Eddie Blazonczyk, 70, Polka Singer and Bandleader, Dies Eddie Blazonczyk, a polka singer and bandleader who led bouncing, swaying, beer-hoisting dances for generations of Americans as one of that small genre's biggest fish, died on Monday in Palos Heights, Ill. He was 70. The cause was multiple organ failure, said his son Eddie Jr., who took over the operation of his father's band, the Versatones, in 1997. In the world of polka - invisible to many Americans but a steady cultural presence in parts of the Midwest and elsewhere - Mr. Blazonczyk was one of the few figures to find a national audience. He won a Grammy Award, kept a vigorous touring schedule and maintained a mini-empire of polka in Chicago, including a record label, a recording studio, a retail store and a music school. With a warm tenor and a heavy hand on his electric bass, Mr. Blazonczyk (pronounced bluh-ZON-check) created Chicago push, a subgenre of the Polish polka style characterized by its rhythmic drive and the loud "bellows shake" of the accordion. Among his signature songs were "Angeline Be Mine Polka" and "Polka Hero." The sound had traces of rock, left over from Mr. Blazonczyk's days in the early 1960s recording rockabilly under the name Eddy Bell, for Mercury and other labels. Those songs included "The Masked Man (Hi Yo Silver) " and "The Great Great Pumpkin," about an alien squash who gives children advice after first asking them, in a thick Polish accent, "What you want, sonny boy?" Yet Mr. Blazonczyk was also devoted to Polish musical customs. Many of his dozens of albums feature him singing in English on one side and perfectly enunciated Polish on the other. Polka had a moment of broad popularity in the postwar years, when musicians like Frank Yankovic had million-selling hits. By the time Mr. Blazonczyk began his career, it was receding from the mainstream, but the music, and the social rituals surrounding it, held a place in some Americans" ethnic identity. "For a community where polka is an important part of their traditional heritage, he maintained it, promoted it, gave it a voice," Jim Bessman, a music journalist and longtime polka aficionado, said of Mr. Blazonczyk. He was a big force for what it means to be Polish in America. Mr. Blazonczyk was born on July 12, 1941, in Chicago. His parents, who were Polish immigrants, owned the Pulaski Ballroom, where young Edward saw Marion Lush, Walter Jagiello (known as Li'l Wally) and other leading polka acts of the day. He met his wife, the former Christine Zielinski, known as Tish, at a polka dance in 1962. She and their son Eddie Jr. survive him, as do another son, Anthony; a daughter, Katherine; and three grandchildren. As a teenager, Mr. Blazonczyk played in rock "n" roll bands and toured with Buddy Holly and Gene Vincent. But by the early 1960s, he had begun to move away from rock. He joined the Versatones, so named because of their versatility. In 1963 he started his label, Bel-Aire, and released the band's first album, "Polka Parade"; more than 60 albums followed. The band toured widely, and through his label, his store, two radio shows and other activities, he was a constant presence in the polka world. He won a Grammy in 1987 for his album "Another Polka Celebration," tying that year with Jimmy Sturr, who has won the prize 18 times. The polka category was eliminated in 2009. He was also named a National Heritage Fellow by the National Endowment for the Arts in 1998. He retired after having a stroke in late 2001, and his son led the Versatones until disbanding it last year. In an interview on Tuesday, Eddie Blazonczyk Jr. said he once asked his father why he gave up playing rock "n" roll and turned to polka. "It beat the hell out of you," Eddie Jr. remembers his father telling him. There was hardly any pay. But polka was growing. When I got back to Chicago, I saw the crowds coming out for Marion Lush and Li'l Wally, and I wanted to try my hand at that. Within two years of that decision, Eddie Jr. said, his father was on tour nationally, playing polka music.