Will Glahé (February 12, 1902 – November 21, 1989) was a German

accordion Accordions (from 19th-century German language, German ', from '—"musical chord, concord of sounds") are a family of box-shaped musical instruments of the bellows-driven free reed aerophone type (producing sound as air flows past a Reed (mou ...

ist, composer, and

bandleader A bandleader is the leader of a music group such as a dance band, rock or pop band or jazz quartet. The term is most commonly used with a group that plays popular music as a small combo or a big band, such as one which plays jazz, blues, rhyth ...

. Glahé was born at

Elberfeld Elberfeld is a municipal subdivision of the Germany, German city of Wuppertal; it was an independent town until 1929. History The first official mentioning of the geographic area on the banks of today's Wupper River as "''elverfelde''" was ...

, Germany. In the 1930s, he was, along with Heinz Munsonius and Albert Vossen, one of the most successful accordionists in Germany. He led his own orchestra from 1932 and became successful particularly in

popular music Popular music is music with wide appeal that is typically distributed to large audiences through the music industry. These forms and styles can be enjoyed and performed by people with little or no musical training.Popular Music. (2015). ''Fun ...

. One of his most famous songs in Germany was his 1936 recording of "Rosamunde" (a German female forename), a cover version of the song "Škoda lásky" ("Wasted Love") by Jaromir Vejvoda. Under the title "

Beer Barrel Polka "Beer Barrel Polka", originally in Czech , also known as "The Barrel Polka", "Roll Out the Barrel", or "Rosamunde", is a 1927 polka composed by Czech musician Jaromír Vejvoda. Lyrics were added in 1934, subsequently gaining worldwide popularit ...

", the tune hit No. 1 on the Hit Parade in the United States in 1939. It sold over one million copies by 1943, and was awarded a

gold disc Music recording certification is a system of certifying that a music recording has shipped, sold, or streamed a certain number of units. The threshold quantity varies by type (such as album, single, music video) and by nation or territory (see ...

by the

RIAA The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is a trade organization that represents the music recording industry in the United States. Its members consist of record labels and distributors that the RIAA says "create, manufacture, and/o ...

. After

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

he was known as the "Polka King" in the U.S., and did both

big band A big band or jazz orchestra is a type of musical ensemble of jazz music that usually consists of ten or more musicians with four sections: saxophones, trumpets, trombones, and a rhythm section. Big bands originated during the early 1910s and ...

and

folk music Folk music is a music genre that includes #Traditional folk music, traditional folk music and the Contemporary folk music, contemporary genre that evolved from the former during the 20th-century folk revival. Some types of folk music may be ca ...

arrangements with his orchestra. His "

Liechtensteiner Polka "Liechtensteiner Polka" is a song written by Edmund Kötscher and Rudi Lindt and performed by Will Glahé and His Orchestra. It reached #16 on the U.S. pop chart and #11 in Canada in 1957. Other charting versions * Lawrence Welk and His Orche ...

" was also a hit in

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

, reaching No. 11, and the U.S., hitting No. 16 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 in 1957. The follow-up single "Sweet Elizabeth" (1958) appeared in all major U.S. charts, nearing the top 40 in Cashbox and Music Vendor. He had some success with "The Cuckoo Waltz" by Swede E. I. Jonasson in 1969, and the song is now used widely, in the Alice in Wonderland dark ride at

Blackpool Pleasure Beach Pleasure Beach Resort, best known by its former name Blackpool Pleasure Beach, is an amusement park situated on Blackpool's South Shore, in the county of Lancashire, North West England. The park was founded in 1896 by A. W. G. Bean and his p ...

and in

Efteling Efteling () is a fantasy-themed amusement park in Kaatsheuvel, the Netherlands. The attractions reflect elements from ancient European myths and legends, fairy tales, fables, and folklore. The park was opened on May 31, 1952. It evolved from a ...

, Holland. His album, ''Oktoberfest'' peaked at number 53 in Australia in 1973. He died at

Rheinbreitbach Rheinbreitbach is a municipality in the district of Neuwied, in north of Rhineland-Palatinate, bordering North Rhine-Westphalia in Germany. Administratively it belongs to the municipality (''Verbandsgemeinde'') of Unkel. The town is an officially ...

References

Bibliography

Joel Whitburn Joel Carver Whitburn (November 29, 1939 – June 14, 2022) was an American author and music historian, responsible for setting up the Record Research, Inc. series of books on record chart placings. Early life Joel Carver Whitburn was born in W ...

, ''The Billboard Book of Top 40 Hits''. 7th edn, 2000, p. 265. *

Elijah Wald Elijah Wald (born 1959) is an American folk blues guitarist, music journalist, and a blues, pop, and cultural music historian. He is a 2002 Grammy Award winner for his liner notes to ''The Arhoolie Records 40th Anniversary Box: The Journey o ...

, ''How the Beatles Destroyed Rock & Roll''. Oxford, 2009, ch. 10 & 11. 1902 births 1989 deaths German accordionists Polka musicians RCA Victor artists London Records artists 20th-century German musicians 20th-century accordionists {{Germany-musician-stub