DAY 172 - COUNTING DOWN TO THE 50TH

GOOD MORNING, CLASS OF '64

Yet another snow alert in the inbox, this morning. From around seven, this evening, until the afternoon, on Tuesday, the area will face a snowfall that starts, then stops, only to start again. With sleet and freezing rain in between, there will be dangerous conditions on the highways. Saying "be careful, out there" is so easy when you're watching it all develop through a pane of glass. But, just the same, be careful, out there! Be careful, out there! Be careful, out there!

DO THE GO AWAY SNOW DANCE

Snow in the morning
Snow in the evening
Snow about anytime
It's about time you left us
We'd find that so sublime!

 You can face any direction - whichever direction your snow arrives. Dance around, whoop and holler, and sing this to the tune of Sugartime by the McGuire Sisters. Just maybe the cacophony will be enough to frighten away any fluttering snowflake that passes by. Don't dance and sing so well, though, that Old Man Winter will find immense joy in the performance and decide to stay.

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Sugartime, by the McGuire Sisters was released in 1957. It topped the charts in 1958. Listen for the guitar, towards the end, that sounds like it wanted to go "country". And, in the background, throughout the song, you hear a banjo.

 Another version of Sugartime is shorter - it has the banjo but not the guitar licks. Watching them as they stood shoulder to shoulder to shoulder and performed their song, I wondered at how comfortable they were during their routine. Moving together, like that, took some practice. This shorter version of the song might have been "made for TV".

When researching something, one thing leads to another, and you discover things you aren't expecting at all. Happenstance found another song by the McGuire Sisters that had been long forgotten. But the feeling it stirred, all those years ago, were still there, behind chunks of other memory that had it hidden away. It could have been kept locked in memory, but it was given a nudge and found again.

THE MCGUIRE SISTERS - HE (1955)

He reached #10 on the US Billboard Hot 100, in 1955, for the McGuire Sisters. For Al Hibbler, in 1955, it was a #4 hit. "He" was the song the Lennon Sisters sang for their first appearance on the Lawrence Welk show, in 1955. In 1966, the Righteous Brothers charted at #18 with their version of the song.
Could a song like this hit the charts today? Would it even be considered as a recording by the record companies? What do you think?

  THE MCGUIRE SISTERS
"He"

(Richard Mullen and Jack Richards)

He can turn the tides and calm the angry sea
He alone decides who writes a symphony
He lights ev'ry star that makes the darkness bright
He keeps watch all through each long and lonely night

He still finds the time to hear a child's first prayer
Saint or sinner calls and always finds him there
Though it makes him sad to see the way we live
He'll always say "I forgive"

He can touch a tree and turn the leaves to gold
He knows every lie that you and I have told
Though it makes him sad to see the way we live
He'll always say "I forgive"

He forgives

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