![De Castro Sisters Billboard](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d1/De_Castro_Sisters_Billboard.jpg)
The DeCastro Sisters were an American
singing group. They originally consisted of Peggy DeCastro (1921–2004), Cherie DeCastro (1922–2010) and Babette DeCastro (1925–1992).
When Babette retired in 1958, a
cousin
Most generally, in the lineal kinship system used in the English-speaking world, a cousin is a type of familial relationship in which two relatives are two or more familial generations away from their most recent common ancestor. Commonly, " ...
, Olgita DeCastro Marino (1931–2000), replaced her and when Peggy later left the group to go solo, Babette re-joined Cherie and Olgita. Peggy eventually returned and Babette once more retired.
History
The DeCastro Sisters began as a Latin-flavored trio and were protegees of
Carmen Miranda
Carmen Miranda, (; born Maria do Carmo Miranda da Cunha, 9 February 1909 – 5 August 1955) was a Portuguese-born Brazilian samba singer, dancer, Broadway actress and film star who was active from the late 1920s onwards. Nicknamed "The B ...
. They eventually became more Americanized in their performances and added comedy.
The biggest
hit single
A hit song, also known as a hit record, hit single or simply a hit, is a recorded song or instrumental that becomes broadly popular or well-known. Although ''hit song'' means any widely played or big-selling song, the specific term ''hit record' ...
for the group was "
Teach Me Tonight
Teach Me Tonight is a popular song that has become a jazz standard. The music was written by Gene De Paul, the lyrics by Sammy Cahn. The song was published in 1953.
Early recordings
Five versions charted in 1954 and 1955:
*Janet Brace was appa ...
", in 1954.
The song reached No. 2 in the United States, and the follow-up, "Boom Boom Boomerang", reached No. 17. The group is referenced in an episode of ''
The Sopranos
''The Sopranos'' is an American Crime film#Crime drama, crime drama television series created by David Chase. The story revolves around Tony Soprano (James Gandolfini), a New Jersey-based American Mafia, Italian-American mobster, portraying h ...
'', "Do Not Resuscitate", as one of the only music groups that matriarch Livia actually likes, along with
Mario Lanza
Mario Lanza (, ; born Alfredo Arnold Cocozza ; January 31, 1921 – October 7, 1959) was an American tenor and actor. He was a Hollywood film star popular in the late 1940s and the 1950s. Lanza began studying to be a professional singer at ...
.
The three original DeCastro Sisters — Peggy, Cherie and Babette — were raised in
Havana
Havana (; Spanish: ''La Habana'' ) is the capital and largest city of Cuba. The heart of the La Habana Province, Havana is the country's main port and commercial center. , Cuba,
in a family mansion that was seized by Fidel Castro during the Cuban revolution and is now used as the Chinese Embassy. Their mother, Babette Buchanan, was a Chicago-born
Ziegfeld Follies
The ''Ziegfeld Follies'' was a series of elaborate theatrical revue productions on Broadway in New York City from 1907 to 1931, with renewals in 1934 and 1936. They became a radio program in 1932 and 1936 as ''The Ziegfeld Follies of the Air ...
showgirl who married the wealthy Cuban aristocrat Juan Fernandez de Castro, owner of a large sugar plantation in the Dominican Republic, where first daughter Peggy was born. De Castro later developed radio and television in Cuba with
David Sarnoff
David Sarnoff (February 27, 1891 – December 12, 1971) was an American businessman and pioneer of American radio and television. Throughout most of his career, he led the Radio Corporation of America (RCA) in various capacities from shortly afte ...
, who was often a guest at their home and was also in charge of a planned project under the Batista regime to build a canal through Cuba, which never materialized.
De Castro purchased a co-op apartment at
The Dakota
The Dakota, also known as the Dakota Apartments, is a Housing cooperative, cooperative apartment building at 1 West 72nd Street (Manhattan), 72nd Street on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City, United States. The Dakota was construc ...
in Manhattan, where Cherie Dawn DeCastro was born on September 1, 1922. Youngest daughter Babette was born back in Havana. The De Castro Sisters, always strongly chaperoned, began their singing careers as young girls and patterned themselves as a Cuban version of
the Andrews Sisters
The Andrews Sisters were an American close harmony singing group of the Swing music, swing and boogie-woogie eras. The group consisted of three sisters: contralto LaVerne Sophia Andrews (July 6, 1911 – May 8, 1967), soprano Maxene Anglyn Andre ...
. They emigrated to
Miami
Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a East Coast of the United States, coastal metropolis and the County seat, county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade C ...
in 1942, where they were seen by an agent from General Artists Corporation (now ICM) and booked into the Copacabana in New York with the
Will Mastin Trio
The Will Mastin Trio (also Will Maston Trio on some bills) was a troupe of dancers and singers formed by Will Mastin, Sammy Davis Sr., and Sammy Davis Jr. The original members were Sammy Davis Sr., Howard M. Colbert Jr., and Will Mastin, although ...
featuring
Sammy Davis Jr.
Samuel George Davis Jr. (December 8, 1925 – May 16, 1990) was an American singer, dancer, actor, comedian, film producer and television director.
At age three, Davis began his career in vaudeville with his father Sammy Davis Sr. and the ...
As their careers progressed their act became more flamboyant,
and they worked across the country, including at the Palladium in Hollywood, where they sang with
Tito Puente
Ernest Anthony Puente Jr. (April 20, 1923 – June 1, 2000), commonly known as Tito Puente, was an American musician, songwriter, bandleader, and record producer of Puerto Rican descent. He is best known for dance-oriented mambo and Latin jazz c ...
's band and made their first recordings. In 1946, they provided several of the bird and animal voices for Walt Disney's animated ''
Song of the South
''Song of the South'' is a 1946 American Live-action animated film, live-action/animated musical film, musical drama film directed by Harve Foster and Wilfred Jackson; produced by Walt Disney and released by RKO Pictures, RKO Radio Pictures. ...
'', including the Oscar-winning "Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah". They appeared on screen with
Carmen Miranda
Carmen Miranda, (; born Maria do Carmo Miranda da Cunha, 9 February 1909 – 5 August 1955) was a Portuguese-born Brazilian samba singer, dancer, Broadway actress and film star who was active from the late 1920s onwards. Nicknamed "The B ...
and
Groucho Marx
Julius Henry "Groucho" Marx (; October 2, 1890 – August 19, 1977) was an American comedian, actor, writer, stage, film, radio, singer, television star and vaudeville performer. He is generally considered to have been a master of quick wit an ...
in the 1947 film
''Copacabana'', the same year that they joined
Bob Hope
Leslie Townes "Bob" Hope (May 29, 1903 – July 27, 2003) was a British-American comedian, vaudevillian, actor, singer and dancer. With a career that spanned nearly 80 years, Hope appeared in more than 70 short and feature films, with 5 ...
and
Cecil B. DeMille
Cecil Blount DeMille (; August 12, 1881January 21, 1959) was an American film director, producer and actor. Between 1914 and 1958, he made 70 features, both silent and sound films. He is acknowledged as a founding father of the American cine ...
on the live premiere broadcast special launching
KTLA
KTLA (channel 5) is a television station in Los Angeles, California, United States, serving as the West Coast flagship of The CW. It is the largest directly owned property of the network's majority owner, Nexstar Media Group, and is the seco ...
in Los Angeles, the first telecast west of the Mississippi. The sisters were introduced by Hope and sang "Babalu", which was filmed by a Paramount newsreel cameraman and is the only surviving footage of the original three-hour show.
[
In 1954, the more Americanized DeCastro Sisters were signed by a small country label, Abbott Records, and their first release featured "It's Love" as the A-side, backed by a ]Sammy Cahn
Samuel Cohen (June 18, 1913 – January 15, 1993), known professionally as Sammy Cahn, was an American lyricist, songwriter, and musician. He is best known for his romantic lyrics to films and Broadway songs, as well as stand-alone songs premier ...
-Gene DePaul
Gene Vincent de Paul (June 17, 1919 – February 27, 1988) was an American pianist, composer and songwriter.
Biography
Born in New York City, he served in the United States Army during World War II. He was married to Billye Louise Files (Novem ...
song, "Teach Me Tonight", which had been suggested at the last minute by their bass player. The label was pushing "It's Love", but Cleveland disc jockey Bill Randall turned the record over and "Teach Me Tonight" soon became a hit, peaking at No. 2 on the charts and selling more than five million copies. Several more recordings followed, including "Too Late Now", "Boom Boom Boomerang", "Snowbound For Christmas", "With My Eyes Wide Open I'm Dreaming", and numerous albums on a variety of labels including RCA Victor, ABC-Paramount, Capitol, and 20th Century-Fox.
Now major headliners, they shared the bill with Noël Coward
Sir Noël Peirce Coward (16 December 189926 March 1973) was an English playwright, composer, director, actor, and singer, known for his wit, flamboyance, and what ''Time'' magazine called "a sense of personal style, a combination of cheek and ...
when he made his Las Vegas debut at the Desert Inn in 1954, which had one of the most star-studded and publicized opening nights of any show in the town's history. Coward would watch their act every night while waiting to go on himself. They were part of another historic engagement in 1959, when they joined the Las Vegas debuts of George Burns as a solo act and a young singer named Bobby Darin at the Sahara. It was the DeCastros who told Darin that he should record one of the featured songs in his act, "Mack the Knife"; Darin thought it was just a nightclub number, but he later took their advice.
The DeCastro Sisters appeared on most major TV shows including ''The Ed Sullivan Show
''The Ed Sullivan Show'' is an American television program, television variety show that ran on CBS from June 20, 1948, to March 28, 1971, and was hosted by New York City, New York entertainment columnist Ed Sullivan. It was replaced in Septembe ...
'' and ''The Perry Como Show
Pierino Ronald "Perry" Como (; May 18, 1912 – May 12, 2001) was an Italian-American singer, actor and television personality. During a career spanning more than half a century, he recorded exclusively for RCA Victor for 44 years, after signing ...
''. They also made numerous film shorts including Universal's ''Swingin' and Singin'' with Maynard Ferguson
Walter Maynard Ferguson CM (May 4, 1928 – August 23, 2006) was a Canadian jazz trumpeter and bandleader. He came to prominence in Stan Kenton's orchestra before forming his own big band in 1957. He was noted for his bands, which often served ...
and ''Riot in Rhythm'' with Harry James
Harry Haag James (March 15, 1916 – July 5, 1983) was an American musician who is best known as a trumpet-playing band leader who led a big band from 1939 to 1946. He broke up his band for a short period in 1947 but shortly after he reorganized ...
. At various times Peggy and Babette took leave from the act and were replaced by a cousin Olgita, so Cherie was the only sister who was part of every appearance and recording that the group ever made.
In 1988, they made a comeback at Vegas World
Vegas World was a space-themed casino and hotel on Las Vegas Boulevard in Las Vegas, Nevada. It was owned and operated by Bob Stupak, and was also signed as Bob Stupak's Vegas World.
Stupak initially opened a small casino, Bob Stupak's World Fa ...
in Las Vegas
Las Vegas (; Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the state of Nevada, and the county seat of Clark County. The city anchors the Las Vegas ...
, Nevada
Nevada ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, Western region of the United States. It is bordered by Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. N ...
.
In 1997, they were part of KTLA's 50th anniversary broadcast in Los Angeles and headlined at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel
The Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel is a historic hotel located at 7000 Hollywood Boulevard in the Hollywood district of Los Angeles, California. It opened on May 15, 1927, and is the oldest continually operating hotel in Los Angeles.
History
The hote ...
's Cinegrill. Three years later, they were inducted in the Casino Legends Hall of Fame as Las Vegas Living Legends. Cherie continued to perform and sang "Teach Me Tonight" on the 2004 PBS special ''My Music: Moments To Remember''.
Deaths
Babette died of cancer on January 10, 1992. Olgita died of asthma on February 14, 2000. Peggy died of lung cancer on March 6, 2004 in Las Vegas
Las Vegas (; Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the state of Nevada, and the county seat of Clark County. The city anchors the Las Vegas ...
, at the age of 82. Cherie, the only sister to appear on every recording, film, TV and stage appearance, died of pneumonia on March 14, 2010, at the age of 87.
References
External links
Peggy DeCastro Tribute
Cherie DeCastro Tribute
Sun Sus Babae soundie
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Cherie DeCastro obituary
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{{DEFAULTSORT:DeCastro Sisters, The
American women singers
Cuban emigrants to the United States
People from Havana
Cuban women singers
American vocal groups
American girl groups
Cuban musical groups
Sibling musical trios
RCA Victor artists
ABC Records artists