Bill Walden

Bill Walden began playing harmonica at the age of 11. He joined a few harmonica groups in the 1940s and ‘50s, which were very popular, especially in night clubs. After playing with the Harmonica Rascals, he joined the Harmonicats, which scored a big hit record. Bill was with the group when they played the Mercury Ballroom in Chicago, where they performed “Peg O’ My Heart” as a gag. A record producer convinced them to record it and the song hit the pop record charts in 1947. Bill later played with Al Smith at the Moulin Rouge Club in Los Angeles in 1954. Bill attended the grand opening of the Museum of Making Music on March 5, 2000, where he was interviewed. That interview was lost over the years and as a result, it was often documented that Ted McCarty’s March 26, 2000 interview was the first for the NAMM Oral History Collection. However, the discovery of Mr. Walden’s interview by Multimedia Specialist Mike Mullens in 2019 confirmed that the first NAMM Oral History interview was indeed with Mr. Walden!