I expected to be a farmer like my father and brothers. Life seemed pleasant and orderly.

Duke Ellington was famous for hs very original harmonic patterns.

Over and over I marvel at the blessings of my life: Each year has grown better than the last.

The first time I try anything is invariably not very successful. I tend to grow slowly, but solidly.

My accent remained terrible. It was very hard for me to initiate any conversation with someone I didn’t know.

I just wrote a book, but don’t go out and buy it yet, because I don’t think it’s finished yet.

I always worried I’d forget my lines or say the wrong words or the audience would laugh in the wrong places.

The William Penn Hotel in Pittsburgh… was the place where Champagne Music was born.

Sounds always fascinated me.

There are good days and there are bad days, and this is one of them.

I expected to be a farmer like my father and brothers. Life seemed pleasant and orderly.

You know, it’s a long world.

This is the best biography by me I have ever read.

In spite of the Depression, or maybe because of it, folks were hungry for a good time, and an evening of dancing seemed a good way to have it.

I was so anxious to succeed that I made a practice of appearing on all the disc jockey shows I could, in order to publicize the band.

For a while we had trouble trying to get the sound of a champagne cork exploding out of the bottle. I solved the problem by sticking my finger in my mouth and popping it out.

When my parents first arrived there, North Dakota had just been admitted to the Union, and the country was still wild and harsh.

I realized some of the pitfalls of being well-known; it was nice if you were successful, but it made it just that much harder to take when you failed.

His act may start out slow, but it tapers off.

I knew nothing of the real life of a musician, but I seemed to see myself standing in front of great crowds of people, playing my accordion.

If they can’t hum it after we play it, it’s not for us.

By 1969, when I celebrated 45 years in the music business, I also had 45 people in our musical family.

I just had an idea that went right over my head.

One thing all stage mothers share is an overpowering ambition for their daughters.

Night after night I could feel the chills go up and down my spine, they played so well.

I have never been an innovator, a creative genius.

It’s curious how we act in moments of personal despair.

Music was my joy, my home, the one place I felt happy and secure.

Never trust anyone completely but God. Love people, but put your full trust only in God.

Dreams do come true, even for someone who couldn’t speak English and never had a music lesson or much of an education.

I played a Spaniard. I looked about as Spanish as any other fair-skinned German.

We really were a very musical family. Father managed to buy us a small pump organ, and I just loved this instrument.

If I live to be 90, and I’m planning to, I’ll always love performing for a live audience.

Whenever you have a minute I’d like to see you right now.

I have a tremendous desire to learn, and to grow, and to develop whatever I have that will make for any kind of improvement in me.

Conversation didn’t seem necessary when I put the accordion down and swung some young lady around the floor.

Many times I wondered if I were truly carrying out God’s plan for my life.

One time I introduced my orchestra as the Shampoo Music Makers instead of the Champagne Music Makers.

The ones the listeners loved most of all in those early years were the four Lennon girls who became the whole nation’s little sisters.

If you put all your strength and faith and vigor into a job and try to do the best you can, the money will come.

If any performer has quality in his voice he can almost always be helped to develop all the other necessary attributes.