The song consists of a chorus and one verse, describing itself as a popular dance craze ("everybody has a mania / to do the polka from Pennsylvania") and joyful event ("while they're dancing, everybody's cares are quickly gone"). The lyrics mention the city ofScranton, Pennsylvania, but no other specific references to Pennsylvania places or culture.[2]
Though Lee and Manners are given credit for writing the song, a former bandleader fromDupont, Pennsylvania, said he had written and played the tune, though without lyrics, in the 1920s. Paul Motiska said his composition, "The Laughing Polka", became a regional favorite after hisbig band, the Melodions, was featured on a Scranton radio station in 1923.[1] In 1952,The Standard-Speaker newspaper ofHazleton speculated that this was the origin of the lyric "It started in Scranton, it's now No. 1."[4]
In the 1970s and early 1980s, when thePennsylvania General Assembly repeatedly debated adopting astate song – being one of the few states without one – the "Pennsylvania Polka" was one of the perennial contenders.[6] In 1980, theEvening Herald ofShenandoah, Pennsylvania,editorialized on behalf of "Pennsylvania Polka" for state song, calling it "a happy, catchy tune" and "one that's been familiar to generations of people all over the country since it first swept to the top of the popular music charts way back in the early '40s".[7] Pennsylvania legislators eventually adopted "Pennsylvania" as the official state song in November 1990.[8]
