Thursday, Jan. 6, 2000 | 9:46 a.m.
McGuire Sisters
What: "Encore Performance of the McGuire Sisters."
When: 7 p.m. today through Sunday.
Where: The Showroom at the Orleans hotel-casino.
Tickets: $33.95, $38.95 and $43.95, plus tax.
Information: Call 365-7075.
The McGuire Sisters will sincerely appreciate a special member of their audience during a four-night performance at the Orleans Showroom.
The man who more than 45 years ago co-wrote the sisters' first million-selling record, "Sincerely," plans to attend one of the shows and meet the trio for the first time.
"We're real excited about it," Las Vegan Phyllis McGuire said. "I will never know why we never met."
Harvey Fuqua, 70, co-founder of the R&B/doo-wop group the Moonglows, is equally excited about meeting the McGuires, says his publicist, Elaine Jesmer.
"He doesn't know why they never met either," she said.
Although they have been cosmically connected for almost 45 years, their paths have never crossed.
All of the performers are legends in their own right.
The McGuire Sisters have been inducted into the Broadcasters' Hall Of Fame and into the recently-founded Las Vegas Casino Entertainer's Hall Of Fame.
Fuqua and the Moonglows are to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame at a special ceremony in New York City on March 6.
Fuqua, a resident of Concord, N.C., is en route and is expected to be at tonight's performance by the McGuires, but the formal introductions may have to wait until another day if the legendary songwriter and producer is delayed, which Jesmer says is possible.
The McGuire Sisters will appear at the Orleans through Sunday.
Among the tunes in their repertoire will be "Sincerely," one of their signature songs along with other classics, including "Sugartime," another signature song.
"We had some hits before 'Sincerely,' such as 'Good Night Sweetheart,' but 'Sincerely' was the first million-seller for us," McGuire noted.
The Moonglows recorded the song first. Their original version was No. 1 for two weeks on Billboard's R&B chart and No. 20 on its pop chart in late 1954.
But in 1955 it became identified with the McGuires.
The song was No. 1 for 10 weeks that year and the No. 3 song of the 1955-1959 rock era.
Fuqua went on to discover many recording artists and also played a role in the creation of Motown Records.
The McGuires went on to a career performing before queens and presidents, not to mention legions of Las Vegas audiences. Their act went on an 18-year hiatus in 1968. Their last performance that year was on the stage of Caesars Palace for "The Ed Sullivan Show."
In 1986 they returned to both live concerts and Las Vegas, where they had been headliners for many years. Today the McGuire Sisters make occasional public appearances.
In June 1999 MCA released a compact disc entitled "The McGuire Sisters Anthology" featuring the trio's greatest hits. Fuqua has two CDs coming out in January under his own label, Resurging Artist Records. He continues to make appearances at doo-wop gatherings with the Moonglows.
Jesmer said she was surprised when she learned that Fuqua and the McGuires had never met. She set about to correct that oversight by contacting Phyllis McGuire to see if the sisters would be interested.
They were.
And the rest will be history.
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