Lawrence welk bubbles in the wine
‘Calcutta’ clocks in at a compact 2:13, with a melodic and rhythmic drive that would not alienate parents even as it attracted their kids. I can’t describe the appeal of “Calcutta” any better than I did in 2011: “The song features a harpsichord, a unique sound that gets a listener’s attention. His best year was 1956, when he hit the Top 20 three times, all with covers: “Moritat,” “Poor People of Paris,” and “Tonight You Belong to Me.” His biggest hit was yet to come, however: “Calcutta” hit #1 in a couple of cities before the end of 1960, racked up more local #1s in January 1961, and finally reached the top of the Billboard Hot 100 for two weeks in February.
At about this time, he began visiting the pop charts again.
#LAWRENCE WELK BUBBLES IN THE WINE TV#
(The song had been a bigger hit earlier in the year for singer Spade Cooley, thus establishing Welk’s rep as a cover act.)Īfter Welk relocated to Los Angeles, he started appearing on local TV in 1951, going national in 1955. Welk’s biggest hits in this period came in 19: “Don’t Sweetheart Me,” which was not in the “champagne” style at all, spent 20 weeks on the Billboard chart in 1944 and got as high as #2 in 1945, the country song “Shame on You,” recorded with Red Foley, went to #1 on what Billboard then called the “Juke Box Folk” chart. Welk also recorded a number of “soundies”-early music videos-during the 1940s. (His theme song to the end of his career was “Bubbles in the Wine,” which became a modest hit in 1939.) During the 40s, his band was especially popular in the Midwest, and they played regular, extended engagements at big-city hotels, including a 10-year residency at a ballroom in Chicago.
At some point in the 30s, Welk nicknamed his style “champagne music,” light and bubbly with a steady beat for dancing. In those days, his band was known as a “sweet” band, a term that distinguished bands playing pop music from “hot” bands that played jazz. You might be surprised to learn that Welk scored his first hit songs as far back as 1938. Neither is he remembered for hit records, although had a few. So when the history of pop music on television is written, that history focuses on the shows that featured rock music.” Which is why, I went on to say, Lawrence Welk doesn’t get the recognition he deserves for what is now, in 2019, nearly 70 years on television. Me, 2011: “History is written by the winners. (Pictured: a late-period shot of Lawrence Welk.