For a while in the early 1950's there was a phenomenon appearing on weekly TV, a man who was enormously popular with a wide audience (mostly female). He wore his tailored tuxedo on every show, and his megawatt smile lit up the tiny black and white screen like a searchlight. He was certainly a regular on our TV, and I remember my Mother loved him but I took my cue from my Dad, who seldom watched unless it was to just shake his head and snort.

Everybody remembers Liberace, or at least knows of him and how he performed for most of his career. He was a perfect illustration of the word "flamboyant", and as far as his music career goes, he probably defined the term "selling out" about as well as any artist in history. But I'd like to get past all that (if possible) and try to determine the level of his real talent as a musician.

If the stories are to be believed, he certainly started out with musical ability. Wladziu Valentino Liberace was born in Wisconsin to a Polish-Italian family, and a musical one at that — his father had been a member of Sousa's band and played with the Milwaukee Symphony. Although his instrument was the French horn, his young offspring was trained on the piano, and - so the legend goes - family friend and world-famous pianist Ignace Paderewski saw the young prodigy's talent and helped pave the way for his further training and musical education. He debuted as a concert pianist at age 11, and by his teens was performing with full orchestras.

However, as he reached adulthood he began to change his musical outlook. He had noticed that audiences responded more enthusiastically whenever he added little novelty passages or encore songs to his classics-heavy performances. Since he was trying to build a career, it only made sense to him to explore the idea, and he soon found that his popularity grew. During the 1940's he performed in many clubs, then spent time during the war entertaining the troops, and eventually even tried his hand with movie music.