It may or may not be true that Lawrence Welk is the most popular easy listening artist of all time, but it's difficult to think of anyone who is more prominently associated with the genre. Welk's long-running TV variety show was a huge success in its time, and remains an enduring favorite in reruns. And while Welk recorded prolifically, his true... [+] Read More

It may or may not be true that Lawrence Welk is the most popular easy listening artist of all time, but it's difficult to think of anyone who is more prominently associated with the genre. Welk's long-running TV variety show was a huge success in its time, and remains an enduring favorite in reruns. And while Welk recorded prolifically, his true musical legacy was built through the doggedly innocuous, wholesome aesthetic of his show. He was an unlikely television star -- his thick German accent and on-camera stiffness would have been crippling liabilities for many other hosts. Yet Welk was beloved in spite of -- or, perhaps, because of -- those limitations, mainly because he knew his audience and paid close attention to what it wanted. In the process, he created a stable of familiar performers whose regular appearances were eagerly anticipated by his viewers. Demanding and particular, Welk put them through rigorous rehearsals, and aggressively enforced the inoffensive, nonthreatening tone that made the show so palatable for viewers of all ages. For people who considered themselves remotely hip, that tone made Welk's name synonymous with sanitized entertainment, and an easy target for derision. He and his acts were often dismissed as hopelessly square, by turns fluffy or sentimental, and reflecting an idealized purity that didn't really exist anywhere. He also drew criticism for the extreme scarcity of minority performers on the show, seemingly another symptom of its kowtowing to white-bread Middle America. Yet that essential conservatism helped give The Lawrence Welk Show an amazingly lasting appeal; after it lost its network slot, it spent more than a decade in syndication with greater success than ever, and found new life when its reruns became the chief source of revenue for many public television stations across the country.

Welk was born on March 11, 1903, in the small, heavily German town of Strasburg, ND. His parents had fled the unrest in Alsace-Lorraine, the disputed border region between Germany and France, and settled on a small farm on the outskirts of town. One of eight children, Welk dropped out of school in the fourth grade to work on the farm, and spoke almost nothing but German up until his teen years. He learned to play polka music on his father's accordion, and at age 13, he began performing professionally at local dances and social events. Four years later, he convinced his father to buy him his own accordion; in exchange, he promised to work on the farm until he was 21, and to give all his musical earnings to the family up to that point.

Upon turning 21, Welk took up music full-time, playing in various polka and vaudeville-style bands around the area. He eventually formed his own quartet, the Lawrence Welk Novelty Orchestra, and in 1927 decided to head south to New Orleans in search of work. On the way, the group stopped in Yankton, SD, and was offered a one-week deal to perform on local radio; they were such a success that they were signed to a permanent contract. Welk's band stayed headquartered in Yankton for the next ten years, playing both locally and all over the Midwest; they went through several name changes, including the Hotsy Totsy Boys, the Honolulu Fruit Gum Orchestra, and the Biggest Little Band in America.

In 1937, Welk moved the group to Omaha, and it soon grew into a ten-piece outfit, playing swinging dance music in the so-called "sweet band" style. A 1938 gig at the William Penn Hotel in Pittsburgh prompted one fan to compare Welk's light, bubbly music to champagne, and Welk adopted the tag from then on, describing his sound as "champagne music." In 1940, at the height of the big-band era, Welk secured a booking for his group at the Trianon Ballroom in Chicago; it proved such a success that Welk moved his family to Chicago and wound up with a ten-year residency there. The waning popularity of big bands subsequently forced Welk to go back on tour to make ends meet. In 1951, he made a successful appearance on a late-night TV show in Los Angeles. The idea of working in television captured his imagination, and led him to move to L.A. the following year.

The Lawrence Welk Show made its national debut in 1955 as a midseason replacement on ABC. Over the next few years, it amassed enough of a following to become one of the network's most popular shows, making catch phrases out of Welk's oft-repeated "wunnerful, wunnerful" and "ah-one and-a two." Its trademark visual style was built around low-budget cardboard props, bright pastel colors, and bubble-blowing machines. Welk played the roles of host and bandleader, populating his play list with pleasant arrangements of well-established standards and pop hits. The emphasis was always on songs his audience would already recognize, though he and musical director George Cates did showcase comic novelty songs and the polka music Welk had grown up with as well. Welk built up a solid base of recurring featured performers, the best known of which included accordionist/assistant conductor Myron Floren, ragtime pianist Jo Ann Castle, singing group the Lennon Sisters, Dixieland clarinetist Pete Fountain, Irish-style singer Joe Feeney, tap dancer Arthur Duncan (the show's lone African-American regular), dancer and former Mouseketeer Bobby Burgess (who went through a succession of female dance partners), and a featured female singer dubbed the Champagne Lady.

Welk established his reputation as a hard-nosed disciplinarian early on. He never allowed comedians to appear on the show, for fear of an off-color joke slipping through, and he refused alcohol and cigarette products as sponsors. In 1959, he fired the first Champagne Lady, Alice Lon, for displaying too much leg during a telecast. Irate viewers wrote in to protest the firing, and Welk tried to hire her back, but she would have none of it; her replacement was Norma Zimmer, who remained with the show for quite some time. Burgess' female dance partners were subject to the same kinds of whims, and Fountain -- arguably the most talented regular -- reportedly left over what Welk felt was an inappropriately jazzed-up Christmas song. More problematic for some modern-day viewers might be the show's watered-down handling of ethnicity; while not really offensive for its time, some of the ethnic theme shows would be considered embarrassing by today's standards, and dancer Duncan's mannerisms came in for criticism as the civil rights era dawned.

Meanwhile, Welk had been managing a productive career as a recording artist. He had released records in his early days, but naturally he hit a whole new plateau once he had the power of television behind him. Between 1956 and 1963, 19 of Welk's LPs reached the Top 20, and ten of those made the Top Ten. Welk achieved his greatest popularity on record with the Dot label during the early '60s, spearheaded by the smash instrumental hit "Calcutta," which became his only number one -- and, for that matter, Top Ten -- single in 1961. The accompanying LP of the same name also reached number one, and five more albums -- Last Date, Yellow Bird, Moon River, Young World, and Baby Elephant Walk and Theme From the Brothers Grimm -- climbed into the Top Ten over the next two years. Although Welk never equaled that run of success, he continued to chart albums on a regular basis up through 1973.

In 1971, ABC canceled The Lawrence Welk Show, feeling that its target audience was growing too old to appeal to advertisers. Welk quickly secured a syndication deal that placed his show on over 200 stations around the country, and kept right on producing it up through 1982. As the '70s wore on, many of the old performers retired or moved on, to be replaced by similar acts that essentially followed the show's long-established blueprint. But even if there were fewer individual standouts, the show still filled an audience niche that otherwise went largely ignored. Following his retirement in 1982, Welk settled in Santa Monica, CA, and soon established a combination resort/retirement community, the Lawrence Welk Country Club Village, in Escondido. He also acquired a vast music publishing catalog, as well as other real estate holdings.

Starting in 1987, some public television stations began airing reruns of The Lawrence Welk Show, to the delight of an elderly viewing base. As the '90s wore on, public TV came to rely more and more on The Lawrence Welk Show as a staple moneymaker during pledge drives, thus ensuring its continued availability and popularity well after Welk's passing: he died of pneumonia on May 17, 1992. The band he once led continued to perform at the Champagne Music Theater in Branson, MO. ~ Steve Huey, All Music Guide [-] Hide

Applying the polka and world-music dance treatment to a most unlikely song lineup ("People Are Strange," "Sixteen Tons," "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida," "O Holy Night"), Brave Combo formed in the late '70s in the small Texas hometown of vocalist and guitarist Carl Finch, recorded three albums for the self-owned Four Dots label, and later moved to Rounder.... [+] Read More

Applying the polka and world-music dance treatment to a most unlikely song lineup ("People Are Strange," "Sixteen Tons," "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida," "O Holy Night"), Brave Combo formed in the late '70s in the small Texas hometown of vocalist and guitarist Carl Finch, recorded three albums for the self-owned Four Dots label, and later moved to Rounder. The group's line-up, though constantly shifting, began to coalesce around Finch, horn player Jeffrey Barnes, bassist Bubba Hernandez, and either Mitch Marine or Joseph Cripps on percussion. After signing with Rounder in the late '80s, Brave Combo released the 1987 compilation Musical Varieties before recording nine albums with the label by the mid-'90s. The group also backed up pop figure Tiny Tim on his last collection of songs, 1996's Girl. Polkasonic followed three years later, and in the spring of 2000 Brave Combo resurfaced with Process. After recording a live album for Cleveland International (Kick-Ass Polkas, 2001), in 2003 they returned to Rounder for Box of Ghosts, a collection of Classical themes dressed up Brave Combo Style. ~ John Bush, All Music Guide [-] Hide

Clarinetist, saxophonist, singer, and bandleader Jimmy Sturr is easily one of the most popular modern-day polka practitioners, with more than 100 albums to his credit since the 1960s. After extensive touring and recording, Sturr came into his own during the '80s and '90s, dominating the Grammy Awards' Best Polka Album honors and setting a record... [+] Read More

Clarinetist, saxophonist, singer, and bandleader Jimmy Sturr is easily one of the most popular modern-day polka practitioners, with more than 100 albums to his credit since the 1960s. After extensive touring and recording, Sturr came into his own during the '80s and '90s, dominating the Grammy Awards' Best Polka Album honors and setting a record for the most consecutive nominations in any category. Looking beyond the standard outlets for polka music (Polish ethnic clubs, weddings, etc.), Sturr's brand of polka aimed for greater mainstream appeal, and borrowed from pop, rock, big-band swing, country, Tex-Mex, and Cajun music. Despite successful appearances on Saturday Night Live and the Grand Ole Opry, plus a number of high-profile collaborators (chiefly from the world of country music), not everyone praised Sturr's success; polka purists often accused him of watering down the music's unpretentious ethnic roots, and disliked the Vegas-style showmanship of his live act. Nonetheless, Sturr's eclectic hybrids led polka into the new millennium, by which point he was arguably the music's best-known ambassador.

Sturr was born in the upstate village of Florida, NY, circa 1941 or 1942 (he habitually shaved a decade off his age in interviews). Although he came from Irish stock, he was absorbed into the town's strongly Polish-American culture from a young age, attending polka dances regularly and watching his hero Myron Floren on The Lawrence Welk Show. He took up the clarinet and began performing locally at age 13, and won a music scholarship to the Valley Forge Military Academy. After college at the University of Scranton, during which he continued to perform with his group on a part-time basis, Sturr returned to the polka circuit, and spent most of the '60s performing and recording. He formed his own label, Starr Records, in 1969, and subsequently started a number of other area business ventures, including a polka artists' management firm, a music publishing company, a travel agency, and a radio station. He continued to record steadily during the '70s, always billed as Jimmy Sturr and His Orchestra, and offered a distinctly Americanized take on polka, with vocals mostly in English and an eye on popular trends (such as his 1979 double-LP experiment Polka Disco). Also in 1979, Sturr hired lead singer/saxophonist Johnny Karas, who would become an important component of the orchestra's later success.

Sturr began to achieve wider recognition in the mid-'80s, shortly after the Grammys introduced a new category for Best Polka Album in 1985. In 1986, Sturr won the second-ever award for his album I Remember Warsaw, which kicked off a run of six consecutive wins over 1986-1991; his subsequent winners were Polka Just for Me, Born to Polka, All in My Love for You, When It's Polka Time at Your House, and Live at Gilley's. By this time, Sturr was recording for the folk-oriented Vanguard label; he was also touring extensively behind his albums, playing numerous casinos, cruises, festivals, and similar venues all around the country. In the early '90s, Sturr switched over to the roots label Rounder, and returned to Grammy prominence with 1995's award-winning I Love to Polka. It inaugurated another string of four straight Grammy-winning albums, which thanks to Rounder's greater resources featured an array of high-profile guests. Avowed fan Willie Nelson appeared on 1996's Polka! All the Time, as did Cajun accordionist Jo-El Sonnier; 1997's Living on Polka Time featured Tex-Mex accordion legend Flaco Jimenez (who would appear on several more Sturr releases) and country singer Bill Anderson; 1998's Dance With Me, officially Sturr's 100th album, had contributions from the Oak Ridge Boys. Underlining his increasing connection to country music, Sturr made a successful appearance at the Grand Ole Opry, making him the first polka artist to do so; he also played Carnegie Hall and the Lincoln Center in New York, and traveled to Warsaw, Poland, for a well-received show at the Palace of Culture. He was inducted into the Polka Music Hall of Fame, and in 1998, he even bought Billy Ray Cyrus' old tour bus.

Sturr kicked off the new millennium by resuming his Grammy dominance. 2000's Touched by a Polka had prominent showcases for country veteran Mel Tillis; 2001's Gone Polka welcomed back Willie Nelson, as well as Brenda Lee; 2002's Top of the World featured folk legend Arlo Guthrie and bluegrass singer Rhonda Vincent, who supplied lead vocals on the title Carpenters cover. All three albums won Grammys, giving Sturr 13 in all. 2003's Let's Polka 'Round continued the parade of guest stars with banjo virtuoso Béla Fleck, saxman Boots Randolph, and Charlie Daniels. He took on a bevy of rock & roll oldies in 2004 with Rock 'N Polka, followed by more of the same on 2005's Shake, Rattle and Polka! In 2006, Sturr released a live album as well as the themed studio album Polka in Paradise. ~ Steve Huey, All Music Guide [-] Hide

America's undisputed Polka King, Frankie Yankovic did more to popularize polka music than any other single performer, and remains the yardstick by which all other polka artists are measured. Yankovic was the first polka artist to score a million-selling single (1948's "Just Because"), the first to perform on television, and the first to win a... [+] Read More

America's undisputed Polka King, Frankie Yankovic did more to popularize polka music than any other single performer, and remains the yardstick by which all other polka artists are measured. Yankovic was the first polka artist to score a million-selling single (1948's "Just Because"), the first to perform on television, and the first to win a Grammy for Best Polka Album when the category was created in 1985. Singing mostly in English, Yankovic modernized the folk-dance music of Central and Eastern Europe for American audiences, giving it an appeal that extended beyond the immigrant communities who kept it alive. His brand of polka had a bouncier beat than the traditional, brass-heavy "oom-pah" style, partly because he favored lighter, leaner arrangements that often included banjo, electric organ, and two accordions. Where most accordion players remained seated on-stage, burdened by a heavy and somewhat cumbersome instrument, the energetic Yankovic played for hours on end standing up and bouncing along to the music. His cheerful stage presence was a perfect match for the genial informality and liveliness of polka music, and audiences connected readily with him. Yankovic's best-known songs are standards of the genre, and his name is still more associated with polka than any other musician. And no, he isn't related to Weird Al.

Yankovic was born July 28, 1915, in the small logging settlement of Davis, WV, home to many recent Slovenian immigrants (among them his parents). When local authorities discovered that Yankovic's father was bootlegging liquor, the family abruptly moved to Cleveland. Mr. Yankovic worked as a crane operator and later opened a hardware store, as well as running a boarding house for fellow Slovenians. One of his boarders was an accordion player named Max Zelodec, who greatly impressed young Frankie. At age nine, he began taking lessons from Zelodec on the button accordion, and switched to the more challenging piano accordion at 16. He soon formed his own polka band, and in 1932 started making regular appearances on a local Slovenian radio show, which greatly raised his profile in the area. In 1938, having been rejected by both Columbia and RCA, Yankovic put out a 78 rpm record on his own Yankee label, billed to the Slovene Folk Orchestra (in case it flopped). It was a local hit, however, prompting another self-released and self-distributed follow-up in 1939.

Yankovic's group was in high demand all over Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Michigan, playing at clubs, weddings, and other social events. In 1941, he opened his own bar, which allowed his band to play near home and spend more time with their families; it also became a haven for area polka musicians. Yankovic enlisted in 1943, and cut some records while on leave, prior to his departure for Europe. He fought in the Battle of the Bulge, where a severe case of frostbite nearly resulted in the amputation of his hands and feet; fortunately, he was able to beat the gangrene before that became necessary, and was awarded a Purple Heart. Upon arriving home, he returned to his bar and his band; Johnny Pecon became an important member of the group, singing harmony with Yankovic and playing harmony accordion as well.

Columbia reconsidered its earlier rejection and signed Yankovic to a contract in 1946. In 1948, he was first crowned America's Polka King at a contest in Milwaukee. That year, he scored a major national hit with "Just Because," a gold-selling cover of a relatively obscure country song recorded in the mid-'30s by the Shelton Brothers. The follow-up, "Blue Skirt Waltz," was another big seller in 1949, adapted from a Bohemian folk melody with English lyrics by Mitchell Parish. Yankovic brought his band to Hollywood in the early '50s, where they recorded with Doris Day and made several short films for Universal showcasing their stage act. Yankovic continued to record for Columbia through the '50s and most of the '60s, waxing many of the genre's best-known songs: "Beer Barrel Polka," "Who Stole the Keeshka?," "Too Fat Polka," "Hoop De Doo," "Champagne Taste and a Beer Bankroll," "In Heaven There Is No Beer," and many others. His band, the Yanks, became a revolving-door affair, as life on the road -- traveling by car to as many as 300 gigs a year -- usually wore down the musicians after a few years, not to mention keeping them away from their families.

During his heyday, Yankovic won a battle of the bands against Duke Ellington in Milwaukee, and hosted polka variety shows that aired in Cleveland, Chicago, and Buffalo during the early '60s. He struck gold in 1962 when he hired 13-year-old Chicago accordion prodigy Joey Miskulin, who quickly became a cornerstone of the band; Miskulin later moved into songwriting, arranging, and producing for them as well, and remained with Yankovic for the rest of his career. After two decades with Columbia, Yankovic moved to RCA in 1968, and later went on to record for a succession of smaller labels. He published his autobiography in 1977, and his 1985 album 70 Years of Hits won the first-ever Grammy in the polka category; he was also the first artist inducted into the Polka Music Hall of Fame.

Reluctantly forced by his age to sit down when he performed, Yankovic announced his retirement in 1994, but backtracked and kept performing for three more years, including a tour with acclaimed polka newcomer Walter Ostanek. He also continued to record for the Cleveland International label, which in 1996 released the well-publicized album Songs of the Polka King, Vol. 1. It featured several special guests, from Weird Al Yankovic and Cleveland comedian Drew Carey to country stalwarts Chet Atkins, Cowboy Jack Clement, and Riders in the Sky, on a set of Yankovic standards. 1997's Vol. 2 follow-up featured Clement, David Allan Coe, and Don Everly, among others; both volumes were nominated for Grammys. Unfortunately, Yankovic's health was failing, and in 1998 he suffered a fall at his home in New Port Richey, FL, near Tampa; several days later, on October 14, he passed away. ~ Steve Huey, All Music Guide [-] Hide

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What's Willie Nelson doing on a polka CD? Having so much fun you probably won't recognize him wrapping his voice around a trio of songs with Jimmy Sturr's Florida-based whopper of a polka band. In addition to Willie's guest shot on the pun-driven "Big Ball's in Cowtown," and Bob Wills' "All Night Long," and the traditional "Tavern in the Town,"... [+] Read More

What's Willie Nelson doing on a polka CD? Having so much fun you probably won't recognize him wrapping his voice around a trio of songs with Jimmy Sturr's Florida-based whopper of a polka band. In addition to Willie's guest shot on the pun-driven "Big Ball's in Cowtown," and Bob Wills' "All Night Long," and the traditional "Tavern in the Town," Sturr's band does the Cajun two-step with guest accordionist Jo-El Sonnier, shines with classic vocal group The Jordanaires, and even does Polish with a hilarious version of rock songwriters Chapman and Chinn's "Alice." All this goes to prove not only that polka is the quintessential American music embracing every genre in its reach, but that it's also more fun than a barrel of beer. ~ Bob Tarte, All Music Guide [-] Hide

Featuring all of his best-known numbers, Greatest Hits offers a solid introduction to the master of the accordion, Frankie Yankovic. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide

Featuring all of his best-known numbers, Greatest Hits offers a solid introduction to the master of the accordion, Frankie Yankovic. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide [-] Hide

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Though it's far from a comprehensive collection, Lawrence Welk's 16 Most Requested Songs contains most of the bandleader's best-known songs, presented in top-notch versions. It's a good way to get acquainted with his laid-back style. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide

Though it's far from a comprehensive collection, Lawrence Welk's 16 Most Requested Songs contains most of the bandleader's best-known songs, presented in top-notch versions. It's a good way to get acquainted with his laid-back style. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide [-] Hide