The Lawrence Welk Show: Celery Stalks At Midnight

[harvey1954]

A Welk needed to do was to "take A train" up to Sugar Hill.

[mooaks1]

Welk was always considered "square" when all of the big bands were going full swing 30s through late fiftys when clubs could no longer support them paying scale.

Even Welk was affected by the decline. When he landed his TV contract to produce what the people wanted, and that was memories of "back in the day", he had the pick of the litter so to speak. Good pay, steady employment and outstanding sidemen. As I said that was not always the case. Welk could swing finally.

[dlg935s]

The guys in the Welk band were some of the finest jazz musicians. The "trouble" was that Welk knew his audience. He wasn't interested in making "good" music per se...he was interested in serving up what his customers wanted, which, by and large, was the more corny sort of dance music that midwesterners liked in the 1940s-1960s (or 70s). That makes him an astute businessman and is probably what landed him a show to begin with.

[BeeHold]

Thems ah some hep cats

[dancebandleader]

This version is sensational. Lawrence should have recorded more stuff

like this commercially. Hey proprietors of the Welk shows, how about

a soundtrack CD of some of these swinging tunes??

[whenaman]

You GO... Larry!! :)

[OldMrMemories]

Wow! They did an excellent job. Did you see Welk rockin out? I'll bet he didn't realize that songs title refers to "pot". Hey Lawrence,turn off the bubble machine!