Johnny Pecon
Deceased Category – Inducted 1975
Johnny Pecon was born on February 3, 1915 in
Cleveland. At age five he began playing on a small accordion. In his
teens he already sat in with some of the Slovenian polka bands. At age
19 he formed his own polka band.
 Johnny
joined the Navy in 1942, trained as a Seabee and shipped to New Guinea
in the South Pacific. Here he put on shows for the troops. After the
war he joined Frankie Yankovic with whom he recorded and traveled from
1947-49. Leading the list of recorded hits were “Just Because” and
“Blue Skirt Waltz”.
Many one night stands and other factors caused
Johnny to leave Yankovic and return to Cleveland. Here he formed a band
with Lou Trebar and entered the tavern business. In 1949 he signed with
Capitol Records and produced 24 singles. Live appearances on radio and
TV followed. His own show on WEWS-TV was aired weekly.
In 1951, a polka DJ in Cleveland conducted a
popularity contest. Polka fans voted for about 25 bands with Pecon
emerging as the winner capturing nearly one-third of the 40,000 ballots
cast. The Pecon band auditioned on Arthur Godfrey’s “Talent Scouts” TV
Show. Their appearance vaulted them into the winner’s circle. This was
followed by Johnny’s own TV show “TV Auction Party” on KYW-TV,
Cleveland. From 1957 to 1966 seven albums were released by the Pecon
Orchestra on Dana Records. In 1971 Delta International signed Johnny
and three new albums appeared. The Pecon band led successful tours to
Hawaii and Slovenia, Yugoslavia.
The final public appearance of the Pecon band was
on October 5, 1974 at the Slovenian National Home in Cleveland. A
victim of cancer, he held on four months more, passing on February 23,
1975. He is survived by his widow Mary, and two sons, John Jr. and
Jeff.
Johnny Pecon was a musician’s musician, musical
stylist, composer, arranger, bandleader, innovator, and performer par
excellent. |
