The Vadnals

The Vadnals were a polka band from Cleveland, Ohio, made up of the Vadnal brothers. They are on Muzika-Balkan under Slovenia because they were American Slovenes: Slovenian Wikipedia calls them exactly that, English Wikipedia describes the brothers as Slovene immigrants, and their home stage was the Slovenian Workmen's Home in Cleveland. They played the Slovenian-style polka of Cleveland and sang in Slovenian as well as in English.

The family band was led by Johnny Vadnal, with his brothers Tony and Frank and their sister Valeria, as the Vadnal Quartet. Frank Vadnal, born in Cleveland on 24 July 1921, was already playing with the Vadnal Reveliers at the Great Lakes Exposition in 1937. He turned original Slovenian lyrics into English and wrote "String-a-Ling" and "Happy Guitar".

The Vadnals toured Ohio, Michigan and Illinois regularly and went as far as Europe, Mexico and Hawaii. They were heard on the Mutual radio network in the 1950s, and from 1949 to 1961 they were on Cleveland television, on WEWS, in Vadnal's Polka Parade, Polka Varieties and the Old Dutch Polka Review.

Under Richie Vadnal the band recorded as Richie Vadnal's Orchestra, with albums such as V Is for Vadnal, Here's Cheers, Polka-Re Polka-Ra, Vadnals in Europe, Green Valley and Polka Your Troubles Away. In Slovenia the label Helidon released their LPs Ta glažek je prazen, V soboto zvečer, Stara ljubezen and Pozdrav domačemu kraju. In the 1970s and 1980s they were popular among Slovenes in the old country too, and they played several times at the emigrant gatherings held in Slovenia. Their best-known songs are "Ta glažek je prazen", "No Beer Today" and "Oj, volodje morja".

Frank Vadnal was inducted into the Cleveland-Style Polka Hall of Fame in 1993. He died on 29 May 1995 at Seven Springs, Pennsylvania, while appearing at the polka festival there. In 2010 Kravos Recordings released Full Circle, credited to Richie Vadnal and the Vadnal Brothers. The playlist is the album Polka-Re Polka-Ra by Richie Vadnal's Orchestra. For more Cleveland-style polka, see Frankie Yankovic and Walter Ostanek.