... ah well, I am still thinking, with no little nostalgia, about my late summer trip to Greece ... while around here the golden leaves are falling on the ever colder ground and the sun, when she does appear through the misty haze of the autumn sky, struggles more and more every day to reach her meridian over the horizon. At night, the moon is often obscured by batches of dark clouds as if his silver disk is waylaid by a swarm of hungry bats. So best I can come up with today are two songs which dispel my gloomy autumn mood and bring back the memories of sunnier days ... and of places like this, on a lonely beach in southern Crete called Sweetwater:
(Click to enlarge)
When I looked through some of my records, summer songs proved less easy to find than I thought! At the end, I ended up with a version of Gershwin's classic »Summer- time«, by Brenda & The Tabulations (recorded in Philadelphia and released on their one-and-only Dionn LP # 2000 Dry Your Tears in May 1967). Following up their hit »Dry Your Tears«, Brenda & The Tabulations rushed out, as was common, an accompanying album which, for all the speed with which it was produced, contained many covers and known standards, among which the said song. A Billboard critic of the epoch (June 3, 1967 issue, p. 86) nevertheless stated that Brenda's mono version of »Summertime« gives an »excellent treatment« to the tune, so it did no go unnoticed. There will be some out there who have never heard Brenda's version before, and although I do not think that hers is the definitive version of that tune it strikes me as a particularly melancholic version, and the song in itself is essentially melancholic! (Thus it well fits my actual mood ...) Brenda's high-pitched voice, somewhat echoing and distant in the recording, confers an almost mystic atmo- sphere. And mind that at around 02:18 into the song, before the organ sets in, there is a noticeable break which must be due to bad cutting, I guess. In any case, it does not seem caused by the LP nor by the pressing.
As for the second tune, I took it from an album you all know, yet it arguably is - given that almost all songs from this album have become landmark recordings - the least remembered of them all: Aretha Franklin's »Hello Sunshine« from her 1968 Atlantic LP Now. The song was penned, in or little before '68, by King Curtis and Ron(ald/nie) Miller. As you know, Curtis was present in person at the December, 19, 1967 session which produced the track, and the backing vocals are due to none less than The Sweet Inspirations ... Like »Summertime«, »Hello Sunshine« is again a melancholic song, even if Aretha's room-filling powerhouse voice wasn't fitted to produce a version you could call »mystical«. As only she could (and, well, can), she effortlessly blasts the tune away into the blissful heaven of immortal recordings!
Brenda & The Tabulations: »Summertime« from the Dionn LP # 2000 (1967, mono) / Aretha Franklin (feat. The Sweet Inspirations): »Hello Sunshine« from the Atlantic LP # 8186 (1968):
I didn't plan to write a fourth »Sweet Inspiration« today, but then it just happened. It doesn't really connect, chronologically, to the previous posts, but that can't be helped as well. We'll come to that. Today, I wanted to draw your attention to a recent music documentary which features, among others, the Sweet Inspirations. Directed by Victor Mignatti, it was released a few months ago and is available now on DVD. Check it out here (click on the banner):
Many interesting things there and, most relevant for our purposes, an interview with Estelle Brown (read it also here).
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from left: Cissy, Myrna, Estelle, Sylvia
While you're checking out that page you can stay tuned in here and listen to the most successful (chartwise!) song the Sweet Inspirations ever recorded. It is entitled, with just a little lack of fantasy, »Sweet Inspiration«. The song was recor- ded in Memphis on August 24, 1967 (see also below) and first released on their self-titled Atlantic LP (# SD 8155). However, the song wasn't at first put out as a single. On the contrary, Atlantic opted that this tune would be only their third single (Atlantic # 2476), released in spring '68. It then rocketed to #5 r&b and, likewise remarkable, to #18 pop.
Part of the success of this song might have been its distinctly C&W flavor, cer- tainly the most countryish song the Sweets ever recorded (not in the middle part, though). It is often reported, and can therefore be taken at face value, that Elvis had become aware of the Sweets via this tune. Being himself much inclined to C&W harmonies, Elvis had taken a liking to this song and, according to Myrna Smith, he even performed the tune during one of his shows: »It was later on that we discovered how much Elvis liked our song Sweet Inspiration and that that was the catalyst. ... One night he even surprised us by singing our song Sweet Inspiration on stage. We didn't know that he knew it. Elvis just broke into it and so we started singing background and he was singing lead and we were shocked. It sounded good« (read the whole interview here). And if you were ever in doubt why Elvis liked the Sweets' »Sweet Inspiration«, listen to his »Suspi- cious Minds« (recorded some 17 months later in the very same recording studio!) ... or rather, you don't have to listen to »Suspicious Minds«, you'll hear it right here in the first bars:
The Sweet Inspirations: »Sweet Inspiration« from the Atlantic LP # SD 8155 (1967):
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»Sweet Inspiration« was penned by Dan Penn and Spooner Oldham (officially, and as noted on the back cover of the LP, Wallace Daniel Pennington and Dewey Lyndon Oldham). Peter Guralnick in his book Sweet Soul Music (New York 1999) tells the story of how the song was recorded in Memphis (pp. 297, 299):
»In August of 1967 Jerry Wexler had booked the American studio for the Sweet Inspirations, with Tom Dowd producing. ... It was a hot summer's day, the session hadn't been going very well ... "I had worked with the Sweet In- spirations with Aretha,", says Spencer Oldham, "and gotten to know 'em and loved the way they sung, so I couldn't wait for them to get a record on their own. So I went to the session that night at Chips's [i.e. Chips Moman's Ameri- can Sound Studio]. I don't think I was on the session for some reason; I don't know why, maybe I'd been out of town.
But anyway Dan [Penn] was sitting there, and we were watching all this go down, and they did two songs - awful stuff - and my heart started sinking, and I said to Dan, 'Let's go next door and try to write a song.' [p. 299] We star- ted walking upstairs, and he said, 'I ain't got no ideas,' and I said, 'Let's just take off on that 'sweet inspiration,' and we hit the old guitar, and we come back down there in a little while, and they were still moaning and groaning. And we played it to 'em ..., about the second time Dan ended up on the board, and I was playing guitar."
"You know," says Dan, taking up the story, "I think it was one of the high- lights of my career. Just as we bring our little tape down and the Sweet In- spirations fell in love with it, and all the musicians are going nuts, them stupids called a damn lunch break. Right in the middle of our song. And Spooner had this damn lick down so good the musicians wouldn't even go eat, they wouldn't leave because they knew by what was happening we could just cut it. And the girls were already singing it. And I'm standing there watching all this shit going down. ... I did my mix on the first take, and when they come back from lunch, I said, 'Boys, we done cut you a record."
The record made #5 on the soul charts, and Jerry Wexler asked Spooner for a third of the royalties, since he had given the group its name. What were the writers' reactions? "We didn't comment," says Spooner with his dry chuckle.«
For the record: Atlantic LP # SD 8155 was manufactured and scheduled for release in late '67 but was, for all we know, only shipped in February '68. Trade magazines are aware of the album only after this date.
Of all the female vocal groups of the '60s and the beginning of the following decade we know the most about the Sweet Inspirations, with the arguable exception of the Supremes. There are reasons for this: The Supremes aroused continuous interest by the personal conflicts within the group and the very peculiar character of Diane Ross (known as such to the birth register and to the outside world as »Diana«). The lasting fame of the Sweet Inspirations is due to Elvis Presley, who at the beginning of his down-winding career decided to hire the group as backing vocals for his live shows. They were to stay with him for eight long years, from 1969 to 1977.
Since the claim that Diana Ross is a talented singer would be hard to defend before any court, there is little injustice in that the Supremes became mainly known for the quarrels among their members. Taken out Florence Ballard, it would have been difficult to achieve the same notoriety by purely musical means. But let's forget about the Supremes. In the case of the Sweet Inspirations, there is injustice indeed in that their global fame was cemented by Elvis. After all, they did their best work, and actually almost all their known recordings, before they ever met him. And when Cissy Drinkard Houston left the group after the first series of concerts in Las Vegas in '69, the true story of the Sweet Inspirations was already at its end. The three remaining Inspirations mainly worked for Elvis, did some background singing in recording sessions and relased but one LP in seven years (Stax 3017, 1973). They never again could escape the shadow of Elvis and after his death toured with impersonators. Such was the weight of TCB.
From left to right: Cissy Drinkard Houston, Myrna Smith, Sylvia Shemwell, Estelle Brown.
It would be unfair, though, to not acknowledge the fact that Elvis made the Sweet Inspirations known to the wider world. Most people will have heard their name for the first time during one of his concerts or on Elvis records. As a tribute to this fact I put together a track where you can hear Elvis introducing the Sweets. The sound clips are from the following concerts: June 10, 1972, Madison Square Garden (after- noon show) / May 31, 1975, Huntsville, Alabama (matinee show) / June 1, 1975, Huntsville, Alabama (evening show) / Oct. 14, 1976, Chicago Stadium / Oct. 15, 1976, Chicago Stadium / June 19, 1977, Omaha Civic Center:
Elvis introduces The Sweet Inspirations:
In its truest sense, the story of the Sweet Inspirations lasted merely from the spring of '67 to somewhere towards the end of '69. However, by name the group existed before that and after. It will take me several »sweet inspirations« to tell the story. Today, we're just in for the introduction. And some details of the story are rather murky, especially with regard to the early stages. Then there is the fact that hords of Elvis fans throughout the world show unabated interest in the Sweets because they belong to the outer rim of their TCB-universe. Unfortunately, they most often are pretty ignorant of '60 soul and gospel music, and on the myriad of webpages dedicated to Elvis wrong or partly-mistaken information about the Sweets can be found in abundance. We'll come to all that.
Left: Billboard ad (May 20, 1967) showing the Sweet Inspirations and placed in occasion of the release of their debut single on Atlantic, »Why (Am I Treated So Bad)«. Behind from left: Sylvia Shemwell, Cissy Drinkard Houston. Front from left: Myrna Smith, Estelle Brown.
The Sweets recorded their debut single (Atlantic # 2410) in New York on April 25 and 26, 1967. The A-side was to be the Staples' song »Why (Am I Treated So Bad)«, penned by Daddy Roebuck. The Staple Singers in 1966/7 recorded two versions of that song, one (the first) politically charged and released on Epic LP # 26196 in May 1966 (check it out here), the second re-arranged in a pop fashion in spring 1967 and released on Epic # 10158. Originally, the song was a protest song, but the Sweets' version features substantially changed lyrics in comparison with the Staples' version, converting the tune into a love song (I'm all alone ... I'm gonna walk up to my baby's door, ask him why he don't love me no more ... he was wrong, said I was to blame, but I walk on in and love him just the same, though he treats me so bad ...). The beautiful performance of that song by the Sweets is a masterful exercise in close harmony singing. Cissy Houston is doing the lead voice, but apart from some humming there is as good as no lead in this song. As such, the song recalls many of the tunes which the Raelettes were putting out at the same time and, especially, on their later album Tangerine LP 1515 (Ray Charles presents The Raeletts: yesterday ... today ... tomorrow).
And yes, I can't think of a better song that could have started their career, their »first starring record« as Billboard had it in the issue of May 20, 1967 (page 14). It obviously underlines the closely-woven and harmoniously tight »together-sound« which for many since has been the hallmark of the Sweets' vocal artistry. Certainly Jerry Wexler, the grey eminence behind all decisions at Atlantic, and in this function overruling at times commercial prospects by his never-failing instinct for artistic value, had the same feeling. It was he who pushed the career of the Sweets from 1967 to 1969 and saw to it that his most talented contracted singer, Aretha Franklin, was supported by them, notably on such classics as »Chain Of Fools« and »Ain't No Way«. Seen from today's perspective, Atlantic was at the very height of its success when they released the Sweets' »Why (Am I Treated So Bad)«. In June 1967, the following Atlantic sides were on the Hot 100 (and I cannot even list them all): »Respect« (Aretha Franklin), »Sweet Soul Music« (Arthur Conley), »You Can't Stand Alone« (Wilson Pickett), »Plastic Man« (Sonny & Cher) ... and the Sweets' »Why«. Stax (still distributed by Atlantic) contributed »Tramp« (Carla Thomas & Otis Redding), »Hip Hug-Her« (Booker T), »Soul Finger« (The Bar-Kays) and »Soothe Me« (Sam & Dave). Well, what an impressive list! And the Sweet Inspirations were part of it, mind you. Here they are:
The Sweet Inspirations: »Why (Am I Treated So Bad)« from the Atlantic LP # SD 8155 (1967):
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POSTSCRIPT / with a comment added 11/16/2011:
From Richie Unterberger's Liner Notes for the Atlantic LP »The Sweet Inspirations«. Please note, however, that »Why (Am I Treated So Bad)?« is not contained on the 1965 Epic LP Freedom Highway (it only features on a modern CD re-issue by the name of Freedom Highway which does not reproduce the original Epic album):
»The group's career got off to a strong start with the mid-1967 single "Why (Am I Treated So Bad)?" It was about as closely tied to gospel music as any soul single could be in that era, having been recorded by the Staple Singers for their live-in-the-church 1965 LP Freedom Highway. As Houston observed in her autobiography, "It was a slow, languid blues written by gospel singer Roebuck Staples, of the Staples. It was so funky it sounded like it was recorded down in a Louisiana bayou complete with tasty blues licks, a walking bass and seductive horns." The single made the R&B Top Forty and got up to #57 in the pop charts ...«
I am interested in the music, not in the relative rarity of discs. I also listen with great pleasure to Aretha Franklin, because she has the voice of the century. Music is no Faith and therefore has no heretics.
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No music downloads on this site. All mp3s (with very few exceptions where noted) are ripped from original vinyl discs. If something on this blog is objectionable to anyone or should, for valid reasons, be re- moved from the net please let me know; it will be removed. And to reiterate: This is a non-profit blog.
