Sweethearts of Sigma
Open-knowledge reference entry
The Sweethearts of Sigma, sometimes known simply as The Sweethearts or The Sweeties, were an American female vocal trio comprising Carla Benson, Evette Benton and Barbara Ingram. Primarily backing vocalists, they sang backup on many recordings made in Philadelphia, especially in the 1970s.
Carla Benson (born 1953) and Barbara Ingram (1947–1994) were first cousins, growing up together in Camden, New Jersey, with their friend Evette Benton (1952–2021). Barbara Ingram started singing as a child, and in 1972 toured as a Raelette with Ray Charles. After her return, she learned that record producer Thom Bell was setting up a new record company, Philadelphia International, with Leon Huff and Kenny Gamble. She auditioned successfully for Bell, who asked her to form a vocal trio to work as backing singers on studio recordings.
Ingram called Benson, who had already started singing with her friend Evette Benton, and the three agreed to audition together. Bell and Huff immediately agreed to record them on a session by Joe Simon, and they rapidly became established as the label's in-house backing vocalists.
They most often recorded at Sigma Sound Studios, and acquired the informal name of "The Sweethearts of Sigma" after initially being referred to as "Tommy's Girls" (referring to Thom Bell). When recording at Alpha International Studios, they were known as the "Alpha Angels".
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This entry incorporates text from “Sweethearts of Sigma” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.