Christine McGuire, the oldest of the three McGuire
Sisters, whose radio and television appearances and string of Top 20
hits in the 1950s made them one of the most popular female singing
groups of their time, died Dec. 28 in Las Vegas, where she lived. She
was 92.
Her family released a statement confirming the death. The cause and other details were not disclosed.
Christine,
Dorothy and Phyllis McGuire grew up singing in the First Church of God
in their hometown of Miamisburg, Ohio. Their mother, a minister at the
church, encouraged their interest in singing but would not allow the
sisters to listen to secular music.
It wasn’t
until the late 1940s, when the sisters were in their late teens and
early 20s, that they added a few up-tempo pop tunes to their repertoire
and began to appear as a vocal trio at veterans’ hospitals, benefits and
other events. They were discovered by local bandleaders and radio
stations in Cincinnati and Dayton, Ohio, and became known for their
uncanny three-part harmony.
In 1952, the sisters pooled their savings and
traveled to New York, hoping to audition for “Arthur Godfrey’s Talent
Scouts,” a popular television show that was the “American Idol” of its
time. Godfrey was out of town, but a chance encounter led to a two-month
engagement on the national radio broadcast of singer Kate Smith.
When
the sisters finally performed for Godfrey, singing “Mona Lisa,” they
won the contest and immediately became regulars on Godfrey’s top-rated
radio and television shows. They had their first Top 10 hit in 1953 with
a version of “Goodnight, Sweetheart, Goodnight,” followed the next year
by “Muskrat Ramble.” The sisters’ biggest hit, “Sincerely” (originally
performed by the Moonglows), was released in 1954 and spent 10 weeks at
No. 1 on the Billboard pop chart. Their 1954 recording of Johnny
Mercer’s suavely swinging “Something’s Gotta Give” soared to No. 5 on
the Billboard chart.
As rock-and-roll began to
filter onto the radio, the McGuire Sisters remained holdovers from an
earlier, smoother musical era, along with such singers as Patti Page, Perry Como and Frank Sinatra.
The sisters toured constantly, recording a few minor hits, before
striking gold again in 1958 with “Sugartime,” a fast-moving tune by
Charlie Phillips and Odis Echols that begins, “Sugar in the morning,
sugar in the evening, sugar at suppertime.”The
catchy number hit No. 1 and became the McGuire Sisters’ signature tune.
At the height of their fame in the late 1950s, each sister was earning
more than $1 million a year.
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