Happy Birthday to Cissy Houston (born September 30, 1933). She is an American #Soul, #Gospel, #Disco singer. She led a successful career as a backup singer for such artists as Elvis Presley and Aretha Franklin, and is now primarily a solo artist, and has won two Grammy Awards for her work. She was the mother of the late Whitney Houston, aunt of Dionne and the late Dee Dee Warwick. Cissy is also a cousin of Opera legend Leontyne Price. In 1963, then about to give birth to daughter Whitney Houston, she formed the Sweet Inspirations with Doris Troy and niece Dee Dee Warwick. Later, under contract to Atlantic Records, Sylvia Shemwell, Estelle Brown and Myrna Smith form the line-up. During the mid-1960s, the Sweet Inspirations provided backup vocals for a variety of artists, including Otis Redding, Wilson Pickett, Lou Rawls, The Drifters, Dusty Springfield and Houstons niece Dionne Warwick. They appeared on Van Morrisons single Brown Eyed Girl. Cissy Houston performed the operatic soprano melody on the Aretha Franklin hit, Aint No Way. They also recorded the 1968 hit album & single, Sweet Inspiration plus other singles. In 1969, Houston signed a recording contract with Commonwealth United Records and recorded her solo debut Presenting Cissy Houston which was released in 1970. It contained several well received singles, including covers of Ill Be There and Be My Baby. After her contract was sold to Janus Records, Houston recorded several more singles in the early 1970s and another album, which included the original recording of Jim Weatherlys Midnight Train to Georgia, later a #1 US hit for Gladys Knight & The Pips. In 1977, Houston was signed by Private Stock Records, working with arranger/producer Michael Zager on three albums. The second included her big #Disco hit Think It Over, which climbed to #32 on the Billboard R&B/ Soul chart in 1979. Whitney Houston, her daughter and backup singers, increasingly sang solos with Cissys band, including the Barbra Streisand hit Evergreen, plus with Chaka Khan,Donnie Hathaway, Paul Simon, Roberta Flack, Narada Michael Walden,Beyoncé, David Bowie, Luther Vandross & many others. In 1996, Cissy Houston received the Grammy Award for Best Traditional Soul Gospel Album for Face to Face, an album that contained a Gospel version of How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved by You). The same year she contributed one song to the gospel soundtrack album for the film The Preachers Wife, which starred her daughter Whitney Houston. In 2012, Cissy performed Bridge Over Troubled Water at the tribute for her daughter at the BET Music Awards. Last year, she release a book called, Remembering Whitney: A Mothers Story of Love, Loss and the Night the Music Died. GARY
Posted on: Tue, 30 Sep 2014 07:54:23 +0000
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