Lawrence Welk

“Why don’t you just go home and listen to Lawrence Welk?” That was the best way to insult someone’s taste in music. Lawrence Welk, the textbook definition of “square.”

He had that show on every Saturday night. I never sat down to watch it, but it would be playing in the background – “Wunnerful,” and “and now, the Lennon Sisters.” Turns out, though, that not only did Welk have 19 top 100 singles between 1956 and 1965, one of them even went to number 1. This album, which is called Greatest Hits, was released on Quality Records in the 80s in Canada, licensed from Dot, and does a very poor job of representing his hits, including only 2. I don’t know why they didn’t just get a copy of Whitburn…

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Lawrence Welk:

• Moon River – He couldn’t very well claim to be MOR if he didn’t do Moon River. Harpsichord.
• Calcutta – This went to number 1 in the winter of 1961. Not too many people remember, and I don’t know how often it gets played on oldies radio, but number 1 is number 1.
• Canadian Sunset – A cover of the Hugo Winterhalter hit.
• Love Is Blue – A cover of the Paul Mauriat hit.
• Bubbles In The Wine – Lawrence Welk in character.
• Last Date – From the winter of 60 / 61. A cover of the Floyd Cramer / Skeeter Davis hit.
• Somewhere My Love – A cover of the Ray Conniff Singers hit, which was an adaptation of the theme from Dr. Zhivago.
• The Sound Of Music – A cover of the theme from the movie.
• Champagne Time