From Cissy Houston c1977 here’s another
unearthed B side that’s doing it for me at the moment.
I knew the bare facts of Cissy being
Whitney’s mum and the relationship with the Warwicks but her Wiki entry helped
me put more meat on the bones of her life.
Emily Drinkard was born in 1933, the
youngest of eight children. She took the name Houston when she married, for a
second time, in 1959. Four years later she would give birth to a baby girl –
Whitney. Before that in 1951, following her father’s death, she spent a number
of years living with her elder sister Lee and her family (is that where the
name Cissy came from I wonder?) and so shared a house with her nieces Dionne
and Dee Dee Warwick. Bath time in that house would have been a sweet noise I’m
sure!
Cissy, Dionne, and Dee Dee did perform
together for a time in the fifties as the Gospelaires. Then, into the sixties, all
three were members of the Sweet Inspirations, although I’m not clear if for any
period they all featured in the group at the same time (cross checking the
various Wiki entries seem to be somewhat contradictory – and , yes, I know Wiki
entries should not always be taken as gospel).
Cissy Houston’s solo career didn't really start until she was in her late thirties, and her most recent CD was released only a couple
of years ago. The seventies were her most active period as a solo performer with
six albums released between 1969 and 1980. Her solo recordings may not be that well
known but, even though you may not know it, you will be familiar with her voice
as she has been a go to session and backing singer and appears on many well
known records (to see what I mean cast an eye over the list of backing vocal appearances on her wiki entry, which I'm sure is not exhaustive).
And so to today’s B side. Love Is Holding On is reminiscent of
some of Dionne Warwick’s seventies output, and the vocal similarities are there
too – it’s the genes (and of course Cissy passed those genes directly to
Whitney too) – although Cissy has a purer tone and can soar more effectively to
my ears. This was a track on her
eponymous 1977 LP, one of a run of three albums produced by Michael Zager that
took Cissy into pop and disco territory. The song was written by Barbara Morr
and Betsy Durkin Matthes. They were introduced to each other by Carly Simon and
this was the first song they wrote together – not bad for a first song!
The A side of this 45, Tomorrow, pales into insignificance in
comparison with its lush and languid B side which is a thing of pure beauty,
and the highest quality – and what a voice!
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3 comments:
and we do love dionne's seventies - ta for this it's a smasher
x
I don't write often, because I would repeat myself like a old senile man...
BUT:
always something great to discover here. Like this C Houston and before that G Parker. Thank you, as usual :-)
Ravel, Montreal, Quebec
Ally: it is isn't it! Would have been at home on Dionne's Just Being Myself album.
Thank you Ravel. You're a long time visitor I know and I'm glad you keep finding something here worth returning for.
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