
#50: When The White Lilacs Bloom Again by Lawrence Welk
City: Edmonton, AB
Radio Station: CFRN
Peak Month: October 1956
Peak Position in Edmonton: #7
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #70
YouTube: “When The White Lilacs Bloom Again”
Lawrence Welk was born in 1903 in the hamlet of Strasburg, North Dakota. His German-speaking parents emigrated to American from Odessa, Russian Empire (now Ukraine). The Welk family lived in a homestead in Strasburg that is now a tourist attraction. When he was nine years old, Lawrence Welk left public school to work full-time on the family farm. Welk decided on a career in music and persuaded his father to buy a mail-order accordion for $400 (equivalent to $5,843 in 2023). He promised his father that he would work on the farm until he was 21, in repayment for the accordion. He was good on his word and after reaching age 21, he set his sights on a music career.