''Vongole Fisarmonica'' is the debut album by American

accordion Accordions (from 19th-century German language, German ', from '—"musical chord, concord of sounds") are a family of box-shaped musical instruments of the bellows-driven free reed aerophone type (producing sound as air flows past a Reed (mou ...

band

Those Darn Accordions Those Darn Accordions, commonly abbreviated as TDA, are an American accordion band from San Francisco, California, originally formed in 1989 by Linda "Big Lou" Seekins. Boasting several accordionists whose numbers have fluctuated over the years ...

, released in 1992 by Globe Records. The album was originally released only on

cassette tape The Compact Cassette, also commonly called a cassette tape, audio cassette, or simply tape or cassette, is an analog audio, analog magnetic tape recording format for Sound recording and reproduction, audio recording and playback. Invented by L ...

before later being made available for digital download on

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and similar digital media stores.

Overview

Showcasing a seventeen-member line-up, ''Vongole Fisarmonica'' documents TDA at the peak of their early formation as a mostly instrumental mass accordion ensemble, before bandleader Paul Rogers would start restructuring the group into a tighter ten-member rock band for their subsequent album, ''

Squeeze This! ''Squeeze This!'' is the second studio album by American accordion band Those Darn Accordions, released in 1994 on Flying Fish Records. This was the only TDA album to be released on Flying Fish, as the rest of the band's discography was released ...

''. In contrast to the rest of TDA's discography, ''Vongole Fisarmonica'' primarily consists of

cover songs In popular music, a cover version, cover song, remake, revival, or simply cover is a new performance or recording by a musician other than the original performer or composer of the song. Originally, it referred to a version of a song released ...

, tackling TDA's typical fare of classic

polka Polka is a dance style and genre of dance music in originating in nineteenth-century Bohemia, now part of the Czech Republic. Though generally associated with Czech and Central European culture, polka is popular throughout Europe and the ...

s and offbeat covers of

hard rock Hard rock or heavy rock is a heavier subgenre of rock music typified by aggressive vocals and Distortion (music), distorted electric guitars. Hard rock began in the mid-1960s with the Garage rock, garage, Psychedelic rock, psychedelic and blues ...

and

pop Pop or POP may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * Pop music, a musical genre Artists * POP, a Japanese idol group now known as Gang Parade * Pop! (British group), a UK pop group * Pop! featuring Angie Hart, an Australian band Album ...

songs. The album contains two original songs in "Lithuania" and "Chicken Boy Polka", as well as a

parody A parody is a creative work designed to imitate, comment on, and/or mock its subject by means of satire, satirical or irony, ironic imitation. Often its subject is an Originality, original work or some aspect of it (theme/content, author, style, e ...

Arthur Godfrey Arthur Morton Godfrey (August 31, 1903 – March 16, 1983) was an American radio and television broadcaster and entertainer. At the peak of his success, in the early to mid-1950s, Godfrey was heard on radio and seen on television up to six days ...

s " Too Fat Polka", re-written as "Too Smart Polka". The title of the album is Italian for "Accordion Clams". According to member Tom Torriglia, musicians would often call mistakes "clams".

Track listing

Personnel

;Those Darn Accordions *Tom Torriglia - accordion, lead vocals on track 5 *Linda "Big Lou" Seekins - accordion *Suzanne Garramone - accordion *Clyde Forsman - accordion, lead vocals on track 4 *Ron "Riff" Borelli - accordion *Ron "The Other Ron" Muriera - accordion *Chris Howard - accordion *Art Peterson - accordion *Piper Heisig - accordion *Paul Rogers - accordion, lead vocals on tracks 6 and 10 *J. Raoul Bordy - accordion * Caroline Dahl - accordion *Patty Brady - accordion *Bill Schwartz - drums *Maurice Cridlin - bass guitar *Michael Lindner - accordion *Tony Johnson - accordion

References

{{Authority control 1992 debut albums Those Darn Accordions albums