I may have had a microphone malfunction. Volume up!
Bonus material
This week’s Polka Time with DJ Shotski episode will feature a request from Shotski Lodge member Dale who wanted to hear “Teach Me How to Yodel.” The suggestion sent me down a DEEP rabbit hole to find videos of the time Mickey Mouse Club members Annette Funicello and Sammy Ogg visited a dairy farm in Wisconsin and learned how to yodel from New Glarus’ Ernst (Red) Zentner [corrected here, thanks to a message from a listener and Lodge reader - thanks Ed!] and the Edelweiss Stars.
First, learn the lyrics to this week’s featured song.
Teach Me How to Yodel
To sing like the Swiss do by the hillside
You need neither girl nor boy
All you need is a mambo-jumbo windpipe
And a great big barrel full of joy
Just go 1-2-3-4
[yodel]
Try again, once again
You can’t miss, sing like Swiss
Let ‘er go, oh-li-oh
See you’re singing like a Swiss Caruso now!
Just go 1-2-3-4
[yodel]
Will you teach me how to yodel
My cute little mountain boy?
Will you teach me how to yodel
And fill my heart with joy?
Just go 1-2-3-4
[yodel]
Disney’s “Adventures in Dairyland” — “Teach me How to Yodel,” Edelweiss Stars, 1956
Because of the magic of the internet, the Mickey Mouse Club Presents: Adventures in Dairyland episodes are available on YouTube. Filmed on location in Mt. Vernon near Verona, WI in 1956, the American Dairy Association worked with the Walt Disney Company to inspire young people to take up dairy farming. Find more information through the New Glarus Public Library (PDF) and the Verona Area Historical Society.
It’s a lot of very sweet 1950s fun complete with vintage fashion and even more vintage gender and parenting roles.
I watched the whole thing (so you don’t have to) and found all the good parts to fast forward to.
21:57-24:01, native-born Swiss singer Ernst Zentner (character name Pauli) yodels while bringing in a herd of cows.
34:14-34:47 Zentner does another yodel while the kids take a tractor ride and learn how hopefully totally not at all toxic alfalfa crop dusting works. If you want to know what Sammy means by a “drop the hanky party,” it’s kind of like Duck, Duck, Goose (or Duck, Duck, Grey Duck if you’re from Minnesota).
58:22 - barn dance!
1:00:33 - Alphorns!
1:01:55-1:05:19 - Edelweiss Stars sing!
1:18:45 - Zentner and the kids do a short reprise of their song.
1:20:40 - Mickey Mouse Club on TV with Swiss-inspired song and dance.
1:22:50 - The Mousekateers do their own reprise of “Teach Me How to Yodel.”
Mickey Mouse Club Swiss music episode
At the end of “Adventures in Dairyland,” the McCandless family gathers to watch an episode of the Mickey Mouse Club where the mouseketeers do an “Edelweiss Polka” and learn to yodel from actress Roberta Shore who also starred in Disney’s “The Shaggy Dog.” Here is the full Mickey Mouse Club as it aired during the show’s second season on ABC in 1956.
Yodeling 101
Do you really want to learn how to yodel? I’m a fan of singer Cassidy Rose Graves who has lots of tutorials on YouTube.
One more Disney yodel
Remember when the seven dwarfs partied with Snow White to a yodel song? It’s pretty cute to see all the accordion and yodel action in this clip (despite a brief Asian caricature that modern audiences will find cringey).
Polka Time: Where and when to listen
LIVE - January 12 new-to-me records plus a Teach Me How to Yodel sing-a-long
Sunday, 7 p.m. - WVMO-FM 98.7 Monona
Streaming - Rebroadcast of last week’s show
Saturday, 8 a.m. - WHYS-FM 96.3 Eau Claire - support WHYS
Saturday, 3 p.m. - WRJQ Goodtime Radio - support WRJQ
Saturday, 6 p.m. - WPCA-FM 93.1 Amery - support WPCA
Saturday, 7 p.m. - WVMO-FM 98.7 Monona - support WVMO
Sunday, 7 a.m. - WOJB-FM 88.9 Hayward - support WOJB
Sunday, 8 a.m. - WILW-FM 96.3 Waupaca
Sunday, 9 a.m. - WOCT-FM 101.9 Oshkosh
Sunday, 4 p.m. - WLSP-FM 103.5 Sun Prairie - support SPMC
Thanks to these community and volunteer-powered stations for keeping vintage polka on the air waves.
Events
January 11 — Puzzlepalooza: Madison Public Library’s jigsaw puzzle contest
You think you like my polka? Wait until you hear my selection of groovy, jazzy, funky easy listening tunes. Event will be from 10 a.m. - 1 p.m. with teams setting up at 9:30 a.m.
Registration is FULL but there is a waitlist for participants and you’re welcome to pop in to check out the scene. To be added to the Puzzlepalooza waitlist, email community@madisonpubliclibrary.org.
Saturday, February 22 — Polka Dance Party at the Grumpy Old Men Winter Festival, Wabasha, MN
If John Gustafson and Max Goldman are your vibe, you will love this dance party at the annual Grumpy Old Men festival in Wabasha, Minnesota. DJ Shotski will team up with Twin Cities dance instructor Miss Shannon to share an all-Minnesota polka music set and teach people how to dance the polka. Dancing shoes and buffalo plaid encouraged.
Find the dance at The Transfer Building, 128 W 2nd St, Wabasha, MN from 3-6 p.m. on Saturday, February 22.
Readers like you keep the Shotski Lodge open
The Shotski Lodge is a reader-supported publication. Support from subscribers like you gives me the confidence to pursue my mission to get more people to listen to vintage polka and vinyl records, including through this free e-newsletter.
Become a Shotski Lodge member - Substack offers paid subscriptions for people who want to be patrons of the Lodge’s mission.
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Hire me for a gig! - your community needs a polka party. Email me at djshotski@gmail.com if you have a venue or an event that needs a vinyl DJ.
Donate records - the answer to free records is always “yes,” though I’m backed up on processing donated records at the moment, but I hope to be caught up by spring 2025. Email me at djshotski@gmail.com with a description of what you have to share.