Known as "America's Polka King", Yankovic was considered the premier artist to play in the Slovenian style during his long career.

[5] He rarely strayed from Slovenian-style polka, but did record with country guitarist Chet Atkins and pop singer Don Everly.

[6] Yankovic's father, a blacksmith, and his mother, a cook, met in a lumber camp in West Virginia where they both worked.

When Yankovic was young, his father moved to Cleveland to escape authorities who learned of his bootlegging, and the rest of the family followed shortly thereafter.

His mother took on boarders to help with the family finances, including a man named Max Zelodec who performed Slovenian tunes on a button box.

[3][7] In the 1930s, he formed a business relationship with Joe Trolli and began making radio appearances on stations such as WJAY and WGAR.

His first records were made for the Yankee and Joliet labels operated by Fred Wolf,[7] and the expenses were paid for by Yankovic himself.

However, the expenses of family life quickly overcame the incoming money from his music career, so he opened a tavern, calling it the Yankovic Bar.

[3] Yankovic enlisted in the armed forces in 1943 and cut numerous records while on leave, prior to his departure for Europe.

[9] After getting out of the hospital, he and four other musicians were assigned to special services to entertain the troops, including General George Patton and his Third United States Army.

[11] Al, who also performs polka music among many other styles, has jokingly hypothesized that he was given accordion lessons as a child because his parents thought that "there should be at least one more accordion-playing Yankovic in the world.

This launched a campaign by the National Cleveland-Style Polka Hall of Fame and Museum and City Councilman Michael Polensek,[16] and in a ceremony on August 21, 2007, the square at the intersection of Waterloo Rd.