Wayward Accordions: List of Celebrity Squeezers

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Celebrity Squeezers Famous people who play accordion or concertina
This is meant to be a list of people whose claim to fame is something else besides playing a squeezebox, which is why the likes of Myron Floren, Tony Gallarini, and Astor Piazzolla are not here. Most of these tidbits came from the Squeezebox Newsgroup.	Former Coast Guard chief petty officer Graham Washington Jackson (1903-1983). As a recruiter in Marietta, Georgia would play piano & accordion for FDR while he was visiting Warm Springs, Georgia; a famous picture of him playing his accordion after FDR's death was published in the April 17, 1945 edition of Life Magazine; Jackson played Goin' Home.
Mahatma Gandhi Valery Giscard d'Estaing Richard Nixon H. Ross Perot Mrs. Vigdis Finnbogadottir Idi Amin James Stewart Drew Carey Larry Bryggman Charlie Chaplin Thomas Hardy Charles Dickens Robert W. Service Tony Lavelli John Smoltz Nils Lofgren John Lennon Elvis Presley Barry Mitchell Deborah Norville	Unverifed: Writer Wilkie Collins played the concertina? It's a plausible theory. . . See Collins, Count Fosco, and the Concertina by Allan W. Atlas

From the book "Gandhi, an Autobiography. The Story of My Experiments with Truth"...in the chapter describing his childhood (Ch. 2) he describes a book and performance which had a deep effect on him (Shravana Pitribhakti Nataka) and states;

"The agonized lament of the parents over Shravana's death is still fresh in my memory. The melting tune moved me deeply, and I played it on a concertina which my father had purchased for me."

Composite photo with concertina by W. Morrison, based on a 1931 photo of Gandhi, photographer unknown. Chances are fairly good that Gandhi never played a Lachenal Jeffries duet, like the one I grafted onto his picture.

Accordion to a May 19, 1974 BBC news article, during a seven-week election campaign, former French prime minister and president, Valery Giscard d'Estaing "fought hard to change his snobbish image by kicking a football around with villagers and playing folk-songs on an accordion."
He played accordion again on nationwide TV in 1981 but still lost his election race against Francois Mitterrand. An article from le Quotidien des electeurs makes a similar reference:

"Telle est aussi la question del'lection. Entre un Giscard qui joue de l'accordeon ou un Clinton qui joue du saxo, le ton est donn. A qui faire confiance?"

The politician himself was quoted as saying "I play the wrong notes in music so as not to play the wrong notes in politics".

In the March 9-15, 1996 Economist on page 51, there is a picture of an accordionist, with the caption "Giscard squeezed out".

In 'Nixon's world', a description of former US president Richard Milhous Nixon's birthplace ends with "But just imagine a barefoot, nine-year-old Richard Nixon scrambling upstairs to practice his accordion."

Accordion to the August 10, 1997 Washington Post article by Annie Groer, Nixon's clarinet, saxophone, accordion and violin are on display at the Richard Nixon Birthplace in Yorba Linda, California. They were "acquired because his mother, Hannah, felt he had a major musical muse." On the audio tour, Nixon states "I have often thought that if there had been a good rap group around in those days, I might have chosen a career in music instead of politics".

One of the classic cartoons in the wake of the Watergate scandal (and the famous 18 minute gap in the TAPES) shows Mr. Nixon with a portable tape recorder hanging from a strap around his neck, his right hand on the "keys". The caption says: I don't know what happened, I was just trying to play "Hail to the Chief" on my accordion.

Nixon's daughters took accordion lessons from Washington DC area teacher Merv Conn.

It's also interesting that former presidential hopeful H. Ross Perot (b. 1930) studied accordion as a youngster and possibly still plays.

Johann Gunnarsson wrote me from Reykjavik, Iceland, with the following:

I believe that Mrs. Vigdis Finnbogadottir, who held the office of president of the Republic of Iceland for 16 years, is a fully qualified celebrity squeezer. The Reykjavik Accordion Club, of which I am a member, visited her in 1994 and played a few tunes for her. Then she revealed that she indeed owned a piano accordion, but while in office she did not have much time to practice.

Bob Cohen from Budapest, Hungary sent me the following:

"I was looking at your accordion site and liked the famous people who play accordion. I found this on the net recently (I don't remember where). Hope you like it - Idi Amin playing diatonic button accordion." (789K .au file)

In July of 2003, when Idi was still alive but in a coma and on life support in a Saudi hospital (he died of kidney failure on August 16 2003), I received an email from Simon McKay-Mills, who requested my assistance in proving a point to his brother - the sound clip of Idi was temporarily unavailable as I had moved the page and not finished updating the links:

" The argument with my bro goes along the lines of 'Idi played the trumpet' (the military connection I guess) 'No, he plays some kind of squeeze box' says I, 'Cobblers!' replies bro 'No brutal dictator is going to play an accordion'. 'put the question in google.com' says I - 'look! There is the answer!'. He replies 'no sound clip, so it must have been wrong and therefore removed - I was right after all'. 'I'll email the website owner and get the file to prove it, you Luddite!'

That is a brief summary with me getting more annoyed as we went on. [...] I also work with an accordionist and a bagpipist (you can tell I live and work in Scotland huh?) who both knew that Idi played the accordion, and still couldn't convince him!

A quick discussion around the office identifies John Peel as the DJ, and the classic line from Idi of 'I like to play when I feel happy and free after my duties [and I have time, sometime I take time to play accordion, just to refresh myself]' had us in uproar... He's not a bad squeezer... Regards SM"

Further research indicates that the clip is from a BBC Sound Archives Disc, and shows up on the playlist for the Andy Kershaw Show on Thursday 25 March, 1999.

Accordion to Accordion World Review, September 1950: Film star James Stewart (1908-1997) was an expert accordion player. When his father Alex was given an accordion by a customer as payment for a debt at his store, he insisted that Jimmy learn to play the instrument so it did not "go to waste." He took the accordion with him to college at Princeton University, where he joined a musical group called the Triangle Club.
An amusing tale is told of him when he was making ''Broken Arrow" for the 20th Century Fox .During shooting he met up with a real Indian Apache brave who was so intrigued with the accordion (which Jimmy had with him) that he persuaded Jimmy to teach him.
In return the Apache insisted on giving him lessons in drum-beating, so Stewart learned to beat out three different war-dance rhythms.

Stewart also sang and played the accordion in the classic 1957 western "Night Passage", portraying an accordion totin' cowboy out to regain his good name and his younger brother, a kid gone bad (Audie Murphy), who can't resist Stewart's renditions of their father's favorite folk songs.

It's no secret that TV actor/comedian Drew Carey plays the accordion on his show. He also plays a midi accordion in real life. An interview on Entertainment Tonight revealed this tidbit:

"Well, I played when I was a little kid, from kindergarten to third grade. And then I didn't play at all. I played trumpet all through school. And then just lately, I had this bug up my butt to learn accordion again. So if anyone plays accordion out there, I'm in the middle of book three of the Palmer Course Accordion Book. That's not a beginner anymore."

Accordion to Music Friends, Larry Bryggman (b. 1938), star of CBS Daytime "As the World Turns", plays piano, accordion , and bassoon. He learned to play the accordion at the request of his father, often accompanying the Swedish dancers in his community.

From an interview for the L.A. Times with Jane Chaplin, remembering her father, film star Charlie Chaplin:
"I remember sitting on the stairs...He had an old accordion , very heavy. He'd put it on his shoulder, strap himself up, and play these old English songs. The more we clapped, the more he sang, and the more we got to stay up late."

British novelist and poet Thomas Hardy (1840-1928) played the accordion in his youth. Later on, he played the fiddle. His widow, Florence Hardy, says in his biography :" His earliest recollection was of receiving from his father the gift of a small accordion . He knew that he was but four years old at this time, as his name and the date were written by his father upon the toy: Thomas Hardy, 1844.". Shown here with his dog, Moss.

Steve Ballinger of Trenton, NJ contributed the information that British novelist Charles Dickens (1812-1870) played the accordion, which information he found in a biography of the famous writer. Certainly Dickens loved the accordion, and included squeezeboxes frequently and to good effect throughout his writings (Mrs. Lirriper's Lodgings, American Notes, The Lazy Tour of Two Idle Apprentices, The Uncommercial Traveller, etc.) The biographical information is confirmed on The Music of Dickens and His Time, from which I quote:

". . . a lively and entertaining collection of Victorian songs and tunes which are all associated with the life and work of Charles Dickens. The 20 tracks include everything from genteel parlour ballads to cockney ditties . . . Here too are Home, Sweet Home (with which Dickens, playing the accordion , regaled the ladies' cabin during his first voyage to the United States) . . . 'You can't think with what feeling I play Home Sweet Home every night, or how pleasantly sad it makes us,' he wrote to John Forster from Baltimore, on 22-23 March 1842."

Famous poet Robert W. Service (1874-1958), better known as the author of "The Shooting of Dan McGrew" than as a musician, played the English concertina and the accordion, and even wrote a poem in praise of the Accordion. Mark Twain may or may have not ever played the accordion, but he did write a scathingly funny satire about playing the instrument, entitled The Touching Story of George Washington's Boyhood.

Former Boston Celtics player Tony Lavelli (1926-1998) used to play his accordion at half time. The following is excerpted from an article from the September 1949 issue of Accordion World (New York):

Tony Lavelli solos with New Haven Symphony

This famous basketball star who just graduated as an honor music student from Yale this June, appeared as guest soloist with the New Haven Symphony under the baton of Harry Berman.
. . . one entire end of the Yale Bowl was filled to overflowing with more than 12,500 music lovers . . . He opened with William Tell Overture followed by the Turkish March of Mozart, both with full symphonic accompaniment. Then two solos: a Gershwin Medley and Malaguena, concluding with Frosini's Jolly Caballero. . . The ovation given this popular and sincere musician was tremendous . . .

Atlanta Braves pitcher and Cy Young Award winner John Smoltz (b. 1967), an All-State baseball and basketball player during high school in Lansing, Michigan, is a virtuoso accordionist. I found this at accordionusa.com:

Atlanta Braves team member John Smoltz, pictured here with his father, also an accordionist . . . No stranger to hard work and practice, Smoltz, who grew up in Michigan, was an avid accordionist. As a kid, he played the accordion for "three to four hours a day." This might not be something completely out of the ordinary, but if one asks how old he was [at that time] you might be surprised to learn the answer...John was four years old!

Gary Blair writes from Scotland:
I was watching "the Selina Scott Show" on cable last night. One of her guests was [guitar virtuoso] Nils Lofgren (formerly with Neil Young, Bruce Springsteen etc.) He was asked about his musical career , to which he answered that he started to play the accordion at the age of 3. He was most appreciative of the instrument and went on to tell of the times that he played in classical competitions before moving on to the guitar at age 15. It sounded very much, that he still had an affection for the instrument.

Excerpts from a Gazette article from August 18, 2004, entitled "Return of the Native", by staff writer Chris Slattery:

. . .The family moved to Bethesda from Chicago when Nils was 8 years old, and even then, he was a musician -- an accordion player, actually. "Every kid on the block in the South Side of Chicago played the accordion," he says. "It turned out to be a very therapeutic thing." Lofgren adds that he's been thinking about getting the accordion out to see if he still remembers "The Flight of the Bumblebee," a staple of the repertoire he perfected between ages 5 and 15, when the guitar pretty much took over.

His parents -- Swedish dad, Sicilian mom -- weren't musicians, but they inspired a love of music in their kids. "Their hobby was dancing," says Lofgren. "They played music around the house, big band and swing, and they were very aware of the therapeutic quality of music." . . .

An online biography of John Lennon (1940-1980) describes his musical awakening as a teenager:

"In September 1955 the new sound of Bill Haley's 'Rock Around the Clock' changed everything. When Elvis burst on the scene soon after with 'Heartbreak Hotel', John Lennon knew this was something he wanted to do. Already able to play accordion and harmonica, which he loved, John was now anxious to get his hands on a guitar. "

The story is corroborated photographically at Domenic's Accordion Beatles Page, with a photo of Lennon playing a full size 120 bass Hohner.

Accordion to Wisconsin accordion player Steve Meisner, Elvis Presley (1935 - 1977) attempted to learn the accordion in his "early years", and later enjoyed playing piano, but "never was much of a guitar player".

James Haskell played accordion on Elvis soundtrack albums "Flaming Star" and "Wild in the Country". Jimmie is also heard playing accordion on the song "Wooden Heart" in the Elvis movie "G.I. Blues". Carl Fontina played accordion on the Elvis album "Jailhouse Rock", and Gordon Stroker played accordion on "Elvis for Everyone".

No further information was available on any of the Elvis sites I visited.

ABC World News Now commentator Barry Mitchell plays the accordion. In case you've never seen him he takes current events and puts them to popular music. He also composed the theme song for the program, the World News Polka.

Excerpts from his bio at ABC:

"Regis Philbin introduced him as 'America's only accordion-playing news commentator.' Dennis Miller presented him on Comedy Central as 'the polka king from ABCNEWS World News Now.' [After graduating from high school], Mitchell worked as a club date musician, playing accordion and keyboards at weddings. . .In his spare time he enjoys sleeping, and he is 'glad his parents made him take accordion lessons.'"

Deborah Norville, the former co-anchor of NBC's Today Show who now hosts the tabloidy Inside Edition, is a closet piano accordion player.

Thanks to the following people for their contributions to this list:
Dina Bray
Brian Brennan
Gary Blair
Bob Cohen
Faithe Deffner
Tim Deagan
Alan Engle
Allen Fuller
Randy Lewis
Scott L. Maxwell
Jeroen Nijhof
James Taulbee

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