Customer Reviews

Frankie Yankovic - Greatest Polka Hits

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From his 1940s heyday until the late 1960s, Frankie Yankovic was with Columbia records. Then, from 1968 to 1970, he recorded five albums with RCA. This CD contains 23 of the 44 tracks originally released on the first four of these five LPs. It's good stuff, and it's recent enough so that the sound is decent. The five tracks (3,7,13,16,22) from the first LP, Polka Variety, do not sound quite as good as the others, and two or three of the five seem to have been "enhanced" with a little extra reverb. RCA has chosen to include mostly the polkas, rather than the waltzes, from these vinyl classics. This is unfortunate, because in some ways the waltzes Frankie recorded during this "between-heydeys" period were actually superior to the polkas. I hope RCA will produce a Volume 2 of this CD, including all the remaining titles from these LPs, especially Beautiful Rose, St Bernard Waltz, LeeAnn Waltz, Those Were the Days, and Chip on Your Shoulder. Then, perhaps at a reduced price, there could be a Volume 3, an exact re-release of Frankie's fifth RCA vinyl, Polka Time, which for some reason is not represented on this CD at all. The current CD, which includes some very nice liner notes summarizing his life and 1998 funeral, makes me yearn for more, and yearn for the best.

Whether you like accordion (like myself) or polka music this collection is worth checking out, especially if you've never heard of (rather unlikely) or do not own any Frank Yankovic music. I bought this album originally for my father, who is an accordion player, but listened to the whole CD myself first. And then I bought one for myself. For one thing, this is a master accordionist, then the sound quality is very good, the number of songs is impressive (23 - some 'best of' albums will only give you half of that or less), and it's hard to find a bad one among them, although for some reason I usually skip over 'Ten Swedes' one minute into the song. Collectors may not be particularly impressed because Yankovic, unlike another distinguished accordion player Joey Miskulin, had fortunately released a ton of his music and they may already own some of the tracks from different recording sessions, but for myself this is a very attractive CD, and for this price (I picked it up elsewhere for $5) is nearly impossible to pass up.

As a side note, if you like this album and like accordion music, there are also other accordion artists worth checking out, such as Yankovic's good friend Walter Ostanek of Ontario, Canada. They were both of Slovenian descent and represent a similar style of playing, though Ostanek did not do any singing. And then there was Myron Floren, of course. Slovenia, Ostanek and Yankovic's ancestral homeland, has a number of outstanding artists, such as Lojze Slak, who plays a button accordion and whose melodies are simple and very pleasant to the ear, as well as Slavko Avsenik with his son and band, whose style is more regional and who is very, very popular in his home country and in Austria. Speaking of Austria, the Tirol region has its own style of accordion music, very lively like polka (which they also play) and very agreeable, and a large number of truly exceptional artists, such as Christa Behnke (this lady is un-be-lie-va-ble) and awesome bands such as Die Jungen Zillertaler and Die Grubertaler, 3 young guys who are absolute joy to listen to. Most of these performers can be found on Amazon (too bad there's not a trace of Branimir Djokic, a true master of the very distinct Serbian style). You should listen to samples or download an .mp3 song to see if you like it first, of course.

These mostly Polish songs come from a long time ago and must have been originally on 78's. The combination of titles was pleasing and the quality of the recording is great. It's nice to have rebirths of old hits.