DECEMBER 15-21: “The Family Is Central to the Creator’s Plan” PART 1

Come Follow Me Family Proclamation

Family – the most basic organization of society. Always in need. Always in fashion.

What does your family bond over? Sports? Board games? Movies? Because this is a blog about music, it seems fitting to showcase families who have bonded in giving their music to the world. And as it’s Christmas time, I’ll focus on songs of the season. This first part is a tribute to those family bands of decades ago, whose songs we still know.

Like much of the world, I fell in love with the story of the Von Trapp Family Singers. Here is what the real family singers sounded like and why we love their sweet voices.

From 1953, The Christmas Nightingale – The Trapp Family Singers

Most of us know more recent music of the Wilson brothers- known as the Beach Boys. Bee Gees- or brothers Gibb, Smothers Brothers, Pointer Sisters, Jackson 5, Van Halen brothers Eddie and Alex, Everly Brothers, Allman Brothers, the Fogerty brothers of Creedence Clearwater Revival, Selena and her Quintanilla family band. Yeah, we still like their music. Look ’em up again and get some ear candy on!

Let me take you back to 1967 when the Cowsills performed on the Ed Sullivan Show. They would be the inspiration for the fictitious TV Partridge Family, built with actors Shirley Jones and her real-life son David Cassidy.

This is not a Christmas song, but you’ve got to see them in their remarkable early beginnings. The Rain, The Park And Other Things – the Cowsills

This was not the only family band that would become popular from TV variety shows like Ed Sullivan.

In 1992 came this beautiful song. Christmastime (Song 4 Marissa) – The Cowsills

The Pips began in 1952 with siblings Gladys, Merald (Bubba) and Brenda Knight, cousins Eleanor and William Guest. While the Pips members changed over the years, they eventually became known with Gladys as lead, or so I heard it through the grapevine.

As multiple Grammy and American Music Award winners, Gladys Knight & the Pips are inductees into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame^[1] That’s a forever family!

Enjoy this recording from 1975. Do You Hear What I Hear – Gladys Knight & The Pips

As a Utah native I was, of course, invested in our own Osmond family. Able to visit with Merrill Osmond a few years ago, he was marveling on how they still pack in audiences around the world.

Here’s a clip from 1980 Christmas with Osmonds that features all seven of the singers.

Not as well known, but equally talented are a Tongan-American family band from Minnesota. The Jets were composed of siblings LeRoy, Eddie, Eugene, Haini, Rudy, Kathi, Elizabeth, and Moana Wolfgramm. They started performing as a family band in 1977.

This is a recording from 1986. Christmas In My Heart – The Jets

We are family! Wraps us up in 1971 disco/R&B era with Joni, Kim, Debbie, and Kathy Sledge. Like other ‘sister’ groups they went from singing in church in their youth, to performing throughout their home state and worldwide, earning Grammy nominations and awards.

The Sister Sledge legend continues with the addition of another generation through Sledgendary.

2024, Silent Night/Jesus is King – Sister Sledge ft. Sledgendary

And this makes our family bonding games look less impressive. Yet they are not ineffective, for in each of our families, we sing our own kind of music.

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