Music Intro: Gail Nobles
Singing Background Actors: Gail Nobles
Today I'm thinking of The Sweet Inspirations welcome to the Podcast Oldies Show.
The Sweet Inspirations are Dionne Warwick, Dee Dee Warwick. Doris Joy, and Cissy Houston. An R&B girl group mostly known for their work as backup singers on studio recordings for other R&B and rock artists. A founding member of the group was Dionne Warwick, who was later replaced by her aunt, Cissy Houston.
The Sweet Inspirations was founded by former members of The Drinkard Singers, a long-running Gospel singing group whose membership included Cissy Houston (née Drinkard), mother of Whitney Houston, and Lee Warwick, who was Cissy's sister and the mother of Sweet Inspirations members Dee Dee and Dionne Warwick.
As a backup group, the Sweet Inspirations was in high demand among producers, publishers, artists, and songwriters in the early 1960s. The original lineup included Doris Troy and the two Warwick sisters, Dionne and Dee Dee. Both Troy and Dionne Warwick enjoyed solo careers with hits in 1963, "Just One Look" and "Don't Make Me Over" respectively, on which the Sweet Inspirations can be heard.
The group saying they song entitled Sweet Inspiration. Sweet Inspiration is the title of a Dan Penn and Spooner Oldham composition written for, and first recorded in 1967 by, the Sweet Inspirations. It became a Top 20 hit reaching #18 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the spring of 1968.
I’m Gail Nobles. Thank you for listening to the Podcast Oldies Show.