Cissy Houston - mother of Whitney and aunt of Dionne Warwick - Estelle Brown, Sylvia Shemwell (who once teamed with Bobby Hebb as "Bobby And Sylvia"], and Myrna Smith spent six full years as a studio session backup group where they worked with the likes of Aretha Franklin, Kathy Westmoreland, and Rick Nelson and, from 1968 to 1977 represented the primary female backup sound for Elvis Presley. In 1970 they also backed The Rascals on their # 58 hit Glory Glory.

On their own they had five pop hit singles in 1967/68 for Atlantic [tracks 1,2, 8, 9 and 10), each of which also scored on the R&B charts, their best being Sweet Inspiration (# 5 R&B/# 18 Billboard Pop Hot 100 in May 1968). Four more made the R&B Top 100 in 1969/70 [tracks 12, 15, 18 and 19], the first three of which "bubbled under" on the pop charts. The highlights here were Crying In The Rain, a # 6 for The Everly Brothers in 1962 which reached # 42 R&B/#112 Hot 100 "bubble under" in May 1969, and (Gotta Find) A Brand New Lover, Part 1 of which reached # 25 R&B/# 117 Hot 100 "bubble under" in January 1970.

The only flipsides included here are Part 2 of the one just mentioned, and When Something Is Wrong With My Baby which was the B-side to another Everly hit, Let It Be Me, in 1967.

That they had one of the nicest, harmonizing sounds of ANY female group from that era is summed up by Elvis who referred to them simply as "The Sweets." Get this one and see why. Guaranteed to raise goosebumps.

The Sweet Inspirations have got to be one of the best singing groups ever. Sure they never had huge hits like the other groups at the time but they put every bit of soul and emotion into their singing. As backup singers they could make any song sound good but once they recorded as a lead group they blew the roof off of so-called girl group singing style. They obviously sang with a gospel style and added a soulful punch to bring it up a notch. The collection of songs represented here are some of the best they did. If you want a lost gem of a song by the Sweet Inspirations then go to I-Tunes and buy the song "HERE I AM"...The absolute best..Cissy can sing!!!!!

I really liked this 2 fer. These women sang these songs like
nobody business! And all the songs are stellar, which is rare.
No filler to my ears.

On Friday, 25 April 1969, at 3614 Jackson Highway, Cher recorded the unreleased and now lost Eddie Hinton- Dan Penn- Wayne Jackson composition "Always David" (Master 17007).

Marlin Greene soon produced a hit version of "Always David" by Ruby Winters (Diamond single 265, Billboard review 30 August 1969, Billboard R&B #23).

In February 1969 The Sweet Inspirations had recorded "Always David" (Master 16453, 'Sweets For My Sweet,' Atlantic album SD 8225, released 20 June 1969, the same day Cher's '3614' LP was released) at FAME Studios with Mardin, Dowd, Johnson, Hinton, Beckett, Hood and Hawkins.

The Sweet Inspirations' excellent version of "Always David" (3:26) can now be heard on the Stereo 'Sweets For My Sweets' reissue CD (Spy 46004-2, released 19 November 2002).

From beginning to end of this c.d. the hairs on your neck just
stand up, from "Blues stay away" "Let it be me" to When something
is wrong with my baby"and "Unchaind Melody"W-h-o-w,I now know why some of the great Soul Ledgends of music would wait for these Ladies to sing backing vocals on the now soul classics.I know this is a greatest hits collection but as I had most of these fab songs on the album "What the world needs now" back in 68/69 I Would have liked to have seen "Reach Out" "Alfie" and one of the greatest and most powerful R/B love ballads ever "Here I am" put down .If you are a Soul,Blues,Gospel lover its all here check it out -Did I say "divine Inspiration"? my mistake I meant to say "Heavenly Inspirations....