Cissy Houston, Jimi Hendrix and Elvis Presley Backup Singer, Dies

Cissy Houston, mom of singer Whitney and a backup singer with Elvis Presley, Jimi Hendrix and others, has died. She was 91.

In accordance with the Related Press, Houston died Monday in her New Jersey residence underneath hospice look after Alzheimer’s illness. She was surrounded by her household.

Houston was born Emily Drinkard on Sept. 30, 1933, in Newark. In 1963, the identical yr she gave delivery to daughter Whitney, Houston shaped the Candy Inspirations, an R&B vocal group that spent greater than a half-dozen years as a studio group acting on dozens of basic data.

READ MORE: 25 Nice Elvis Presley Songs From the ’70s

The Candy Inspirations grew to become busy performers within the mid-’60s, working as backing singers on songs by Presley, Aretha Franklin and lots of others earlier than Houston – who was additionally an aunt to Dionne Warwick and cousin to Grammy-winning opera singer Leontyne Value – went solo in 1970.

Houston’s singing profession began in 1938 when she joined her siblings within the gospel group the Drinkard 4, however it was 1 / 4 century later when she began hitting the charts because the lead singer within the Candy Inspirations.

What Songs Did Cissy Houston Sing On?

Their voices appeared on recordings by Otis Redding, Wilson Pickett, the Drifters, Dusty Springfield and Warwick throughout this era. Along with showing on Van Morrison’s breakthrough solo single “Brown Eyed Woman,” Houston and the Candy Inspirations had a giant function in Franklin’s hit “Ain’t No Means.” In addition they sang background vocals for the Jimi Hendrix Expertise’s “Burning of the Midnight Lamp” in 1967.

Two years later, the Candy Inspirations have been tapped as Presley’s backing group when he returned to dwell performances in Las Vegas. The quartet backed lots of Presley’s comeback performances by 1970. Houston then stepped away from the group to deal with her household and a solo profession after a profitable run with Presley.

Houston had one chart hit throughout her solo profession, a canopy of the Ronettes’ “Be My Child” that reached No. 92. She continued to function a backing singer, showing on Paul Simon’s “Mom and Baby Reunion,” Linda Ronstadt’s Coronary heart Like a Wheel, David Bowie’s Younger People and different recordings.

By the mid-’90s she was performing gospel songs and had collected a Grammy Award for considered one of her spiritual albums and had penned books relating to religion.

“Our hearts are full of ache and unhappiness,” daughter-in-law Pat Houston mentioned in a press release. “We misplaced the matriarch of our household. Mom Cissy has been a powerful and towering determine in our lives. A lady of deep religion and conviction, who cared vastly about household, ministry, and neighborhood. Her greater than seven-decade profession in music and leisure will stay on the forefront of our hearts.”