when you go back in time and

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you listen to these amazing voices, you hear that great combination of

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soul, gospel, and jazz just mixed in

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DJ Sir Daniel: Yeah.

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Silence.

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Silence.

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Silence.

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Silence.

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right.

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This is actually the last official album that, uh, Cissy appeared on.

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She left the group after this in 1969, but, um, it's called sweets for my sweet.

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And I want to read a quote from, um, the liner notes.

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So.

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Back in the day, kids,

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DJ Sir Daniel: Yeah.

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you would not only get liner notes so you can know

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who produced records, you would also get like a story, right?

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So the story here, and the quote I want to read is from the second paragraph.

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The Sweet Inspirations, all from gospel backgrounds, found that they could utilize

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those roots when they began working around recording studios as background singers.

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They soon became so proficient that they were still are one of the most called

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on background singers in the country.

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Aretha Franklin, Wilson Pickett, Herbie Mann, Nina Simone, Solomon

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Burke, Chuck Jackson, and many, many others have used the voices that

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The Sweet Inspirations have heard.

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polished and honed to perfection.

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So that was on this record.

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And another quick note about this record, Sir Daniel, which is related

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to another diva that we recently did a show about is Miss Chaka Khan.

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DJ Sir Daniel: Hmm.

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All of the string arrangements, because back then, you know, the

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kids had strings in the studio,

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DJ Sir Daniel: a whole orchestra.

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orchestra.

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All of the string arrangements were done by one Arif Mardin who produced

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the Chaka Khan albums as well.

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DJ Sir Daniel: Right.

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And of course, we will talk about it.

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Also, um, Cissy Houston ended up singing backgrounds on one of the

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biggest hits off of that album.

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I'm every woman,

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Yup.

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DJ Sir Daniel: to sweets for my sweet on.

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And you see on those liner notes.

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Yes.

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DJ Sir Daniel: had on the album, as far as writers and producers was like none other,

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some of the featured writers on the album.

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Speaking of I'm every woman, a young Ashford and Simpson were writers

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early in their career were writers on that album, the iconic Carol King,

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who is a Kennedy center award winner.

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Like she's literally, literally written.

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Some of the most iconic songs in the American songbook.

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And of course, and another amazing songwriter Bert Bacharach and his

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partner, uh, Hal David at the time co wrote on this album as well.

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Like Bert and Cissy.

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Emily Drinkard, EmilCissyssy, Cissy, Emily.

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I don't know how black people came up with that nickname of calling her Cissy,

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but we're going to give you a nickname.

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But yes, Emily Drinkard is also known as Cissy Houston,

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professionally Cissy Houston.

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But, um, yeah, so Burt Baccarat must have loved him some Cissy because

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he loved him some Dion and continued to work with these ladies again.

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So Dionne was Cissy's aunt,

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Yeah.

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DJ Sir Daniel: and isn't, wasn't Dionne one of the original

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members of The Sweet Inspirations,

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Back when they were the Drinkard singers, Dionne and her sister

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Dee Dee, um, were a part of the group.

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And What's so dope about this is just kind of the legacy of the Drinkard family.

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So they are famously related to Leontine Price, which people did not know

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DJ Sir Daniel: Mm hmm.

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Shout out to Danielle Smith, who has a whole chapter kind of dedicated

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to the Drinkard bloodline in her book.

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Um, so definitely check that out.

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But, um, These women, these black women from Jersey were out here

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in churches learning how to sing orchestral, uh, music and learning how

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to sing in, in, in that way and being able to apply it to gospel and soul.

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So, yeah, you know, this group actually started, you know.

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With Dionne and Dee Dee, um, and of course Dionne goes on to become the blueprint.

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We talk about blueprints and Dionne Warwick was that girl in the night,

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in the early 1960s, if you were talking about black women singers,

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all of them were aspiring to be like.

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Dionne Warwick.

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DJ Sir Daniel: Rock and roll Hall of Fame inductee of 2024.

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Um, the album suites for my suite also contains a Marvin

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Gaye cover called chains, right?

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Um, I love that song.

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It's a, you know, they kind of, it's a rock, little Diddy,

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DJ Sir Daniel: Mm hmm.

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And this is weird because when people listen to Chained, it

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forces you to kind of go back into Marvin's career kind of pre, uh, 1968.

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And you realize that Marvin Gaye was doing like all of this other stuff.

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Like he was doing like a little rock and a little

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DJ Sir Daniel: Yeah,

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and like all these other things that were not what he ended

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up becoming super famous for.

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DJ Sir Daniel: yeah, you know one thing about The Sweet Inspirations also is

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that they were a pivotal part of the Stax Recordings as well because they work

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with Otis Redding If it was rumored that Cissy might have been dating him But hey,

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I mean those things those things happen Allegedly, but um, but yeah, so Stax

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they were involved in the Stax um Legacy.

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Um, and like we said, she went, they went on to sing background for, of course,

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Aretha Franklin, Solomon Burke, Otis Redding, Jimi Hendrix, Dusty Springfield,

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Van Morrison, and get ready for this.

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Elvis Presley.

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Yeah.

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man.

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Um, so after, since he left the group, um, in 1969, from like

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1970 till Elvis's death, The Sweet Inspirations were his backing vocalists.

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Um, so they sang with Elvis for many, many years.

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And to that point is speaks to, and so Daniel, we know this right.

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Artists need them a little bit of need them a little bit

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of soul in that thing, right?

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When they hit the stage,

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DJ Sir Daniel: sure do.

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What do they do with these are the live performances.

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They going to trot out that gospel choir.

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I don't care if it's total Elvis Presley, they're going to bring

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out a gospel choir to bring it on home and get people on their feet.

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and so The Sweet Inspirations.

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So when we think about like legendary background singers, because, you know,

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in on this show, we've talked about over the years, the importance of The music is

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not just a person up front, like there's all of these people that made it happen.

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You have the musicians and it also for many folks included these background

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singers of which the Sweet Inspirations were famous literally as we read in

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that paragraph and that was 1969.

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So these women were really kind of just running things for like years.

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Um, and it's kind of sad that music has moved.

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In such a way that we just don't get stuff like that anymore.

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You don't get to build a career.

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These women had a career that they were able to raise their families and

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DJ Sir Daniel: Yes,

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Yeah.

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Yeah.

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DJ Sir Daniel: at church and somebody recently brought that up.

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I think it was Jermaine Dupri said on one of his lives, he was

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talking about, you know, Nobody's coming from the church anymore.

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Nobody's, and we've said that numerous times on this, on this show, Queue Points

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podcast, we've said it y'all are not, y'all don't come up in church choirs,

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flat footed singing, and we can tell y'all did not have to rehearse hour after hour.

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And we can tell at church churches had.

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People that grew up in the church and sang in the church just have a different kind

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of discipline and it literally paid off.

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I was thinking about them jet setting around the world

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with all these major acts.

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I also think about what, because this is, you know, not too far from Jim Crow.

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And the civil rights movement and just thinking about, you know, their treatment

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in going in these establishments, especially when they were traveling with

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the, the white, um, artists at the time, and just thinking about, you know, how

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would they were treated, um, as possible.

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They had to go into through the back, you know, the, the, the stories are

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true and we remember those things.

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So they really, really paved the way and laid it out for.

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A lot of people to come along and to do their thing in the music industry.

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Cissy literally created a path for her daughter, an industry path.

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I think that's the best form of nepotism ever.

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I'm not, I like me a little nepotism.

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Bring me up, Unc.

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Put me on, Dad.

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You know, I'm not opposed to it, but Yeah, the, so Cissy Houston also goes on to have

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her own Flourishing career as a soloist.

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Mm

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DJ Sir Daniel: She was a disco singer.

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She had a

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Yeah.

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DJ Sir Daniel: hit

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Yeah.

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DJ Sir Daniel: Of course, she still hit the, um, the background vocal Um, circuit

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and, um, she was also singing what, before we do that, Jerry, there's a song

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that we've talked about on this show that, um, as part of a historical song

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Yeah.

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Yeah.

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DJ Sir Daniel: then we also find out that The Sweet Inspirations are

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actually singing on background on this particular song, which is a

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huge landmark and game changing song.

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Silence.

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Silence.

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Silence.

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being me being hyperbolic in any way.

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Um, and was written by a black woman and sung by two black men and, um,

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about being, um, out gay and proud.

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So the second version of the song though, is where The Sweet Inspirations

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come in, which is kind of fascinating.

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So I'm actually going to play a clip of that.

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of Carl Bean, who sang that version, um, telling us what happened about, um,

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how The Sweet Inspirations got involved.

Carl Bean:

When they, they approached me.

Carl Bean:

I knew when the song came.

Carl Bean:

That's because I sat on that step and heard "What's Going

Carl Bean:

On" and The Staples [Singers].

Carl Bean:

And that's what God had touched me with this message music, but in hearing that

Carl Bean:

that day, I never would've thought in a million years, I was going to get

Carl Bean:

the chance to sing about being gay.

Carl Bean:

That was so far from my memory bank, thinking that it

Carl Bean:

just wasn't nowhere around.

Carl Bean:

And, uh, when it came, and Motown presented the song.

Carl Bean:

I knew the minute I saw the lyric, it was mine to do.

Carl Bean:

Cause this is what I left to do,

Carl Bean:

but I just I didn't know it was going to be about my particular journey.

Carl Bean:

Johnnie Ray Kornegay III: Hmm.

Carl Bean:

I Saw the lyrics sheet, I said, ain't no need in me questioning God.

Carl Bean:

Johnnie Ray Kornegay III: Hmm.

Carl Bean:

I asked the folks at Motown, I said, can I bring my own background in?

Carl Bean:

And they said, well, who is it?

Carl Bean:

I said The Sweet Inspirations, so then they said, you mean

Carl Bean:

THE Sweet Inspirations.

Carl Bean:

Johnnie Ray Kornegay III: [Laughing] You mean them?

Carl Bean:

I said, Yes.

Carl Bean:

yeah, THE Sweet Inspirations.

Carl Bean:

They said oh, hell yeah.

Carl Bean:

[Johnnie laughing] Uh, huh.

Carl Bean:

Johnnie Ray Kornegay III: Like they were going to say, no,

Carl Bean:

your like, well, you know.

Carl Bean:

Well, I've called Estelle [Brown], I said, y'all, I

Carl Bean:

got a gig for you, they said what?

Carl Bean:

I told em, they said, yeah, Carl, you know we will.

Carl Bean:

And I said, cause if my girl, we all came up from New York together,

Carl Bean:

so all we got to do you give us the beat and we'll take it from there.

Carl Bean:

[Johnnie laughing] We've been doing this a good while together, and so Estelle

Carl Bean:

and I worked that way in the studio that night and, the thing that the people

Carl Bean:

in loved was really my ad libbing.

Carl Bean:

All the other stuff that people sing and get off on is me taking them to church.

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so as you can see, so Carl bean, who got this deal at Motown to be, to

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sing this song, that was really like the crux of the deal, um, called up, uh, Ms.

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Estelle of The Sweet Inspirations.

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Um, since he was long, um, out of the group by then.

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And, um, to sing backgrounds on this gay anthem and their version of the song is

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the one that the kids tend to go up for.

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Cause it's very gospel.

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It's one it's disco and two is gospel.

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And so The Sweet Inspirations is just bringing it.

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So women were a part of.

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Not just music history overall, not just black music history, but also

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the history of LGBTQ music includes the voices of The Sweet Inspirations.

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DJ Sir Daniel: That's right.

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And you know, not only did The Sweet Inspirations make their mark in gospel

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and disco, but they made their mark in hip hop as well, because there are a

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couple from a couple of those albums.

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There are a lot of sweet inspiration samples that you listen to to this

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day and you can't get enough of.

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I think the most prominent one that.

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The everyday listener and people who enjoy Queue Points will recognize

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is the classic I'm blue, which is actually a cover of, of the eye cats.

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Um, I'm blue and you will notice that it was sampled by one ice cube,

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but you will also know, and here.

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Immediately as the record plays, I'm blue is the foundation for salt and

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pepper's major massive hit stoop.

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And so, yes, The Sweet Inspirations gave us a little hip hop Diddy as well.

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So shout out to them.

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They did quite a bit in the time that they worked in the industry.

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But as we started off talking about Cissy Houston, um, going on to have.

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You know, being the focus of this conversation, but then going on to have

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a substantial solo career of her own, as Jay Ray mentioned, she's, you know,

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was featured on I'm every woman, um, a shocker con, but did you know that

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she was also singing backup with Bette Midler on Bette Midler's Grammy award

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winning massive hit from a distance.

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Uh huh,

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DJ Sir Daniel: And, um, yeah, and not Bayhive listened to this.

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Cissy Houston is singing backup.

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With Beyonce on The Closer I Get to You, and I believe that was

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on the Dangerously In Love album.

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That was Beyonce's first album, I believe.

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So yeah, Cissy Houston, y'all gonna stop referring to her as Whitney's mom.

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She was her own woman.

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She, you know, she was her own woman and she did her, you know, she

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did her thing in this industry and left an indelible mark on the music

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industry, specifically Black music.

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And for that, we salute Miss Cissy Emily Drinkard Houston on this

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episode of Queue Points Podcast.

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Another one, Jay Ray, what you got to say about it?

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yo, thank you all so much for tuning in with us

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as we walk down memory lane.

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Before we close out, please make sure that y'all go and stream.

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Um, The Sweet Inspirations, you will not be disappointed.

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These records are full of beautiful harmonies.

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Um, lots of great covers that are unique.

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So you want to check out these records.

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So please go and do that.

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And for you beat makers and producers out there, you'll probably find

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some stuff you want to sample.

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So there's that.

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Thank you so much for tuning into Queue Points.

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Please make sure.

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That you subscribe wherever you are.

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If you could see our faces, if you can hear our forces, if you can

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hear our voices, great, hit the subscribe button, share the show with

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your friends, family, colleagues.

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If You

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DJ Sir Daniel: I have a question.

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I have a question.

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Um, How is this a transparent document to having trauma about

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And I don't any data to that

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store at store.

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cuepoints.

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com and get yourself some fresh gear last, but not least visit

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our website at Queue Points.

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com.

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Queue Points.

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com where you can sign up for our newsletter and read our blog.

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We appreciate y'all.

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We love y'all.

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DJ Sir Daniel: And like I always say in this life, you have an opportunity.

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You can either pick up the needle or you can let the record play.

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I'm DJ Sir Daniel,

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My name is Jay Ray y'all.

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DJ Sir Daniel: and this has been Queue Points podcast, dropping

Jay Ray:

the needle on black music history.

Jay Ray:

We will see you on the next go round.

Jay Ray:

Peace y'all.

Jay Ray:

Peace.

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