Rain, Rain…

The Sweet Inspirations: Crying In The Rain
Taken from the album Sweets For My Sweet on Atlantic (1969)

Gwen McCrae: It Keeps On Raining
Taken from the 7″ on Cat (1975)

Truth be told, this post was supposed to go up days ago, when it might have still been apropos of the dismal weather. As it is, the information vanished from my computer not once but twice (damn this tricknology!) and the weather cleared up. So here I am, fresh back from the fireworks spectacle over the Brooklyn Bridge and ready to make a third attempt at delivering these tunes to the people.

The Sweet Inspirations were fronted by a certain Cissy Houston, mother of a certain Whitney. They cut several LP’s in the late sixties and early seventies, though none of them fared very well commercially. Ultimately they would become much more successful–monetarily at least–singing backup vocals for none other than… Elvis.

Gwen McCrae is a stranger to no one. The above track originally appeared as the B-side to the monster tune “Rocking Chair”, which would later appear on an album of the same name.

Because I drank to much good ol’ American Budweiser today; and because I’ve written these very words several times already, I’m going to quit while I’m ahead. Enjoy the music.

(P.S.–The photo up there of The Inspirations album doesn’t depict the actual cover of the album on which the “Rain” song appears. I just couldn’t get my hands on a digital camera. Sorry.)