Skeets Herfurt

Yeah, I know he looks like Captain Kangaroo.....

but admit it, he knows how to play the saxophone very well!

Skeets Herfurt

True Blue

And now.....a look at some of the Music Makers that wore blue on the show

Tom Netherton

Skeets Herfurt

Myron Floren

Norma Zimmer and Jimmy Roberts

True Blue

Jimmy McHugh

Hope your Sunday morning is a good one so far, UT lost a double overtime heartbreaker to Fresno State (...if you're gonna go for two, run it in!)....but that's another story.

In the meantime, my local PBS completed it's two weeks of pledge drives to bring Welk again, this week it's a salute to the music of Jimmy McHugh!

Here are some of the highlights.

The ladies here are singing "I Feel A Song Coming On".....

Skeets Herfurt playing "On The Sunny Side Of The Street" on the sax.....

Jimmy Roberts, with Bob Smale at the piano, singing "I Can't Believe You're In Love With Me".....

Anacani with the Maestro doing things the "South American Way"

And here's some of our singers with "A Lovely Way To Spend An Evening"

That's all folks! Next week is another classic, the ABC Finale from 1971, should be a good one.

Jimmy McHugh

Skeets Herfurt

Here's saxophone player Skeets Herfurt, a member of the Welk orchestra from 1979 to 1982.

He's played with a Whos Who of musical greats such as Frank DeVol, Nelson Riddle plus Jimmy and Tommy Dorsey just to name a few. But how about this for irony....in 1939 he and his University of Denver student band were booked at the Broadmoor Country Club in Denver for an engagement when at the last minute, were replaced at the last minute by another popular band from North Dakota!

Who's that band....Lawrence Welk and his Champagne Music Makers!

Forty years later, the Maestro hires him as it's star saxophone player in the reeds section....funny how things work out.

Skeets Herfurt

Those Swingin' Reeds

You've always wondered where the Champagne Music Makers get that wunnerful "swing?" Lets check out one of the reasons why....I give you the Welk orchestra's Reed and Woodwind section, decade by decade!

First, let us start with the fifties.....

Left to Right: Bill Page, Orie Amodeo, Russ Klein, Jack Martin and Dick Dale.

And now we move on to the sixties....

Left to Right: Bob Davis, Orie Amodeo, Russ Klein, Mahlon Clark and Dick Dale

And now here's the boys from the seventies!

Left to Right: Dick Dale, Russ Klein, Dave Edwards, Bob Davis and Peanuts Hucko

And finally, welcome to the eighties....

Left to Right: Henry Cuesta, Bob Davis, Skeets Herfert, Russ Klein and Dick Dale.

No matter what the decade, that champagne music remains the same....swingin' and sparkly!

Those Swingin' Reeds