Post #469184 by bigbrotiki on Wed, Jul 15, 2009 9:31 AM

Here's the pop culture background to the name, a classic musical song performed by James Cagney in 1933:

http://lyricsplayground.com/alpha/songs/s/shanghailil.shtml

...and here's the only version of the song on the net, as usual with jazz classics from that period, the vocal starts only after a minute into the song:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=olyYvYE6Zlo

On a side note, (Warning: decidedly leading away from the subject of Polynesian pop !), the vocalist Kardos uses for the song reminds me of songs performed by Charlie and his Orchestra:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlie_and_his_Orchestra

A unique and esoteric footnote to Nazi propaganda, which of course was laughed off by the targeted US and British soldiers -and by hip German teenagers like my parents, who as Swing Kids could tell fake from real jazz:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swing_Kids

If they would have had an inkling of Polynesian pop back then, they would have dug it!