The carol, or koleda in Polish (from the Latin "calendae"), is a song thematically connected with Christmas, and is sung in Poland from December 24th to February 2, that is, to the feast of the Presentation of the Lord or Candlemas.  It comes from the sphere of folk culture and the tradition of singing at home.  In the folk repertiore carols hold a special place, not only in view of their specific character and variety, but also for their sheer number.  For centuries, they were composed in monastaries, in royal courts, knights' castles, and the courts of the nobility.  Their authors were members of the Polish clergy, church organists, parish school-teachers, and on occasion our distinguished writers and poets.  The musical canvas of the Polish carol is formed above all by the melodies and rhythms of dances such as mazurkas, krakowiaks, obereks, kujawiaks, polonaises, and sentimental dumkas or elegies.  Many Christmas carols likewise possess a touch of majestic choruses and hymns, whose melody line and deep theoological content testify to their origins in Latin Gregorian chant.  (From the introduction by Wanda Gladysz to "The Pastoral Mass")

Golec Brothers

Eddie Blazonczyk is a native Chicagoan, son of Fred and Antoinette Blazonczyk, who for years operated the Pulaski Village Ballroom and later the Club Antoinette in Chicago.  Eddie started playing polkas in the early fifties with a four-piece combo known as “Happy Eddie and his Polka Jesters”.  They performed at many Polish weddings, anniversaries and other engagements in Chicagoland.

In 1958 Eddie went into the Pop music field as a song writer and recording artist for Mercury Records.  Under the name of Eddie Bell and the Bel-Aires, he recorded a few hits.  He toured the country and appeared on television on Dick Clark’s American Bandstand and the Jim Loundsbury Show.

In 1962 Eddie came back to the Polka field with a group known as the Versatones.  They toured and played in all parts of the U.S.A. and Canada.  A Poland European Tour included Italy and France.

Eddie Blazonczyk is also a polka promoter, a disc jockey heard on WTAQ weekly, and president of the Bel-Aire Record Company with studios in Chicago.

Eddie was honored at a testimonial in Buffalo, New York, in 1967, being given a gold key to the city and a gold plaque naming him the Nation’s No. 1 Polka Man.  This citation was registered with the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C.

Some of Eddie’s big hit recordings include "Angeline Be Mine Polka" (voted the best single recording of 1969), "Apples, Peaches, Pumpkin Pie," "Poor Boy Polka" and "My Girlfriend Katie, Polka."
(Source: www.internationalpolka.com/blazonczyk-eddie.htm)

Collier's Encyclopedia tells us that the polka is originally a Czech dance in quick double time.  It was said to have been danced for the first time around 1830 by a Czech peasant girl, but it quickly spread from Bohemia throughout Europe and into the ballrooms of New York where it aroused a mania similar to that of the waltz.
It was the composer Smetana who introduced this dance into art music with a number of famous polkas fro the piano.  He included the polka in his operatta, "The Bartered Bride."
At the popular level, the polka proved to be a dance from with universal appeal as it spread among the peasantry of Europe.  In a short time it became firmly rooted in the cultures of Russia, Prussia, Germany, Sweden, Poland, Lithuania, the Ukraine, and virtually all other European countries.  Polkas are today included in the traditional dance repertoire of virtually every European culture, and many cultures beyond.
It is, nevertheless, the Poles who are most closely identified with polkas and it is the descendants of these peasant farmers who raised the polka to its present level of popularity in the United States. It is here that the polka, grown on roots of Polish folk traditions, reached its highest levels of sophistication.
Unschooled musicians with their "skrzypki" and "klarnci" brought the traditional melodies and stylings to the United States around the turn of the century,
The second generation of musicians, educated in music and surrounded by the sounds of the roaring twenties and the despair of the Great Depression, married this traditional music with the emerging modern stylings to create a new popular form particularly Polish-American in nature.
Unlike their predecessors and even their peers, the Polish-American orchestras learned to play the foxtrot as adeptly as they did the polka.  Their obereks, mazurkas, szacy (Schottishes), kujawiaks and other Polish musical forms only served to lend variety to their increasingly popular dances.  This modern period of polkas began in the early 1930's and continued well into the 1970's, with polka bands often drawing crowds of two to three thousand dancers and spectators.
The "Golden Age of Polkas" was a post-war phenomenon which ran from the mid-1940's through the late 1960's when the music reached its highest level of quality and sophistication.  It is the period that gave birth to the most famous of all the polka bands.
In recent years the polka musicians themselves have acquired a stature of their own through the high levels of proficiency.  Former polka band musicians have found positions in many world-recoognized musical institutions including the Boston Symphony,  the Boston Pops, and the Springfield Symphony.
The magic of polka remains strong today as is evidenced in its present popularity.  It has survived many changes in style and taste and continues to deliver a strong and positive message of joy and happiness in contrast to the often negative popular culture of today.
Source (Kielbasa Polkas)