Greatest Polka Hits

 (3 customer reviews)

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,...Read more

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)...Read more

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.