The Sweet Inspirations

The Sweet Inspirations
The Sweet Inspirations in 1967: l-r (Sylvia Shemwell, Cissy Houston, Myrna Smith and Estelle Brown)
Background information
Origin	Newark, New Jersey, U.S.
Genres	Soul, gospel, R&B
Years active	1967–1979, 1994–present[1]
Members	Estelle Brown Portia Griffin Kelly Jones
Past members	Cissy Houston Sylvia Shemwell Myrna Smith Ann Williams Gloria Brown Pat Terry

The Sweet Inspirations are an American R&B girl group from Newark, New Jersey, founded by Cissy Houston, mostly known for their work as backup singers on studio recordings for other R&B and rock artists but 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.