"America’s Polka King," Frankie Yankovic, was born on this day in 1915. He was born to Slovene parents and grew up in the Collinwood neighborhood on Cleveland’s East Side. He released over 200 recordings in his career and was the first recipient of the Grammy in the Polka category. Here’s his recording of the popular polka "Who Stole The Kishka?" (A kishka is a sausage popular in central and eastern Europe.)
I probably danced to this in one of the Polish weddings I went to. It was fun to listen to
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Funny thing: my sister-in-law, who’s Polish, says that the polka’s not really a Polish dance, but any time I’ve been to a Polish wedding, they’ve done it…
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I used to do traditional Hungarian dance (I’m not Hungarian but good friends of mine were). This definitely is reminiscent of the music we used to dance to.
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A lot of Eastern European music sounds similar, and many of the dances are also similar.
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ah, back in the day…not only could I dance but I could even polka
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I couldn’t do either…
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OK, that was worth putting the headphones on. 🙂 My parents loved to dance, and the polka was their favorite. When a friend of theirs would play in the bars up north, Mom and Dad and some of their friends would go with him and dance the night away.
Me, I have two left feet.
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I’m like an elephant with a broken leg…
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I think I remember watching people (adults when I was a child) actually dance to that song.
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If you have any Eastern Europeans in your family or know anyone whose people come from there, I’m sure you have. I’m like an elephant with a broken leg on the dance floor, which means I sit safely off to the side and watch the people who know what they’re doing. I’ve learned the hard way that you can get killed if you get in a polka couple’s way…
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