[accordion music]
- Pee Wee King's real name was Frank Kuczynski.
He was a Polish boy from Abrams, Wisconsin.
His instrument, the accordion, reflected his
Midwestern heritage, but in the 1930s, he organized a band
called the Golden West Cowboys.
He toured for a while with the
Hollywood singing cowboy Gene Autry.
He added a touch of the West to the business, and in 1948,
along with his lead singer Redd Stewart,
he wrote a song that made country music
and popular music history;
this was "The Tennessee Waltz."
* ...and the Tennessee Waltz
* Now I know just how much...
It was an international hit
and an example of the crossover phenomenon
that later dominated the music world,
the movement of one genre of music into another.
[ending vocal note]