WHAT ABOUT HAPA HAWAIIAN MUSIC AND MORE RECENT TUNES?

This is part three of Hawaiian music, which began with Charles E. King, then Queen Liliuokalani, as noted composers.  There is another genre known as Hapa (means half or part) Haole, and the person who most personified this sometimes denounced category is R. Alex Anderson,  who lived to be a hundred, passing away in 1995.  

Anderson was born in Honolulu and attended Punahou School, where he wrote the school's football song in his junior year, plus the school song while a senior.  He then went on to study electrical and mechanical engineering at Cornell.  His grandfather was Alexander Young, important Hawaii businessman, who built the Alexander Young Building.

What a life, as he was shot down on a flying mission in France during World War I, became a prisoner of war of the Germans, but escaped.  All this was turned into a movie, The Dawn Patrol, starring Richard Barthelmess and Douglas Fairbanks Jr.  It won an Academy Award for Best Story.  It was remade in 1938 with Errol Flynn, Basil Rathbone and David Niven.  However, he said the films were a fantasy and did things they never did.

He wrote over two hundred songs including:

• Lovely Hula Hands (at the age of 99, playing his ukulele and singing his song), Frances Langford in 1941, and Honey Kalima and his Royal Hawaiians
• Cockeyed Mayor of Kaunakakai, those were the Andrew Sisters, but here is Hilo Hattie's version
• Mele Kalikimaka (at the age of 99, again with uke)

Here is an album of his music, titled Soft Green Songs, something he also composed.

Mele Kalikimaka, Hawaiian for Merry Christmas, was written in 1949, made popular by Bing Crosby and the Andrews Sisters in 1950.

There is more, of course, to Hawaiian music, for slack key has been here for a long time, plus the most popular songs of all-time are dominated by tunes that came after King, Liliuokalani and Anderson.  Here is one list of the top ten music from Hawaii, ever:

1. Over the Rainbow - Israel "IZ" Kamakawiwo'ole
2. Tiny Bubbles - Don Ho
3. Hawaiian Wedding Song - Elvis
4. Hiilawe - Gabby Pahinui
5. I Kona - Ledward Kaapana
6. Ka Uluwehi O Ke Kai - Hapa
7. Kauanoeanuhea - Keali'i Reichel
8. Pearly Shells - Don Ho
9. Local Boys - Na Leo Pilimehana 
10. Let's Talk Story - Hawaiian Style Band

Honolulu Magazine in 2004 named the 50 greatest Hawaii albums of all time.  The top ten were:

1. Honolulu City Lights, Keola and Kapono Beamer, 1978:  (this was the view from our penthouse for a third of century and was my wife's favorite song)
2. Guava Jam, The Sunday Manoa, 1969
3. Gabby, Gabby Pahinui, 1972
4. The Extraordinary Ku'i Lee
5. Kawaipunahele, Keali'i Reichel, 194
6. Exotica, Martin Denny, 1957
7. Young Hawai'i Plays Old Hawaii, Hui 'O hana, 1973 (that was side one, and here is side two)
8. Ho'ala, The Brothers Cazimero, 1978
9. Facing Future, Israel Kamakawiwo'ole, 1993 (here is the whole album, soon to be deleted)
10. Kalapana, Kalapana, 1975

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