Vongole Fisarmonica is the debut album by American accordion band Those Darn Accordions, released in 1992 by Globe Records. The album was originally released only on cassette tape before later being made available for digital download on iTunes 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!. In contrast to the rest of TDA's discography, Vongole Fisarmonica primarily consists of cover songs, tackling TDA's typical fare of classic polkas and offbeat covers of hard rock and pop songs. The album contains two original songs in "Lithuania" and "Chicken Boy Polka", as well as a parody of Arthur Godfreys "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