The McGuire Sisters

The McGuire Sisters
The McGuire Sisters in 1964
Background information
Origin	Middletown, Ohio, United States
Genres	Traditional pop
Years active	1952–1968
Past members	Christine McGuire Dorothy McGuire Phyllis McGuire

The McGuire Sisters were a singing trio in American popular music. The group was composed of three sisters: Christine McGuire (born July 30, 1926); Dorothy McGuire (February 13, 1928 – September 7, 2012); and Phyllis McGuire (born February 14, 1931). Among their most popular songs are "Sincerely" and "Sugartime", both number one hits.

The McGuire sisters were born in Middletown, Ohio, and grew up in Miamisburg. Their mother, Lillie, was a minister of the Miamisburg First Church of God, where as children they sang in church at weddings, funerals and revivals. When they started singing in 1935, the youngest sister, Phyllis, was four years old. Eventually they sang at occasions outside church and by 1949 were singing at military bases and veterans' hospitals, performing a more diverse repertoire than in church.

The McGuire Sisters signed with Coral Records in 1952. In the same year they appeared on Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts, and Godfrey hired them for his other shows, where they remained for seven years. The November 1953 issue of Cosmopolitan magazine called them "Godfrey's Merry McGuires." The sisters often were compared to the Andrews Sisters. Maxene Andrews said in an interview with Joe Franklin on WOR (AM) radio in 1979, "The McGuire Sisters were fine once they stopped imitating The Andrews Sisters." While working on the Godfrey show, the McGuires befriended the singer Lu Ann Simms and attended her wedding to the music publisher Loring Buzzell in July 1956. Buzzell's publishing firm, Hecht-Lancaster & Buzzell Music (co-owned by Harold Hecht and Burt Lancaster) provided two songs for the McGuire Sisters, May You Always and Theme from The Unforgiven (The Need for Love).