The McGuire Sisters

There was this record store on the corner of Portage Avenue and, I think, Garry, on the south side, and I wish I could remember the name of the store. It was opened in the 90s, and I don’t remember whether it was still open when I left the city in 2002. I bought a few titles there, Lefty Frizzell, Paul McCartney, Santana At The Fillmore West, and The Best Of The McGuire Sisters. But I’d got this before from the Centennial Library, I just needed a better copy. “Delilah Jones” comes straight off the single.

I have 14 out of 31 top 100 hits by this group, not counting anything before November, 1954.

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The McGuire Sisters:

• Sugartime – Their signature song, it reached number 1 early in 1958. Johnny Cash did this, and he didn’t do any better than you’d expect.
• Picnic – From spring of 1956, a song usually coupled with Moonglow, but not here.
• Little Things Mean A Lot – Not the Janis Ian song, this was a hit for Joni James
• Blue Skies – The great Irving Berlin song, Dinah Washington did a terrific version of this.
• Delilah Jones – The flip of Picnic, also, no surprise, from the spring of ’56. A song about the evil woman…
• Sweet Song Of India
• Just For Old Times Sake – Kind of a proto For The Good Times. From the spring of 1961.
• May You Always – Incorporates Auld Lang Syne. From early 1959.
• I’ll Be Seeing You - Another standard
• I’m In The Mood For Love – Fats Domino actually did this too.
• Love And Marriage – Best known by Frank Sinatra, and used as the theme from the TV show Married With Children.
• Around The World – A hit for Bing Crosby, and for Mantovani, and for Victor Young. The McGuire Sisters’ version reached number 73 on Billboard in the summer of ’57.
• Muskrat Ramble – Originally done by The Andrew Sisters, the mother of all sister groups. This was from the fall of ’54. Country Joe McDonald used the tune for Feel-Like-I’m-Fixing-To-Die Rag.
• Sincerely – Another number 1, this one from early ’55. It was a cover of The Moonglows great original.
• Red River Valley – I am from the Red River valley, but I’m not sure that it’s the same one.
• Lullaby Of Birdland – So we heard this by Sarah Vaughan, and here is another.
• He – A song about God. It was a hit for Al Hibbler about half a year before the sisters did it, which was late in ’55, and about 11 years before the Righteous Brothers did it.
• It May Sound Silly – It may. From the spring of ’55.
• Goodnight, Sweetheart, Goodnight – From the summer of ’54, this was a clean white version of what may be the greatest goodnight kiss song of all time, originally by The Spaniels.
• Something’s Gotta Give – A big one from the summer of ’55. Also a hit by Sammy Davis Jr.
• Just Because – Their last hit, form fall of ’61. Elvis recorded this when he was on Sun.
• Heart – Another version of this, which we have heard by Eddie Fisher.
• Volare (Nil Blue, Dipinto Di Blu) – From the fall of ’58, this was huge Domenico Modugno, and Dean Martin put it on the charts in English, as did Bobby Rydell.
• Does Your Heart Beat For Me? – Yes.
• Goodbye – Not the Mary Hopkin song.