Go to main content

The Sweet Inspirations

December 13, 1999 | Other
As every fan knows the Sweet Inspirations were the female part of Elvis’ backup vocalists. Their soulful sound formed a great match with the male (gospel) part of the backup. What would Elvis’ live renditions of Suspicious Minds, Polk Salad Annie and See See Rider, to name a few, be without the "Sweets"?
Originally Cissy Houston, Estelle Brown, Myrna Smith and Sylvia Shemwell formed the Sweet Inspirations. At this very moment the last three ladies are still part of the group and Portia Glover makes it a quartet again. Before the Sweets joined Elvis they had a major hit with…. "Sweet Inspiration" and sang on records of Aretha Franklin, Wilson Picket and Dusty Springfield among others.


When Elvis asked them for his return to live performances in 1969, they agreed and stayed with Elvis until the end… And beyond. We did enjoy them ourselves last year during Elvis The Concert and hopefully we will again soon.


We are glad we found out they have their own website now at http://www.thesweetinspirations.com/. There you can read short biographies in their own words, always very positive about Elvis and it is obvious they did enjoy working with him and "still" do.