Three McGuire Sisters

About five years ago, I started to make a Christmas CD. I had boxes and boxes of Christmas records to choose from, and grabbed tracks from many of them. That was the year I finally realized that there was much better stuff in all those dusty old records than on the shiny new CDs in the other room. One of the things I grabbed to audition was a box set of five records called One Hundred Favorite Songs Of Christmas on MCA. I grabbed a few songs from this set before I stumbled across a song called The Cactus Christmas Tree. It was the exact sort of song I was looking for that year, something that wasn't the usual version of the same old carol, yet had the unmistakable feel of a Christmas song. Less than halfway through the track though, the record skipped, and skipped badly. I spent two hours trying to get the track to record, but never did succeed. A few minutes on the internet told me the track was originally from The McGuire Sisters album you see above. Simple enough, I'd start looking for that record. Five years later, I still hadn't found the record. Well, at least not a copy I could afford. It turned out to be quite rare and valuable. Whenever one popped up on eBay, I'd put in a bid and loose at the last second after a flurry of bids that usually drove the price up into the $50 range. Then finally, just a few weeks ago, a member of FaLaLaLaLa put up a copy for auction. I put in my usual bid, then sat there at the end of the auction, waiting to see who'd come along this time and take the record from my grasp. Perhaps it was a minor Christmas miracle, but no one else bid. I won the auction, and three days later, I had the record in my hands. As soon as I got it on the turntable, I knew this was the record I wanted to share with my friends. So please be my guest and download this great record that has remained virtually unheard since it's release in 1958. It's a great mix of secular and religious music, with a little help from Neal Hefti and Dick Jacobs. I almost didn't share this one with you folks, since it turns out a CD released this year has some, but not all, of the tracks. (That CD also has a version of Frosty The Snowman from sources unknown, so you need to go buy it!) But I decided to go ahead and get this out there anyway, I just saved it for the day before Christmas, so only those folks who are really looking for it will stumble across it. Consider this my present to you. Here is The McGuire Sisters-Greeting From The McGuire Sisters (Coral CRL 57225, 1958). Enjoy!

Update: This one is out on CD now, although it's a little hard to tell. There's a collection on the Jasmine label that includes all the songs from this LP, plus all the songs from the Christmas With Arthur Godfrey LP. Not sure how the McGuire Sisters got stuck on there, but who am I to question how such things work. You can order this from Amazon via this link. Wait, maybe I'm mistaken. Try this disc instead.