Houston, Cissy

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Cissy Houston

Singer

When Whitney Houston skyrocketed to superstar-dom, many wondered what had made her an overnight sensation. Those on the musical scene, however, knew that Whitney’s role model was her very talented mother, Cissy. The elder Houston has had a lengthy musical career as a gospel, pop, and blues singer. In fact, one reviewer for the Los Angeles Times commented that mother Cissy’s performance at an AIDS benefit put “daughter Whitney to shame.”

Cissy Houston started singing at the age of five with the family gospel group, the Drinkard Singers, in Newark, New Jersey. After years of singing gospel, she crossed over into the pop world and formed the group Sweet Inspirations with Sylvia Sherwell, Myrna Smith, and Estelle Brown. Before they recorded on their own, they were to perform on literally hundreds of songs for other artists. Labels they worked under included Atlantic Records in Memphis, Muscle Shoals, and New York.

Then in 1968 the experienced group decided to perform on their own. In that year they released their only two albums: Sweef Inspirations and What the World Needs Now is Love. They made the Top 20 that year with the hit single “Sweet Inspiration.” Soon after, however, Cissy left to pursue a solo career and the rest of the group did back up work for many artists.

Cissy then went on to use her musical talents in a variety of ways. She was the first person to record “Midnight Train to Georgia,” which later became a big hit for Gladys Knight and the Pips. She has done backup work for a numerous artists, including Elvis Presley, Aretha Franklin, and her niece, Dionne Warwick, and recorded with Wilson Pickett, Connie Francis, and Nina Simone. She also scored successes as a solo artist by recording “Tomorrow” and “Think it Over,” from the musical Annie.

Nightclub performing is one of Cissy’s strong points. In this venue she best showcases her talents as a crossover artist, combining pop, gospel, and blues. Variety reported on a nightclub act that Houston performed, concluding: “Houston has carved out a niche that defies easy categorization.” She turned the country song “You Are Always on My Mind” into a rythym and blues number and sang “Just the Two of Us” in a rock and roll tempo.

Although she has always maintained a busy schedule, the success of daughter Whitney has helped Cissy’s career.”All of a sudden, I’m being discovered,” Houston commented in Jet. “People are now realizing that she’s my daughter and that I taught her and she worked with me in clubs and concerts. Now people are saying Oh, that’s who that is.’” And this notoriety has translated into more bookings and more work for the elder

For the Record…

Born Emily Drinkard; married John Houston (a Newark, NJ, city administrator); children: Whitney, Gary.

Sang with gospel group the Drinkards; formed group Sweet Inspirations c. 1968; sang backup vocals with the Sweet Inspirations for Atlantic, Muscle Shoals, and New York records; backup singer for Elvis Presley, Aretha Franklin and Dionne Warwick; has recorded with Luther Vandross, David Bowie and daughter, Whitney Houston. Has appeared on The David Letterman Show; subject of PBS television program, Sweet Inspiration, 1988; has sung in AIDS benefit concerts; director of church choir at New Hope Baptist Church in Newark.

Addresses: Home— Newark, NJ.

Houston: “It has helped me a great deal,” she told Jet. “More and more people call every day. I really wanted to slow down but I’m getting just as busy.”

In 1988 a Public Broadcasting Service television program on Houston’s life was made, titled Cissy Houston: Sweet Inspiration. The program chronicled Houston’s long career and her impact on the music business. Houston’s musical flexibility was showcased in her sessions with such diverse artists as David Bowie, Dionne Warwick, and Luther Vandross. Some artists shared anecdotes about Cissy’s music teaching style. According to Vandross, she was a taskmaster who could “make the people around her want to sing their best.” Houston responded: “God didn’t give you talents to keep to yourself. He gave them to you to share and that’s exactly what I try to do. I try to train people to sing out their feelings in their own way.”

Houston was very flattered by this video tribute to her life. She remarked in Billboard that the program is “the kind of thing that usually only happens at graveside. So the whole thing is very special to me.”

One of the program’s topics looks at why so many gospel artists received criticism for moving into popular music in the 1950s and 1960s. As one who came under this kind of attack, Houston commented: “I am a person who believes in what I am doing, whether in church or in secular music. It’s all about the love you feel inside. It’s really ridiculous, the attacks some gospel singers endure. They just don’t know you inside, within your heart, or they wouldn’t say those things.”

Houston is a very spiritual person, as the years of singing gospel music attest. It has been said that no matter where Houston is on any given Saturday night—in a recording session with Luther Vandross, David Bowie, or her daughter, or in a smoky nightclub belting out songs—by 8 a.m. the next morning she will be directing her Radio Choir at the New Hope Baptist Church. She commented in McCalls: “The voice is God-given…. What I have is only what God gave me, and I’ve just expanded on that.” Throughout her lengthy career, she has kept her life in perspective, and relied on her spirituality.”I’ve been very fortunate in this business,” she remarked in Jet. “I’ve never stopped working even without a current hit record. Somehow or another God has made it so that I could always keep going.”