Post #46650 by PolynesianPop on Thu, Aug 7, 2003 2:38 PM

MT,
The words 'hapa haole' stand for 'half white', which is the way Hawaiians describe the marriage between their traditional music and that of many musicians from the mainland. In the early to middle part of the 1900's, Hapa Haole music sang about life on exotic Hawaii as interpreted by mainland visitors (which interestingly enough, is not unlike the notion of Polynesian Pop). Many of the songs were in the movies at that time and helped put Hawaii on the map.

Some popular Hapa Haole tunes you may recognize include:

Hukilau
My Little Grass Shack
Lovely Hula Hands
Little Brown Gal
Blue Hawaii

Webley Edwards' radio show Hawaii Calls was chock full of Hapa Haole tunes. You can still find records of his radio show and compilations of those tunes at thrift stores today.

Here's a webpage with some info on Hapa Haole music as well as the lyrics to many of the songs:

http://www.squareone.org/Hapa/

One of my favorite Hapa Haole bands -- The Maikai Gents!

**Poly-Pop ***

[ Edited by: PolynesianPop on 2003-08-07 14:41 ]