Cissy Houston

Cissy Houston possessed a voice that carried with unmistakable clarity across gospel, soul, and disco alike, serving as the driving force behind the Drinkard Singers, the Gospelaires, and the Sweet Inspirations, whose session contributions eventually opened the path to her own recording career. She issued her debut solo single in 1963, the same year she gave birth to Whitney Houston, yet waited until 1970 for her first full-length release, the self-titled album whose covers of "I'll Be There" and "Be My Baby" stood out prominently. Houston also originated "Midnight Train to Georgia" and, between 1976 and 1980, completed five albums that began with a featured appearance on Herbie Mann's Surprises before continuing through four further LPs shaped by producer Michael Zager. From that span, the 1978 single "Think It Over" achieved her strongest showing of the era, nearly matching the reach of "Be My Baby" while climbing to a Top Five disco position. She wrote, arranged, and produced material herself, sustained an active schedule of background session work, occasionally appeared alongside Whitney, and in the 1990s completed a stylistic return via the Grammy-winning gospel albums Face to Face (1996) and He Leadeth Me (1997). Prior to her passing in 2024, Houston released the memoir Remembering Whitney: My Story of Love, Loss, and the Night the Music Stopped.

Born Emily Drinkard in Newark, she launched her professional path within the family gospel ensemble known as the Drinkards. Early in the 1960s she entered the Gospelaires, which under her guidance developed into the flexible collective simply called the Group that included Doris Troy and niece Dee Dee Warwick at different times and supplied backing vocals for numerous soul, pop, and rock dates. Their contributions appeared on many Atlantic recordings in particular, prompting executive Jerry Wexler to sign the act in 1967. Rechristened the Sweet Inspirations, the singers delivered gospel-tinged soul through the late 1960s, scored several hits, and continued supporting other artists including Aretha Franklin, Elvis Presley, and Jimi Hendrix until Houston departed at the close of 1969 to pursue solo work. Under the names Cecily Blair and Sissie Houston she had already cut singles for minor imprints, but 1970 finally brought her first album, issued first in the U.K. as Presenting Cissy Houston and subsequently on Janus in the U.S. as Cissy Houston. The set produced two Billboard R&B entries: "I'll Be There" at number 45 and "Be My Baby" at number 31, tracks originally associated with Gerry & the Pacemakers and the Ronettes. Although the repertoire drew from familiar soul, rock, and pop sources, the contemporary arrangements and gospel-rooted vocals lent the performances renewed vitality, much as they had with the Sweet Inspirations.

Additional Janus singles appeared through 1973 without adequate label backing. One notable example was her original recording of "Midnight Train to Georgia," which reached the summit for Gladys Knight & the Pips roughly a year afterward. Houston featured on flutist Herbie Mann's 1976 album Surprises and, while maintaining her customary session and jingle work, issued one studio album annually from 1977 through 1980, each lavishly handled by arranger and producer Michael Zager. The first two, Cissy Houston [1977] and Think It Over, appeared on Private Stock and yielded charting singles led by the string-laden, Houston-co-written "Think It Over," which reached number 32 on the R&B chart and number five on the disco chart. She next moved to Columbia for Warning - Danger and Step Aside for a Lady; the latter supplied the tandem disco-chart single "It Doesn't Only Happen at Night," another Houston original, and "You're the Fire," which together peaked at number 24. Not until the early 1990s did another album surface, yet Houston supplied background vocals on notable 1980s recordings by Chaka Khan, Luther Vandross, and Diana Ross, and in 1987 she recorded the duet "I Know Him So Well" with daughter Whitney. A full-length collaboration with Chuck Jackson titled I'll Take Care of You emerged on Shanachie in 1992. Later that decade she earned consecutive Grammy Awards for Best Traditional Soul Gospel Album with Face to Face (1996) and He Leadeth Me (1997). Around the same period she contributed to the soundtracks of A Time to Kill and the Whitney vehicle The Preacher's Wife, in which she also appeared. After Whitney's death in 2012, Houston published Remembering Whitney: My Story of Love, Loss, and the Night the Music Stopped. She died on October 7, 2024, at age 91 while receiving hospice care for Alzheimer's disease.