An excellent rendition of "Secret Love" by the late great Freddy Fender. This hit #1 on the country charts in the US and Canada and was also a top 20 pop hit in several countries in 1975.

I Prefer -
       

One of my old time favourites, reminiscing of my dancing days,  ( lovers rock ) Jackie Edwards - Before The Next Teardrop Falls..

Freddy Fender also had a big hit with that song, singing it in both English and Spanish.

Found this cool instrumental earlier. This was written by Belgian songwriter Jean Kluger and originally recorded by a French easy listening group called the Norman Ruby Orchestra in 1968. This version is from 1969. Dimitri Dourakine was an alias for Belgian bandleader, composer and producer Leo Caerts. There's also versions in English and German ("Love's Song" and "Liebslied jener Sommernacht" by Greek actress/model/singer Daliah Lavi) and an Italian version ("Iptissam" by singer/actress Milva).

Just some nice listening ---

Nice soothing music to calm a cold windy day.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aa_faILW6MQ

An Indian summer is a period of unseasonably warm, dry weather that sometimes occurs in autumn in temperate regions of the northern hemisphere. Several sources describe a true Indian summer as not occurring until after the first frost, or more specifically the first "killing" frost.

Here's one for all the lonely people out there.  The Ink Spots, singing and (talking) about, My Echo, My Shadow, and Me.

This unique arrangement of a couple of Russian songs appeared around 1967 or 1968 and spread like wildfire throughout Europe over the next couple of years, with dozens of versions in various languages as well as instrumental versions. I still haven't quite tracked down the origins, but it's still a fun piece either way.

Another nice arrangement of an old Russian song from the same artist (who was actually Belgian - "Dimitri Dourakine" was just a stage name). This tune is called "Дорогой длинною" ("Dorogoy dinnoyu", literally "The Long Road"). Folk singer Gene Raskin wrote new English lyrics in the early 60s and the song was first recorded by folk group The Limeliters in 1962. Paul McCartney heard the song performed by Raskin and his wife at a club in London and eventually got Mary Hopkin to record the song. Her version was a huge hit and is ultimately what made the melody so well known.

A great rendition of "Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain" from 1946. Elton Britt was fairly popular from the mid 40s through the early 50s and continued recording throughout the 60s. He died in 1972 at the age of 59.

Tonight's weird find - an entire album of polka-style music with a disco beat. Apparently someone actually thought this was a good idea...

To get you in the mood for Thanksgiving Day,

Wasn't Myron Floren part of a very popular TV show? I believe he was part of the Lawrence Welk group. Polkas were a fairly big part of their music. It might be hard to believe but some people like Polka and would buy an LP with all Polka.  It's just like some people liking R&R or C&W.

Quote from: RAMMEL on November 19, 2022, 10:07:16 AMWasn't Myron Floren part of a very popular TV show? I believe he was part of the Lawrence Welk group. Polkas were a fairly big part of their music. It might be hard to believe but some people like Polka and would buy an LP with all Polka.  It's just like some people liking R&R or C&W.

Yes, he was a regular on Lawrence Welk's show. Here's another track from that album. This is a cover of "Paloma Blanca", which was a big hit for Dutch band The George Baker Selection in 1975. This works a little better given that the original was written in the disco era.

I learned to like Polka music!  My husband's mother was born in N.Dakota - home state of Lawrence Welk. Her parents were immigrants from Czechoslovakia.  We went to lots of large family gatherings over the years - weddings, birthdays, Christmas, etc. held in a large rented hall, because there were so many family members here in California.  Always included a Polka band, or at least a couple of accordions.   Everybody got up and danced - even the old folks and the kids.   Still lots of cousins left of AJ's generation, and beyond and they continue on with the parties, but not so big.   The Covid Pandemic put a stop to a lot of the traditions. 

Marilyne and Rammel, I love the Polka music, though not too often and not too much at one time.  Thru our Dish Network, we used to get a channel called RFD-TV and there was a show called Polka Party or Big Joe's Polka Party.  These were always filmed in a very large hall with long tables to the side, and a gigantic dance floor.  "Everybody" danced; very old, very young, some middle-aged "show offs".  Not all of the bands were excellent, but it was terrific fun to watch everyone dance, and some adding fancy footwork and twirls to what I call the standard Polka step sequence.
I remember in High School, during Girl's Gym period, teacher would bring a (what passed then for a boom box)we would have a dance session, and she would play all kinds of music.  Picture this if you will, I was not quite 5 ft. tall at that time, one of my best friends was about 5'10", and we would polka all around that gym floor till we were outta breath. Oh, wonderful memories that flow from something someone says or posts.
Another thing I love to hear is Jewish Klezmer music. I watched a PBS presentation with Itzak Perelman, and he played some Klezmer in a group. Mad fun!

Thanks to Oldiesmann for the Polka tunes that stirred these good memories!

Tomereader -
Stop back in here again. Toss in some of your favorites --- for us to enjoy.

Another unusual polka cover I found today, from 2004. A cover of the Everly Brothers classic "Bye Bye Love", featuring country legend Willie Nelson on vocals.

It's a Blue World - The Four Freshmen

Well, I see that no one particularly liked the Four Freshmen?  They were hugely popular here in California in the mid/late 1950's and early 60's.   Beautiful harmony on all of their recordings.  Besides  "It's a Blue World",  other hits were "Charmaine",  "Graduation Day",  "I Remember You", "Fools Rush in", and many more easy listening songs.

Couldn't find Charmaine --- but found this one

A fun animated video to accompany what is probably the 2nd most famous version of "White Christmas" behind the original. This rendition of the song was released in 1954. The video was created by an animator named Joshua Held in 2007. The video has since received over 7.8 million views.

A brilliant satire of the commercialization of Christmas, written back in 1958. As you can imagine, this caused quite a stir. The label didn't even want to release it at first until Freberg threatened to have it released on another label. When it was released (without any promotion from the label), very few stations played it and there were even reports of DJs being threatened with termination if they played it. Still funny 60+ years later.

Michael - I remember that this Christmas song was a big hit in the Los Angeles area in 1958.  Everything Stan Freberg ever recorded was popular there, because he was from the L.A. area.  I couldn't hear or understand the words on this recording, so I looked them up.   If anyone is interested, here they are on the Genius lyrics site.
https://genius.com/Stan-freberg-green-chri-tma-lyrics 

Stan Freberg was a riot. Here's his other popular holiday record, from 1953. This is the second Dragnet parody that Freberg did (the other being "St. George and the Dragonet")

A fun Italian version of "Jingle Bells" from prominent Italian-American entertainer Lou Monte (best known for "Pepino the Italian Mouse" and "Dominick the Donkey"). He was quite a prolific singer, releasing singles from 1953 all the way until 1981. He died in 1989 at the age of 72. Now if I just knew what the heck he was singing. I'm guessing this is in a dialect of some sort rather than standard Italian.

Michael - It's different!  That's about the best I can say about it.     I do vaguely remember the name Lou Monte, but not the song?  As we get closer to Christmas, I'll post a few of my favorites.   

Lou Monte is best known for "Pepino the Italian Mouse", which hit #5 on the charts in early 1963. He also did "Dominick the Donkey", another Christmas song. He was quite prolific but didn't have any other hits beyond "Pepino".

Here's another fun novelty holiday tune from the 50s. Gayla Peevey was only 10 years old when she recorded this.