His primary band picked up the “champagne” moniker during a stand in Pennsylvania with a member of the audience alluding the “bubbling” reference. He started off with bands “The Hotsy Totsy Boys” and “The Honolulu Fruit Gum Orchestra” (wow!!). Welk was born in March of 1903 in Strasburg, North Dakota the son of Ukraine immigrants. And his “Calcutta” titled long play was a monster success remaining at the number one spot for 11 weeks.Īs a Welk post note – I enjoyed his band’s theme song “Champagne Time” which was released in the fall of 1956 as a single “B”side (“A”side “Around the World”) neither side charting. Lawrence Welk was a very popular band leader, especially via his national weekly television show and his power lie with long play albums, having placed 42 of them on the charts and landing in the top 10 twenty times. Surrounding the release of “Calcutta” were several departure efforts from Welk’s trademark “champagne” music with “Last Date”, “Theme from My Three Sons”, “Riders in the Sky” and even a version of “Runaway”! The song was the first hit record for Sue Thompson who’s version came out a few weeks earlier reaching number 5. The Lennon Sisters would only chart one additional time with 1961’s “Sad Movies (Always Make Me Cry)” reaching number 53. The group began recording on Coral Records in 1956 and made a dent on the charts in 1956 when their version of “Tonight You Belong to Me” competed with darling little Patience and Prudence who’s version reached number 4 – with the Lennon’s peaking at 15. The girls came from a Los Angeles family of 11 siblings.įirst a quartet, Peggy, Dianne, Janet and Kathy – they became a trio for four years when Dianne departed after getting married. Impressed, he booked them on the spot for a show appearance where they continued on until 1968. Larry brought them to his home where they performed for Lawrence who was in bed ill. Lawrence Welks’ son, Larry Welk met a young girl in high school who was part of a singing quartet along with three of her sisters.
Burgess became a solid member of the Welk family when he married band member Myron Floren’s daughter Kristin in 1971 a marriage which continues today! Welk’s ‘Other Teens’ Found a great video of the young couple performing their winning entry and making their Lawrence Welk debut:īobby had a nice long run with Lawrence Welk from 1961 until ’67 with Barbara and then all the way to 1982 with Cissy King and then Elaine Balden. Dancing the “Calcutta” with Bobby and BarbaraĪ reference was made on Wiki stating that former Mouseteer Bobby Burgess and his dancing partner Barbara Boylan created a dance to the tune of “Calcutta” – and sure enough – the couple entered a Lawrence Welk “Calcutta Dance Contest” and not only finished first place but became fixtures on the popular show. Frank Scott was the musician on both harpsichord and piano on the recorded version). These were effectively combined with a bouncy cadence including had clapping, and a chorus of female “la la’s”.
Some of the more noted by Paul and Lee were “Tracy” and “When Julie Comes Around” by the Cuff Links (they wrote almost exclusively for the group) – They also contributed several novelty songs for the studio creation “The Detergents”.Ī key element in the success of Welk’s strictly instrumental version was the lively harpsichord accompaniment with a dual accordion thrown in (had to have an accordion if you were with Welk). The song originally was accompanied by lyrics – one set composed in German and a parallel set composed by American writers Paul Vance and Lee Pockriss – a team who composed hundreds of songs together.
The author was a German, Heino Gaze who composed the song in 1958 as “Tivoli Melody”. Welk had entered the pop charts prior to “Calcutta” 15 times, and would after 10 additional times but none of his tunes would match the bounce of this – by far his biggest commercial success. Pop Go the Champagne Bubbles! Lawrence Welk and Calcutta!Ĭalcutta was Welk’s shining moment on the Billboard Charts – rising all the way to the number 1 spot in early 1961 entering the charts in December of 1960.