polish/polka songbooks

[jro...@optonline.net]

to everybody interested in the words, music and translations of
polish polka songs, the following books should be of interest to you.
the first two, especially the book by h. pawlowska, can be found in
many public libraries ( especially in areas where many people of polish
descent live) and university libraries.
1. merrily we sing: 105 polish folk songs ( polish words, english
translations and notes) by harriet pawlowska
2. treasured polish songs (352 pages) by the polanie club of
minneapolis, minnesota ---can be bought online from the polonia
bookstore in chicago as well as from other sources. (incidentally, it
may well be possible to buy these books used on line).

3. the l'il wally songbooks ( very low cost --and these contain the
polish words ( not notes or english transations ) of hundreds of songs
recorded by l'il wally. these can be obtained from jay jay records in
miami ---google jay jay records/myspace (!?) to order from jay jay.

4. in bigger university libraries, the full kolberg polish folk song
collection (containing thousands of folk songs with polish words and
music) can be consulted. an excellent record featuring songs from the
kolberg collection was produced by a group of buffalo musicians a few
years ago --this "kolberg sampler" featured playing and vocals by
leading buffalo-area polish-american musicians, including scrubby and ,
if i remember correctly, also mark komar, who participates in this
newsgroup.the song texts are included in the album

5. belaire records also released a versatones songbook in the 60's
which contained the words of most of the early versatones numbers.
questions about this should be directed to belaire/chicago or eddie
blazonczyk.

6. there are also numerous polish songbooks published in paperback
form, which can be bought in (european) polish neighborhoods such as
greenpoint brooklyn,chicago, etc. These do not contain english
translations

7. finally, numerous older polka recordings featured the words of songs
in inserts or on the back of the album covers: the main labels which
did this were dyno ( some of the marion lush albums and also those of
other artists; chet schaefer's chicago polkas label (pala brothers and
others) ; rex ( first several happy louie albums) , as well as several
older gene wisniewski albums...and last --but far from least--texts are
also enclosed in the johln jaworski/chet kowalkowski album polish
mountaineer-flavored songs praised by many in this newsgroup.

I hope that this information will be of help to all those who wish
to improve their knowledge of the polish songs used in the polka field.
jr

[johnz]

A little addition Joe, Stella records published all the the Connecticut
Twins and Bernie Witkowski songs. Mostly in single sheets, but
theydid some album books, like the Twins Holiday in Poland.

[jro...@optonline.net]

thanks, john---the more the better--i had forgotten that bernie
witkowski's label often enclosed lyrics sheets ---for his albums and
also one of my old favorites, the steve fornek singalong album--and
didn't know at all that they published some books, like the hol. in
poland album.

oh, while we're on the subject, here's another good tip that just
occurred to me for people interested in finding polish and/or polka
related lyrics: the monitor (world music) label lp's usually had lyrics
sheets AND translations, too ---and, in addition to music of many other
nationalities (especially russian and ukrainian), they released lots of
authentic polish material, such as the songs of the polish national
folkloric groups, mazowsze and slask, and other groups, such as the
serban quartet. and the popular polish folk singer bolek. these lp's
can often be found in libraries as well as in old/used record stores.
many of these numbers are in the polka, krakowiak, oberek or waltz
rhythm and are among the most popular numbers in the polish-american
polka repertoire ( the krakowiak, karolinka , szla dzieweczka, pognala
wolki, hej gory, moje gory, karliku, czerwone jabluszko---to name but a
few examples).

[jro...@optonline.net]

i forgot to mention that several l'il wally lp's also included
singalong texts
( the "sing along" albums no. 1 and 3, but not , i believe, no. 2?) .

[jro...@optonline.net]

more (this is a hard subject to exhaust): we shouldn't forget the
ignacy podgorski songbooks (all in polish), published in phila.,pa., i
believe, which contained lots of folksy polka-type lyrics not found
elsewhere. these books were used a lot by many polka bands,
particularly in the east, and in recent years such bands as the boys
from baltimore and the treltones have used this material,too.
these books are probably hard to come by these days but i did see a
copy in the slavic section of the new york,ny public library (42nd st.
research branch) a few years ago. In the worst case, anyone with a
public library card in the u.s. can borrow books such as these, i
think, by arrangement with their local branch from the library of
congress in wash.,dc, which has virtually everything.

[Troy A. Gawlak]

Our band is using that Podgorski book, we're trying to scrape up some of the
older more obscure polkas, waltzes and obereks to keep things interesting...
one can only hear "Pukaj Jasiu" and "Zielona Traweczka" so many times. Even
considering doing the "Nine O'clock Tango" with the old Polish lyrics.

[Thad Seaver]

Thanks for the tip, Joe. I've got 2 books on the way.

Thad

[jro...@optonline.net]

"amen"" regarding pukaj jasiu and zielona traweczka. the 9 o'clock
tango is a perennial polish tango favorite and, for some reason,
almost the only tango ever played by polka bands if they choose to do
one tango at all. interestingly , l'il richard of chicago even
played/recorded it as a polka years ago...some of the other fav.
polish tangos---in case anybody is interested--- are "graj skrzypjku,
graj," cyganskie skzrypeczki, ostatnia niedziela, tango andrusowskie ,
na dancingu ,serce , hania ( apaszem stasiek byl) and the very popular
"marianna"...when we played the last one at the chicopee, ma. polish
vets years ago ( the crowd was probably 70% american born and 30%
polish born) it was always the runaway favorite ---even though we were
essentially a polka band and that was really a polka gig. nice
memories....the above-mentioned can sometimes be bought all together on
one single polish cassette ---and their lyrics can be found in most
polish language songbooks of popular songs ("polonia spiewa",etc.),
several of which are sold (paperbound) in most polish-language
bookstores and online polish-american cultural shops.

[nospam_...@verizon.net]

There were several Li'l Wally song books published, most with Li'l
Wally lyrics to dozens of song, Polish and English vocals.

And, in the Lush years, Maniu sold small Lush lyrics booklets that
directly related to LP releases.

Fortunately, since I'm a packrat, I have these and a few others,
including the Stas and Chet (North Tonawanda NY) song book.

Steve

Steve Litwin
Polka Editor
Polish American Journal Newspaper

www.polamjournal.com

select POLKAS

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[PanGora]

We included all the lyrics in with our last 4 CD releases and our 2006
release will have the same thing. Yes it costs more but I think it's worth
it.
John Gora
www.johngora.com
<jro...@optonline.net> wrote in message
news:1143341690.9...@t31g2000cwb.googlegroups.com...

[jro...@optonline.net]

that's great to know, john---most have stopped doing that and it's a
shame---it's a great service for the people who are interested. it's
nice that you can inform people in this way.that sure influences my
buying decisions. joe r

[UPSTATE POLKAS]

I found the book "Merrily We Sing" on E-bay and just bought it there
for $9.95 and about $3.00 for shipping. Not to bad.

Mark

[jro...@optonline.net]

re: "merrily we sing"for $9.95 (mark k):e-bay is great---as are
abebooks and alibris for books and deepdiscountdvd for
dvds/deepdiscountcd for cd's ... viva el internet!

[actually at nostradamus.net]

I use bookfinder.com for books and gemm.com for music.
--
Read my polka CD reviews, now with even fresher opinions!
http://www.nostradamus.net/polka_page.htm

[pangora]

With our last 4 releases we have printed all the lyrics in our CD
booklet.
Thanks. John Gora
Jim Polaski wrote:
> In article <1143248577.8...@i40g2000cwc.googlegroups.com>,

> When I started taking serious lessons in the early 60's there were several
> places to get books. There were the Podgorski books which my teacher got for me.
> Then I also found the Vitak books, some of which are still out there, and there
> were also the Sajewski books. They also published "Band" arrangements which can
> be found.
>
> Vitak and Sajewski both published individual sheets with the words, and also
> complete arrangement. Johnnie Bomba was a good friend of Vitak's and he recorded
> some of their tunes.
>
> At various times, and you have to watch, some of these books turn up on eBay for
> modest prices and in relatively good condition.
>
> I also think I remember reading somewhere that the widow of the company in
> Philly who published the Podgorski books was still alive, but there was no
> mention of the music/books and what happened to them.
>
> Getting outside of polka's for a moment, there were, at least here in Chicago,
> the "Combo Orks" books which were complete arrangements of ballroom dance stuff
> that bands could use and were modest in price.
>
> --
> Regards,
> JimP
> "The measure of a man is what he will do while
> expecting that he will get nothing in return!"

[S Litwin]

Giving credt where it is much over due, John Gora has always produced
a first class "insert" with each CD. Not only are the lyrics listed,
but you'll find info on the band, the songs, and more, all done in a
first rate quality format.

Steve

On 26 Jul 2006 21:01:17 -0700, "pangora" <jo...@johngora.com> wrote:

>With our last 4 releases we have printed all the lyrics in our CD
>booklet.
>Thanks. John Gora

[mike surratt]

I have provided C-Lead Sheet Music PDF's and lyric pages online for
each of my new songs from The Polka Element.

If anyone would like the links -- please email me.

Mike Surratt
mikz...@aol.com
www.mikesurratt.com

[S Litwin]

On 27 Jul 2006 16:34:14 -0700, "mike surratt" <mikz...@aol.com>
wrote:
The Polka Element is a project that many musicians would not attempt,
but Mike Surratt attacked the challenge and created a product of which
he can be proud. Doing a solo work is never easy. It puts the
performer "alone" on stage, exposed and open to any and all comments.
Surratt deserves praise for his work with The Polka Element."

More coming on this, soon.

Steve

>I have provided C-Lead Sheet Music PDF's and lyric pages online for
>each of my new songs from The Polka Element.
>
>If anyone would like the links -- please email me.
>
>Mike Surratt
>mikz...@aol.com
>www.mikesurratt.com
Steve Litwin
Polka Editor
Polish American Journal Newspaper

www.polamjournal.com
select POLKAS