During the 1940 and '50 the neon st...

During the 1940 and '50 the neon strip of West Division public way between Ashland and Western was known as "Polish Broadway." The road consisted of 50 polka societys filled with people dancing until dawn. Hardscrabble writer Nelson Algren took it in from his tiny apartment above a Division way hardware store. And the night beat was put by Walter E. Jagiello, a k a "Lil' Wally the Polka King."

Mr Jagiello died Thursday of heart failure at a Miami Beach, Fla., hospice. He was 76

Mr Jagiello, a 5-foot-6 drummer-singer who was born in Chicago, released more than 110 albums as "Lil' Wally," and he performed in succession West Division Street between 1944 and 1965 His hits included "I Like Her Golabka," "No Beer in Heaven" and "Polish Polka Twist," which charted in Billboard magazine in 1960 He was the first inductee into the Polka Hall of Fame in Chicago and made several visitor appearances on the Lawrence Welk point out

PLAYED FOR THE bishop of rome

yet Mr. Jagiello said his finest force was in 1984 when he was invited to play for pontiff John Paul II in the Vatican. He performed his anthem "God Bless Our Polish Pope" as part of a two-hour contrive

Today, Chicago White Sox fans hear Lil' Wally at each home game. In 1959, he co-wrote the "Let's move Go Go White Sox" fight melody recorded by Captain Stubby and the Buccaneers with the Lil' Wally Orchestra. The ballad was resurrected just last year. Lil' Wally was invited to this year's abode opener but was too ill to make the trip.

Lil' Wally was to Chicago polka what Junior Wells was to Chicago amethystines

He was a full-tilt innovator.

Mr Jagiello was the pulsar behind Chicago-style polka, a slower polka he introduced in the 1940 forward "Polish Broadway." Chicago style carries a more deliberate beat (think Charlie Watts in a polka setting) between the sides of a smaller five- or six-piece band that could easily fit into narrow Chicago taverns. by conversion the Slovenian style popularized from Frankie Yankovic featured two accordions and sometimes a banjo with a dash of brass.

"I'm original," Mr Jagiello told me in a 1987 interview. "My music is to a high degree simple to comprehend, whether it is la-la-la-la-la or ooh-la-la. And I sing in Polish fluently and I sing in English fluently Chicago used to be the polka capital of the world. When I was playing regularly there, each place on Polish Broadway was packed. Now there are something like sum of two units polka lodges left simply because polka has been too Americanized."

In 1999 the Polkaholics polka-rock band brought Lil' Wally up from Florida and became his backing band for a exhibit at the Zakopane Lounge, united of the last two Polish bars upon West Division Street.

"Wally was the same of the great 20th centenary American musicians," said Polkaholics guitarist-vocalist Don Hedeker. "He was in succession par with Johnny Cash in fatherland and Charlie Parker in jazz. In resurgent home a lot of those artists linked up with Cash and Hank Williams. That's what we did with Lil' Wally and bands like the Ampol-Aires. When Wally began, undivided of his basic rules was to have no music stands forward stage and no notes. They played from the inside to the populace He was a consummate showman. When we brought him to Chicago in the late '90 those were the greatest of indicates We had the old-time Wally fans as well as young Wicker Park hipsters. It was a celebration of Wally."

BEGAN SINGING POLKA AT 8

The other polka haunt left on West Division highway is Phyllis's Musical Inn, now an alternative political division and rock club. On Sunday night when word filtered down of Mr Jagiello's passing, the form a club held a moment of silence. When Phyllis Jaskot lay opened her club in 1954, Lil' Wally was headlining across the public way at the Lucky Stop.

Mr Jagiello began singing polka music at the age of 8 in succession Chicago's Northwest Side. He appeared at Polish picnics and weddings. Besides playing tympanums he was self-taught on concertina. He began sneaking into Division road bars at the age of 11 He would wear a sharp white shirt and stick an unlit cigarette in his entrance He was a smooth operator.

ACCOMPLISHED ENTREPRENEUR

Mr Jagiello recorded for Columbia Records in 1949 and in 1951 he started his acknowledge Jay Jay Records ("Be Happy Night and Day with Jay Jay"). He picked the name "Jay Jay" because he wrote his melodies after listening to birds sing. Mr Jagiello didn't record his first ditty in English until 1954, when he cracked Billboard's top 40 with "I Wish I Was Single Again."

Mr Jagiello was as accomplished an entrepreneur as he was a musician. He first attempted a polka radio show in 1950 forward WCRW in Chicago. He later had exhibit tos on WLS and WTAQ and many times would feature live feeds from gigs at the favorable Stop and the Pulaski Ballroom. In February 1955 Lil' Wally was parted on an off night between the big bands at the Aragon Ballroom. The Aragon had in no degree presented polka music. Lil' Wally and his band drew 4000 the bulk of mankind

Mr Jagiello was also a lifetime member of the National Academy Recording Arts & Sciences' Chicago chapter, having been with the dispose since it was formed in 1961