“I Love My Green Bay Packers!” (The Packer Polka!)… The Story Continues… In mid October 1993 I sent a copy of my tape of “I Love My Green Bay Packers!” to a friend of mine in the Twin Cities, MN – Bill Bundy. Bill and I produced a bunch of TV and radio commercials in the Twin Cities at the time. Well… Bill gathered several studio singers and added additional voices on top my original recording. It turned out great. I put together a fictitious name for the group: Eddy J and the Packer Polka Ramas (the rumors are true… except for Bill and I the other voices on this archive rendition are a bunch of studio singing Oly’s from Minnesota! Ha! But all kidding aside… great people and great talents.) So… Bill and I put together a record label called Krokodile records and released the mixes on a cassette tape. The Packer resurgence still hadn’t happened back then. There was promise with a new QB by the name of Brett Favre, but true success for the Pack was still a few years away. We had fun with the song but by mid 1995 I thought the luster of “I Love My Green Bay Packers!” had faded into relative obscurity.
In September of 1995 Bill Bundy and I went to a Packer game at Lambeau Field and before the game attended a tailgate party that featured a DJ and music. Bill told the DJ that I sing a Packer song and he said “Oh yeah… here’s the mike… give your song a go.” So… I sing the song and am surprised that many folks in the audience are familiar with it. I found out that a radio jock in Green Bay, Mike Austin, was playing the song on air on a regular basis. He later told me that he had a cassette from two years ago that his staff had dubbed on a broadcast cart. At that point nobody knew where it came from or who sang it, but Mike told me he was getting hundreds of requests for it! Well… it came from the first half dozen tapes that I sent to TV and radio in Green Bay and Milwaukee in late September 1993!
Another syncronicity moment… In the audience at that tailgate was Bill Wenzel, at that time the owner of Packer Fan Tours, the official tour company of the Green Bay Packers. He asked me if I’d come sing the song at his tailgate party before the next game. I said sure, so two weeks later I’m at another tailgate singing “I Love My Green Bay Packers!” In the audience was Packer legend Fuzzy Thurston and his wife. Bill Wenzel introduced me to them and Fuzzy’s wife told me she loved the song… her grandkids listen to it all the time. I was, well, pleasantly surprised. Bill Wenzel invited me to Tampa Florida to sing at his tailgate party before the Pack/Bucs game in December of 1995. The fans went wild after hearing the song and you could tell the Packer resurgence was gaining significant momentum. From that point on I was an entertainer for Packer Fan Tours until the year 2000. I have to thank Bill Wenzel for many fabulous times including being invited to many away games and the Super Bowl itself. Thanks to Bill Wenzel I’ve sung “I Love My Green Bay Packers!” to live audiences across the country from Minnesota, to North Carolina, to Florida, to Texas, to California. And everywhere you go people sure love their Green Bay Packers!
Well… here’s the original Eddy J and The Packer Polka Ramas rendition of “I Love my Green Bay Packers!” Due to technical reasons I retired this recording in the spring of 1996. I’m resurrecting it now and calling it: “I Love My Green Bay Packers!” (The Packer Polka!) Archive Mix. I dubbed this recording from an old cassette tape so what you hear is what you got. Thanks for listening.
