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Music 🎵 It's Sunday, so it must be POLKA TIME! Bra ha ha!

Dan

Dan

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When I was growing up in Buffalo, on Sunday many radio stations changed their format for the day, and played nothing but polka music. Even to this day, several radio stations continue the Sunday polka tradition, if only for a few hours.

Meanwhile, in Cleveland, on Sunday some radio stations play polkas and oompa-like German and Eastern European ethnic music during certain blocks of time throughout the day. A station might play a couple hours of Polish polkas, then a couple hours of Czech oompa music, then Slovenian oompoa music, German oompa music, and so on.

What are the origins of the many Sunday polka shows? Are they common in other cities? What about outside of the Great Lakes region? Why Sunday?
 
Tipperary Hill in Syracuse NY is dangerously close to the Polish neighborhood so alot of the funeral parties we would go to as kids would have a polka going at some point :b::8:

and I remember a radio station playing polkas all day - my Dad loved it, that music made him laugh :)
 
I don't know about polka on the radio, but Utica, NY had a pretty slammin' polka scene back in the day when my grandparents were still alive..
 
I grew up on the west coast which is a pretty polka free time except for Oktoberfest time. I think polka culture is mostly found in the NE and the states surrounding the Great Lakes, presumably because that's where many Poles settled when they came here. If I had to hazard a guess as to why Sunday was the day for the polka radio shows it's probably because it was the only day off most people had off in common, it was after church, and families were usually together en mass.

Side note: I think that mariachi music is polka music with Spanish lyrics. :D
 
I seem to recall listening to a radio station in Grand Rapids that switched to Polish polka music format on Xmas day back in the early 70's.

Moderator note:

Given the highly controversial nature of this thread I'm forwarning you all that we'll shut this thread down in a heartbeat the first sign that it starts descending into a Polish polka vs German polka music trash talk thread! Keep the animosity to a minimum please! So far so good....:-@
 
Has any every notice the similarities between German Polka tunes and the Music that Mariachi Bands Play?
 
craines said:
Has any every notice the similarities between German Polka tunes and the Music that Mariachi Bands Play?
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Purely in the interest of accuracy, that's Norteño music that you referring to, not Mariachi. Norteño began in Texas as a result of the influx of primarily German and Czech immigrants who brought polka, the accordian, the tuba, etc. with them.

From Wikipedia:
Mariachi is a type of musical group, originally from Jalisco, in Mexico. Usually a mariachi consists of at least two violins, two trumpets, one Mexican guitar, one vihuela (a high-pitched, five-string guitar) and one guitarrón (a small-scaled acoustic bass). They dress in silver studded charro outfits with wide-brimmed hats.
Click to expand...
 
ofos said:
Purely in the interest of accuracy, that's Norteño music that you referring to, not Mariachi. Norteño began in Texas as a result of the influx of primarily German and Czech immigrants who brought polka, the accordion, the tuba, etc. with them. ...
Click to expand...
That's right! New Braunfels (TX) is one such community.

Now I'm wishing I'd traveled to see my brother in Houston for the holiday. The music's great. The food is great. (The liquor big box stores with product sampling at every endcap are not. Ditto the traffic and land uses.)

[there's a sousaphone in my basement]
 
In my youth- the roaring 80's- I crashed a wedding in Utica NY and ended up with the Polish dance troupe that had been hired as the entertainment. Performed with them and then we broke out & started polka-ing with all the guests. Quite the experience.
 
ah yes...sunday polka on upstate radio... was common in Binghamton when I lived there as well.
 
Growing up in Southeast Michigan in the 1980s, I believe I recall a polka TV show that may have aired on CBC. It was basically people playing polka music and other people dancing to it.

My dad seemed to enjoy it. :-|
 
Growing up in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, we had "Czech Party!" on Sunday mornings featuring Ned Netolicky and his All Stars, and guest starring the World Famous Boddicker School of Music All Girl Accordion Band.

As I remember it, Czech music and Polka sounded pretty much the same.
 
Gee Dan, I bet you didn't play polkas loud on Sundays when you lived next to The Town Next Door. hehehe... those darn mullet guys in their pickups woulda probably thought you were an alien... or a terrorist...:-D
 
The driftless area of SW Wisconsin, where few radio stations come in clearly, used to be a polka haven.
 
Sunday only? Hartford, WI still has a full time polka station to this day. I used to be interviewed on it weekly. My grandparents were SO pround.
 
Dan said:
.....
What are the origins of the many Sunday polka shows? Are they common in other cities? What about outside of the Great Lakes region? Why Sunday?
Click to expand...

…..The polka was originally a Czech peasant dance, developed in Eastern Bohemia (now part of Czechoslovakia). Bohemian historians believe that the polka was invented by a peasant girl (Anna Slezak, in Labska Tynice in 1834) one Sunday for her amusement…..
Click to expand...

:)
More info here,
:-D

http://www.centralhome.com/ballroomcountry/polka.htm
 
We still have Sunday Morning Polka in Albany, NY. It totally hypes me up before my sunday morning road races. :D

Rob's family is Polish, the polka is a staple towards the end of the evening at family weddings.
 
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