Album Notes

From the age of 9 Frankie Yankovic showed an intense curiosity and natural talent for the button box. He would spend years practacing and refining his skills on the smaller accordian before his mother would finally buy him his first piano accordion. The rest is history. This album is dedicated to those early years on the button box. He would later go on to become a famed entertainer and road warrior tirelessly touring the country. Yankovic took his band on the road, playing a relentless schedule, as many as 325 nights annually. The constant touring and hectic lifestyle led many band members to quit.

By the 1990s, polka music had plummeted in popularity, yet Yankovic was still playing up to 200 shows a year. He was very charismatic, and his personality connected well with his audiences.

His family moved to Cleveland, Ohio, when he was 5 years old. His family ran a boarding house, and Slovenian boarders taught Frankie how to play the accordion. When he was a teenager, he played at dances for five dollars a night.

He served in World War II and fought in the Battle of the Bulge. After the war, he recorded a country song, "Just Because", in polka style, and sold a million copies. He invited other, more skilled accordionists to join his band, "Frankie Yankovic and the Yanks". In 1948, the Yanks played for an audience of 8,000 people in Milwaukee, and Frankie became known as America's Polka King.