Frank Yankovic; Polka Popularizer

Frank Yankovic, the Grammy-winning “polka king” whose skill with an accordion thrilled listeners in the Midwest for more than 60 years, died Wednesday at his home in Port Richey, Fla. He was 83.

Yankovic was widely credited with broadening the popularity of polka music with his so-called Slovenian style, which features a slower tempo and more clarinets and saxophones than more conventional Polish polkas.

“The beat that I gave it was different,” he told the Associated Press several months ago. “It was acceptable to teenagers as well as the older folks. I took the real old-time polkas and modernized them.”

Said Tony Petkovsek, who broadcasts a daily polka show in northeast Ohio: “He’s the man who put polkas where they are.”

Born in Davis, W. Va., of immigrant parents in 1915, Yankovic was taught to play the button-box accordion by a boarder after his family moved to Cleveland and opened a rooming house.

By the age of 16, he had mastered a modern piano-key accordion and started a band, which played locally under a variety of names, including the Slovene Folk Orchestra.

After serving with the Army in France during World War II, Yankovic returned to Cleveland and began turning out records that soon reached the top 15 on the country and pop charts.

His signature polka, “Just Because,” sold more than a million copies in 1948, and was quickly followed by another million-seller, “Blue Skirt Waltz.”

More hits followed, including “Pennsylvania Polka,” “Dizzy Day Polka,” “Happy Minute Polka” and “In Heaven, There Is No Beer.”

In 1985, he won the first polka Grammy for his album “70 Years of Polka Hits.” Three more Grammy nominations followed, including one this year for “Songs of the Polka King.”

Yankovic recorded recently with country music star Chet Atkins and pop performer Don Everly, and he even cut one album with musical parodist “Weird Al” Yankovic, to whom he believed he was distantly related.

Frank Yankovic, who stopped performing about a year ago after a heart attack, suffered a fall last week and was hospitalized briefly, according to his publicist, Susan Batra.

He was married three times and had 10 children.