In the golden age of soul, some of the most powerful voices in American music rarely stood in the spotlight. They were the ones lifting Aretha Franklin’s choruses, answering Elvis Presley’s calls from the stage, and threading gospel fire through records that still define the era. Those voices belonged to The Sweet Inspirations.
Rooted in the churches of Newark, New Jersey, the group carried the deep tradition of Black gospel into the secular studio and onto the biggest stages in the world. Their story is one of family ties, unmatched session work, a handful of their own hits, and a quiet permanence that outlasted many of the stars they supported.
From the Drinkard Singers to “The Group”
The foundation was gospel. Emily Drinkard—later known as Cissy Houston—grew up singing with her family in the Drinkard Singers, one of the first gospel groups signed to a major label. The Drinkards performed at Carnegie Hall and the Newport Jazz Festival and recorded the landmark album A Joyful Noise.
Out of that family network came the next generation. Cissy’s nieces Dionne and Dee Dee Warwick, along with friends including Doris Troy and Sylvia Shemwell, formed the Gospelaires. By the early 1960s the young women were doing session work in New York. When Dionne and Doris moved into solo careers, the remaining core—now including Cissy Houston, Sylvia Shemwell, Myrna Smith, and Estelle Brown—became known around the studios simply as “the Group” or “the Girls.”
In 1967 Atlantic Records producer Jerry Wexler gave them a name that stuck: The Sweet Inspirations. The title nodded to both their gospel roots and the inspiration they brought to other artists’ records.
Their Own Hits on Atlantic
Signed as a recording act in their own right, the quartet released a string of strong singles and albums between 1967 and 1970. Their biggest success came with the Dan Penn and Spooner Oldham song “Sweet Inspiration.” Released in early 1968, it reached No. 5 on the R&B chart and No. 18 on the Billboard Hot 100, earning the group a Grammy nomination—one of the earliest for an all-female vocal group.
Other charting sides included “Why (Am I Treated So Bad),” a powerful reading of the Staple Singers song; “Let It Be Me”; covers of “To Love Somebody” and “Unchained Melody”; and later “(Gotta Find) A Brand New Lover,” a Gamble & Huff composition that became one of their strongest R&B showings. Their albums—The Sweet Inspirations (1967), the gospel-focused Songs of Faith & Inspiration (1968, credited to Cissy Drinkard & The Sweet Inspirations), What the World Needs Now Is Love (1968), Sweets for My Sweet (1969), and Sweet Sweet Soul (1970)—showed a group equally at home with secular soul and sacred material.
The B-side of “Sweet Inspiration,” “I’m Blue,” would later find new life when Salt-N-Pepa sampled it for their 1993 hit “Shoop.”
The Ultimate Backup Singers
As impressive as their own records were, The Sweet Inspirations’ greatest impact came as backing vocalists. They sang on an extraordinary run of classic tracks:
- Aretha Franklin’s “(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman,” “Think,” and many others during her peak Atlantic years
- Van Morrison’s “Brown Eyed Girl”
- Dusty Springfield’s Dusty in Memphis sessions, including “Son of a Preacher Man”
- Jimi Hendrix’s “Burning of the Midnight Lamp”
- Wilson Pickett, Solomon Burke, Dionne Warwick, and countless others
In 1969 they joined Elvis Presley for the American Sound Studio sessions in Memphis that produced “In the Ghetto” and “Suspicious Minds.” Elvis was so impressed that he brought them on as his primary backing group for live shows. From the late 1960s through his death in 1977, the Sweet Inspirations were a fixture of his concerts, often warming up the audience and then answering him on stage. Elvis introduced them proudly from the stage; their gospel-trained blend gave his later shows a soulful depth that many fans still remember as essential.
Cissy Houston left the group in 1969 to focus on family and a solo career. Ann Williams stepped in briefly. The remaining core of Sylvia Shemwell, Myrna Smith, and Estelle Brown continued recording and performing, including a 1973 Stax album (Estelle, Myrna and Sylvia) and later work that edged into disco with the 1979 RSO album Hot Butterfly. They also sang on Frankie Valli’s chart-topping “Grease” and toured with the Bee Gees.
Later Years and Legacy
After a period of inactivity, Estelle Brown, Myrna Smith, and Sylvia Shemwell reunited in 1994 with Portia Griffin. They performed at Elvis tribute shows and released new material in the 2000s. Sylvia suffered a stroke in 2001 and passed away in 2010; Myrna died later that same year. Estelle Brown has continued performing with Portia Griffin and later Kelly Jones, often in connection with Elvis tribute productions.
Cissy Houston, the group’s founder and the mother of Whitney Houston, died in October 2024 at age 91. In 2014 the Sweet Inspirations were inducted into the National Rhythm & Blues Hall of Fame.
What makes The Sweet Inspirations endure is not only the hits they appeared on, but the quality they brought. Their voices carried the authority of the church into the commercial studio without losing emotional honesty. They could blend into a track so seamlessly that listeners felt the lift without always knowing who was providing it, or step forward and deliver a lead that held its own against the biggest stars of the day.
In the story of 1960s and 1970s soul, R&B, and rock, The Sweet Inspirations occupy a special place: the connective tissue between gospel tradition and popular music’s greatest moments. Their records still reward listening, and their presence on classic tracks remains one of the era’s most consistent pleasures. Whenever a chorus rises with unexpected power on an Aretha or Elvis record, there’s a good chance you’re hearing the Sweet Inspirations—still inspiring, more than half a century later.
