The De Castro Sisters - Teach Me Tonight: Singles & Albums 1952-60 (2022)

The De Castro Sisters were a vocal trio whose mother was a Ziegfeld Follies showgirl from Chicago who married a wealthy Cuban aristocrat, who owned sugar plantations in the Dominican Republic and had an apartment in Manhattan, although the girls were largely brought up in Havana. They started singing in their teens, working on radio in Cuba styled as a Cuban version of The Andrews Sisters. They moved with their mother to Miami in 1942, where they were seen by an agent who booked them into New York’s Copacabana, and as proteges of Carmen Miranda, they became a popular cabaret act, making early records in 1952 with Tito Puente, although their recording career did not really get under way until they signed to the Abbott label in 1954. This great-value 59-track 2-CD set comprises selected A & B sides from their releases on the Tico, Abbott, RCA, ABC-Paramount and Capitol labels from this era, plus the titles from their Capitol albums “The De Castros Sing” and “Rockin’ Beat”. It features all their career chart entries, including the US No. 2 “Teach Me Tonight”. They were a talented and sophisticated close-harmony vocal group, with their style and repertoire naturally very much influenced by their Latin roots, and this selection of their recordings during what was the primary era of their career offers an entertaining showcase for their highly distinctive talent.