- Was a talented pianist despite having lost a finger in a childhood accident.
- He was mentioned in the Melody Maker readers poll in 1960 although he no longer topped the list.
- Of his jazz records only the Kenny Baker Dozen recordings and one track from the Melody Maker's All-Stars are now available on CD.
- As well as conducting many film scores he also wrote several of his own and is most remembered for his music for the movie Daleks' Invasion Earth 2150 A.D. (1966), based on the television series Doctor Who and starring Peter Cushing.
- In 1980, the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors awarded him its Gold Badge of Merit.
- Aged 11, he was awarded the Victoria Medal for his piano proficiency by the Victoria College, Glasgow. He found it difficult and decided to stop playing until it was suggested by friends and colleagues that he tried playing dance music which was new to him.
- In October 1952, he got his big break when the BBC formed their own 'Show Band' run by Cyril Stapleton.
- McGuffie was a featured artist on regular BBC broadcasts and developed a big public following, which led to a recording contract and he was voted in top place in the Melody Maker readers' poll for three years (1953, 1954 and 1955). This led to him appearing in the early Esquire jazz poll winners records and in May 1955 he recorded with trumpeter Kenny Baker's Dozen, although he was not a fully fledged jazz pianist.
- He made a limited number of records which were 'jazz tinged' and a big band record with a number of prominent jazz musicians under his own name, but bigger success came with his light music and his "with strings" albums.
- He made many other records with no jazz content at all.
- He won an Ivor Novello Award in 1960 for his composition "Sweet September",[1] and a Song Writers' Guild Badge of Merit in 1980.
- He started a charity in aid of autistic children called The Niner Club, relating to his lost finger.
- He also worked extensively with bandleader Joe Loss who featured McGuffie in his band for four years.
- He was a British pianist, who went on to become a film composer and conductor.
- In 1944, aged 17, he moved to London from Glasgow and began a career in 1946 playing in the Teddy Foster Orchestra at the Lyceum.
- McGuiffie continued to work regularly up until 1983, and the onset of cancer, from which he died four years later in 1987.
- After three years studying the piano he had an accident as a child which caused the loss of his second finger of his right hand.[Despite the accident, he started playing again and modified his technique to cope with the handicap.
- He went on to record a large number of 'middle of the road' LPs in the 1970s and performed on many occasions with Benny Goodman outfits when Goodman toured in Europe. He can be heard playing with the Benny Goodman Sextet recorded live in Copenhagen in 1972.
- He also provided the music for The Challenge (1960), The Leather Boys (1964), The Comedy Man (1964), Corruption (1968), the cult horror film The Asphyx (1973), and The Cherry Picker (1974).
- He made several television appearances, most notably in Softly, Softly as a pub pianist.
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