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Artist
Lawrence Welk
12+ albums
Lawrence Welkinstrumentaleasy listeningpop60s
about
Lawrence Welk (March 11, 1903 – May 17, 1992) was a musician, accordion player, bandleader, and television impresario, hosting "The Lawrence Welk Show" from 1951 to 1982. His style came to be known to his large number of radio, television, and live-performance fans as "champagne music." He is a 1961 inductee of North Dakota's Roughrider Award. Contents [hide] Lawrence was born in Strasburg, North Dakota, as one of nine children to Catholic, German-speaking immigrants from the French portion of Alsace-Lorraine, via Odessa, Ukraine. The family lived on a homestead outside of town, which today still stands as a tourist attraction. The first year they lived there, they spent the cold South Dakota winter underneath an upturned wagon covered in sod.[citation needed] Never intent on being a farmer, Welk became interested in a career in music, convincing his father to purchase a mail-order accordion for $400. He made a promise to his father that he would continue to work on the farm until he turned twenty-one; in exchange, he would work on the farm and any money he made working elsewhere, whether doing formwork or putting on a show, would go to his family. Welk didn't learn English until he was 21 because he always spoke German at home. To the day he died, he spoke with a noticeable German accent. When he was asked about his ancestry, he replied always with "Alsace-Lorraine, Germany"; this is explained in his autobiography, entitled "Wunnerful, Wunnerful!" On his twenty-first bir
top songs
albums
16 Most Requested Songs
The World's Finest Music
The Best Of Lawrence Welk
The Lawrence Welk Collection: Lawrence Welk & His Champagne Music 1938-62
My Best (Remastered)
Lawrence Welk Swings
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Looking Back (feat. Johnny Desmond)
Christmas Memories
Into the Fifties
22 Great Songs for Dancing
The Essential Lawrence Welk
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It's Christmas Time