"Hawaiian Holiday"
Leni Okehu and His Surfboarders,
196?
Give
the tourists what they want and they'll keep coming back for more--grass
skirts, coconut bras, poi, and leis from the native girls. Hawaiian
Holiday is one of many Hawaiian records the bachelor has in his
collections. Each are just about the same, with the standard hula girl
on the cover either looking over a happy crowd of island visitors (like
this one) or looking over some scenic island view. Hawaiian music is never
as far out as Exoitca because it is based on the real folk tunes of Hawaii
rather than the lounge composer's idea of what traditional music should
be like. Where the fun comes in is when each Hawaiian performer tries to
make his songs sound just like what a tourist thinks Hawaiian folk tunes
sound like, regardless if that is the truth or not. Don Ho made a career
out of it. Like all great strickly-for-the-tourists records, this one of
course has "Aloha Oe," "Song of the Island," and "Hawaiian War Chant,"
(showing off the steel guitar talents of Leni Okehu) but it's the other
tracks on this record that really set this one apart. Hawaiian Holiday
also has the tunes "Hawaiian Rock" and "Hawaiian People Eater" which sound
like a cross between Hawaiian rockabilly to garage-rock surf-guitar numbers
ala Dick Dale. It is with these non-tourist tracks that Hawaiian
Holiday gets all its hip points.
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