Jimmy Shand

Sir Jimmy Shand served as Scotland’s counterpart to Lawrence Welk, the American “king of the polka.” During the years after World War II he ranked among the United Kingdom’s most popular performers, earning an MBE in 1962 and receiving a knighthood in 1999. His commercial high point arrived in 1955 with the million-selling “The Bluebell Polka,” which reached the British Top 20, yet public affection endured long afterward. Frequent appearances on BBC television programs kept him in the spotlight, and his last chart success came in 1994 when the video “Dancing With the Shands” spent five weeks inside the U.K. Music Video Charts’ Top Ten. Born to a miner who played melodeon during his leisure hours, Shand seemed headed underground himself until the 1926 general strike closed the pits. He then entered music retail at Forbes’ Music Shop and soon took up performing. In 1933 he cut traditional Scottish jigs for Regal Zonophone; the next year he made his first BBC Radio broadcast. After the war he maintained a steady output on EMI/Parlophone. Richard Thompson later saluted him in the song “Don't Step on My Jimmy Shands.”