Elvis Presley doesn't really need me to tell you who he is - still one of the highest earning and most loved singer more than 30 years after his death. What you may not know is that Cissy Houston (Whitney's mom, Dionne Warwick's cousin) was in his backing group The Sweet Inspirations. A talented choral arranger, she arranged his version of Suspicious Minds and of course sang the backing vocals.
Cissy eventually left the Sweet Inspirations to go solo, but found limited success as a lead singer. However, she was in demand for decades as a session vocalist and vocal arranger. She can be heard singing on many recordings singing for Aretha Franklin (the operatic descant in Ain't No Way was written and performed by Cissy), Luther Vandross, and even Whitney herself. Whitney's first television performance was with her mom at her side. Nearly 20 years after the original recording with Aretha, Cissy's soprano is still intact.
Here's another great live performance from Cissy, of the Duke Ellington classic Come Sunday.
Whitney Houston doesn't require introduction either - she is both famous and infamous. One of my favorite performances from her is a very casual live one with Natalie Cole.
But back to Cissy... I can't know her thoughts, but I sometimes wonder how she felt watching Whitney descend into her drug use. Did Cissy bring up Elvis and his tragic end as a warning to her daughter? I do know from interviews that she did as much as humanly possibly to get Whitney healthy again, as I'm sure any mother would do. Cissy is nearly 80 now and is no longer singing professionally as far as I know, but she has left behind a great legacy of work. I'll end this post with a song that shows off the best of her abilities from an early 1980's Broadway show about aging (she was barely 50 at the time!).
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