♫ Greatest All-Time Cleveland-Style Polka and Waltz Hit ♫

2001 GREATEST ALL-TIME HIT SONG

Inducted 2001 

“MOZART’S POLKA”

Composer: George Staiduhar,

 Hit Recording:
“Polkas By George”
Peppermint Records TCS-PR-5004
Best of Harry Faint PR-5004
1990
Time: 2:20  

Other Recordings:
Steve Meisner
Walter Ostanek
Lynn Marie Rink
Gary Seibert
Fred Ziwich 

Key:  D, G, Ab

Musicians on Hit Recording:

George Staiduhar, accordion
Harry Faint, drums
John Zipay, saxophone
Bob McGuire, guitar and banjo
Gary Fisher, bass

George Staiduhar is an extraordinary accordion player who studied classical music and practiced scales to master the accordon keyboard.  He wrote Mozart’s Polka in 1974, but did not record the song until 1989.  The tune reflects his classical training.  The melody line recalls an overture George once played, but is not based on a Mozart theme.  He gave the polka the Mozart title because he liked the sound of it and the composer.  George played Mozart’s Polka on a regular basis on jobs as a member of the Harry Faint Revue.  Two accordionists, Walter Ostanek and Hank Thunander, picked up on the song, and began playing it in the 1980s.  Fred Ziwich played and recorded the song, but out of deference to George did not release it immediately..  Mozart’s Polka was released in 1990, with George’s fancy-fingering, on a Harry Faint Revue album, “Polkas By George,” on the Peppermint Records label.  The song was later included on a compact disc, “The Best of Harry Faint.”   The tune caught on with polka fans, and in the year 2000, in its first year of eligibility was nominated for a Greatest All-Time Hit Song” by Polka Hall members.

George said, “The song did not have the impact at first, it was too new.  Now it is our signature song.“