Here's a piece of forgotten musical history...at least as far as most people are aware of.
Florian ZaBach was a violinist who parlayed his talent on the fiddle into a very successful recording career including a television program back in the glorious 50s.
Back when I was a kid I started my life long fascination with records. I was in "Federals" or one of the other Detroit area department stores with my grandpa. He bought me the album "Golden Strings" by ZaBach and told me to listen to it closely as that was a true musician. He was right.
If the internet had been around just a few years ago, perhaps I would have found a way to contact him, but he died before this was possible.
The "Gold Strings" album liner notes say this about this talented guy: "Florian ZaBach has more different talents than his bow has strings. The violin virtuoso is an extraordinary musician, an excellent composer and conductor, a clever comedian, and above all, a superb showman....He first played professionally when he was nine....his TV film series "The Florian ZaBach Show" is seen several times a week throughout the world, even in such far away places as Hong Kong, China."
I found a couple of his tv shows on video on ebay and they're quite good. His albums as far as know have never been re-released on cd, so get out those old record players. His albums pop up on ebay as well. His million seller song "The Hot Canary" was his breakthrough, but the lush pop sounds of his 1950s albums is what really made me a fan. Click here for "Plink Plank Plunk" which was used as a game show theme in the black and white era. Here's another example of his sound.
Back in the 50s, one of his albums said that a successful violinist is about as common as an elephant with a ballet troupe. That has to be even more true today so we'll probably never see the likes of a Florian ZaBach talent again.
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