The Best Of Frankie Yankovic

Album review

Frankie Yankovic holds nearly every accolade bestowed on a polka artist, from recording its first million-seller in 1948 to winning its first Grammy award in 1985 -- 37 years later. His band, led by a double-accordion attack (another first), breathed fire into the polka during the '40s, just as Bob Wills and company sparked the birth of Western swing a decade later. Yankovic's blend of tight playing and light material thrilled audiences for decades, and the band even went Hollywood (briefly), backing Doris Day on a bright "You Are My Sunshine" from 1950 (included here). At 14 tracks, The Best of Frankie Yankovic isn't an exhaustive compilation, but Columbia/Legacy treats listeners to the cream of Yankovic's decades-long career, beginning with that 1948 million-seller, "Just Because." Most of the recordings come from the seven years after the initial splash of "Just Because," but the compilation closes with Yankovic's best-loved later hit, "Who Stole the Keeshka," from 1963. Other collections will include more songs than this one, but none will carry greater material or be easier to find.

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