“The Blue Skirt Waltz” has been the Copper Country Anthem for more than six decades. But the story of how it earned the honor has been obscured over the years.

Brian Juntikka, owner of the Ampol Radio Network, hosts and owns the Polka Time America Radio show. He is also is a music historian, and was a close friend to Frank Yankovic, who released the song “Blue Skirt Waltz.”

The history of the song goes back to 1944, when it was written and copyrighted by Vaclav Blaha in what is now the Czech Republic, said Juntikka. The name of the song originally was “Red Skirt Waltz,” or just “Red Skirt.”

Meanwhile in the U.S., Slovenian-American accordionist and bandleaderFrank Yankovic of Cleveland, began recording polka records in 1938.

In January 1948, Yankovic released “Just Because” and by summer, the single had sold more than a million copies, becoming Yankovic’s – and polka music’s – first platinum record.

In the Copper Country, Yankovic was already well known long before “Just Because” made him popular. The Stimac Brothers’ Croatian Orchestra of Atlantic Mine began buying his records via mail-order in 1938, and playing his music, Juntikka said.

“Taverns in Calumet and South Range had Yankovic records on their jukeboxes as early as 1946,” Juntikka said, “and perhaps earlier.”

At first, Yankovic’s popularity in the Copper Country was partially due to the large population of Slovenian and Croatian people in the area, according to Juntikka, but as other people began hearing his songs on jukeboxes, his popularity increased.

“Starting in 1947, Lodi Mihelich of Calumet began a popular radio program on radio station WHDF that featured polka music, calling it ‘Lodi’s Oldtimers Show,'” Juntikka said. “He used Frankie Yankovic’s ‘Happy Hour Waltz’ as his theme song and featured a lot of Frank’s music on the program.”

During that time, Sal Bianchi operated a tavern in South Range and most of his patrons were Croatian-Slovenians from nearby Seeberville, behind Painsedale, Juntikka said. “Yankovic’s records were getting a lot of play at the tavern, so Bianchi, Tony Datto and Clifford Paulson hired the Yankovic band to play a public dance at the South Range Community Hall.”

Meanwhile, according to Juntikka, Jerry Mazanec was a Czech-American polka bandleader. Like Yankovic, he lived in Cleveland and also recorded for Columbia Records. In Feb. 1947, Mazanec and his band recorded a Czech tune called, “Sukynka Valcik” – complete with Bohemian vocals by two female singers.

“Because of the Czech vocals on the disc,” Juntikaa explained, “the record was marketed and sold as a ‘Bohemian’ product by Columbia in record shops. For that reason, its sales were directed at a mostly Czech-speaking market and not the general public.”

Sometime around Dec. 1948, Yankovic received a call from business associate Jack Mills of Mills Music Publishing Company of New York, saying that his company had the American rights to a large European catalog of Bohemian music and would Yankovic like to see it.

Searching through the catalog, Yankovic and his fellow band members found a tune called “Sukynka” Waltz, but they felt that it needed English lyrics.

Mills assigned Mitchell Parrish to compose English lyrics. Parrish, who had composed the lyrics to Hoagie Carmichael’s “Stardust,” soon had the lyrics finished. In the process, the title of the song was changed from “Sukynka (Red Skirt)” to “Blue Skirt Waltz.”

At Yankovic’s suggestion, Columbia Records hired female vocalists to sing the lyrics and introduced him to the Malasvky Sisters, a duo who sang Yiddish songs in Brooklyn and Manhattan, Juntikka said.

“They were billed as ‘The Marlin Sisters” on record,” he said.

The Marlin Sisters also sang on a number of other Yankovic’s songs during the recording session.

“After that, Frank never saw them again,” Juntikka said.

“Blue Skirt Waltz” was released on Jan. 17, 1949, according to Juntikka. It became Yankovic’s second platinum record. It became just as popular in the Copper Country.

“The ‘Blue Skirt Waltz’ was very popular in the Copper Country for a number of reasons,” Juntikka said.

Yankovic was already popular in the area when he first played at South Range in 1947, he explained.

“People here loved his music – starting with the Croatians and Slovenians, but eventually embraced by most everyone. His records were in the jukeboxes of many area taverns,” he said.

Lodi Mihelich’s radio program had made Yankovic known to still more people. In addition, “Mihelich booked the Yankovic band to play to play area dances many times in the years that followed,” Juntikka said.

By the time the Blue Skirt Waltz became a hit in 1949, the Copper Country already supported numerous bands which “were packing the taverns on Fridays and Saturday nights,” Juntikka said.

“After the Yankovic Columbia single became a hit, the Michigan College of Mining and Technology pep band played the song at the Dee Stadium during hockey games,” Juntikka said. “When they did this, people in the stands rose to their feet, arms shoulder to shoulder, rocking back and forth -singing the tune.”

Times and music preferences have changed in the Copper Country over the years, but Tech hockey fans still sway to the tune today Younger people do not remember when polka music was popular throughout the country, as well as locally.

“Polka music was the ‘pop’ music of its time,” Juntikka said. “Polka music was around long before Chuck Berry came along.”

Juntikka summed up the Copper Country Anthem very well when he said:

“Blue Skirt Waltz was a good song. It still is. It had to be to sell millions of copies worldwide.”