Acker Bilk has won immortality on rock oldies radio for his surprise 1962 hit "Stranger on the Shore," an evocative ballad featuring his heavily quavering low-register clarinet over a bank of strings.

England's Acker Bilk's big hit of 1961, the sugary, vibrato packed "Stranger on the Shore" masked the fact that Bilk had been (and continues to be ) a fine New Orleans jazz performer. Bilk was a ...