LAWRENCE WELK; "A Musical Anthology" (Ranwood Records-Welk Music Group). * * *
For Americans from the Big Band era through much of the TV generation, smiling, good-natured Lawrence Welk embodied popular music. And for many of us, his "musical family" was virtually kin. We watched the talented Lennon sisters grow up before our eyes and marveled at the skills of a huge cast of musicians and dancers.Welk's recent death hasn't silenced his music. Myron Floren still leads a Welk orchestra on tour, stations like Utah's KBYU broadcast the TV programs of another day, and now Ranwood Records-Welk Music Group has pulled together a decade-hopping boxed set featuring 69 songs.
Welk, born in Strasburg, N.D., of German-Russian parentage in 1903, began playing polkas and waltzes for dances as a teen, formed his first small band in 1924 and by 1940 was ensconced in Chicago's Trianon ballroom. But his greatest fame came with TV, and this anthology basically represents that recorded legacy, spanning the years between 1957 and 1981.
We hear the familiar fanfare, the announcement "Ladies and gentlemen, the big-band sound of Lawrence Welk and his musical family," and the trademark "Bubbles in the Wine" . . . the Lennons, Floren, Jo Ann Castle, Guy & Ralna, Joe Feeney, Pete Fountain, Buddy Merrill . . . "Tea for Two," "Blue Danube Waltz," "Clarinet Polka" and of course "Calcutta," the No. 1 hit from 1960-61.
It's difficult to deny that there's a certain homogenization of all American popular music in the Welk sound. But there's also a lightfooted lift and an appreciation of variety - waltzes, ballads, inspirational numbers, country, pop, big band and even, on occasion, lush orchestrations a la Percy Faith and Mantovani.
This collection is doubly nostalgic, with performances now 20 and 30 years old of songs that were, as a rule, even then echoes of another time. For those who appreciate that "champagne" sound, "Lawrence Welk: A Musical Anthology" is an enjoyable, and remarkably varied, substitute for an all-Welk radio station.
For information about this recording and "Lawrence Welk Show" videos, write to Welk Music Group, 1299 Ocean Ave., Suite 800, Santa Monica, CA 90401-1095, or call 1-800-788-2400.