I was really impressed by the film I saw recently “Twenty Feet From Stardom”. It is an excellent documentary about female backup singers, mostly veterans of session work in Los Angeles and New York studios, who never get the recognition they deserve as artists in their own right. It occurred to me even as I was watching it, however, that had this film been made with other singers in other cities with a rich recording history, it would have been a vey different film. So, I’ve decided to post some recording from other singers who are often every bit as talented as the star standing twenty feet away. The Sweet Inspirations had an immensely successful career as back up singers and saw many great singers pass through their ranks. The stars they backed up are too numerous to mention, but include singing backup with the Rascals, Aretha Franklin, William Bell, Dusty Springfield, Joe Bruce, Esther Phillips, Yusef Lateef, and many, many others. Their stature rivals or exceeds that of The Blossoms, The Raelettes, The Ikettes, or any other group out there. They will probably always best be known, however, as the female singers singing behind Elvis Presley in his later period when Presley decided to revive his moribund career as a live performers after spending most of the 1960s making movies in Hollywood. The Sweet Inspirations first joined Elvis for 57 shows at the International Hotel in Las Vegas in August 1969, along with another female backup singer, Cathy Westmoreland, and the all male singing group J.D. Sumner and the Stamps. That stand resurrected Presley’s career as a live performer. The Sweet Inspirations would accompany Elvis on his 1970 “comeback” (recorded in the film “Elvis: That’s The Way It Was”), and on every tour (but not in the studio) until his death on August 16, 1977. “Sweet Inspiration”, written by Dan Penn and Spooner Oldham in 40 minutes to fill out a 1967 Memphis recording session. It was this recording that attracted the interest of Elvis Presley, and resulted in the biggest break ever for the group. youtube/watch?v=vQT0CR33CQs
Posted on: Sat, 26 Oct 2013 18:42:26 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015