Jaromír Vejvoda

From 1936 to 1960, he lived in Vrané nad Vltavou, after he married the local native Božena Zamrazilová.

In 1929 he wrote the Modřanská polka named after Modřany, a suburb of Prague where it was played the first time.

This catchy tune became a hit and allowed Vejvoda to pursue music as a full-time professional.

It was published in 1934 with lyrics Škoda lásky, kterou jsem tobě dala... Publishing house Shapiro Bernstein acquired the rights shortly before World War II and the polka, now the "Beer Barrel Polka" with the English lyrics "Roll out the barrel...", became the most popular song of the Allies in the West, although the original Czech lyrics have a very different meaning and do not speak about beer.

Vejvoda wrote many other hits, such as Kdyby ty muziky nebyly ("If those bands did not exist") and Já ráda tancuju ("I love to dance") but none of them became popular outside of the Czech and German speaking countries.