Charlie Magnante keeps a pet sparrow (of all people).  Apologizing for the bird seed scattered over the front seat of his car, he explained that Mergaroid goes with him for outings in the country.

"Only tried to fly away once.  We chased him over a meadow in the car and he came back to my shoulder."

"How did you call him?"

Charlie picked up his accordion and made a twittering which most certainly would be irresistible to any sparrow.  Charlie made it clear that this was a garden-variety English sparrow.  "An ordinary guy just like me."  There is a warm note of truth in this.  Charlie is an ordinary guy whose accordion magic is as irresistible to a vast public as it is to his vagrant sparrow.

Charlie has known hardship.  At fourteen, one of five children, he worked as a tin smith's helper for five dollars a week and practiced his accordion late into the night.  He has also known the plaudits of a Carnegie Hall audience following a history-making, all accordion concert there.

His radio and recording career started at sixteen.  We asked him about some of his "memorable" radio experiences.  He leaned back, and his accordion groaned.  "I'll never forget one rough moment on a coast to coast radio show featuring an organist in a large symphonic arrangement.  There was a tremendous introduction leading up to the organist's entrance and then, --- nothing happened.  Somebody had accidentally pulled the plug!  I was pushed up to the microphone, and for three fat minutes I played a coast to coast improvisation with an arrangement I had never heard before.  No one in the audience seemed to know anything had gone wrong and the next week a public confession was made by the announcer, followed by another number by Magnante - this time with notes."

In the accordion world there is only one Charlie Magnante.  A kind of modern-day Pied Piper, he spends much of his spare time with young people telling them how easy it is to play the accordion.  But, it took Charlie twenty-five years to achieve his unique position as an artist - a history which has simultaneously elevated the instrument to concert status.  And no wonder, -- Charlie may be an ordinary guy --- he is also a consummate musician.