Post #95290 by aquarj on Tue, Jun 8, 2004 4:40 PM

Swanky, you may be right that they're the same group, it's always hard to know. However, as you point out, the 10" is credited to Charles Mauu, and the Polynesians are listed as Harry Baty, Sam Kaapuni, Bob Nichols, and Joe Keava, give or take one or two members on different LPs, along with photos of the band members on some of their LPs. I have both records (the Mauu one and the Polynesians one), and for some reason it just seems like the Charles Mauu one was the older, more "original" of the two. Never knew anything about Charles Mauu though, and as your link shows, the cover easily distracts the viewer from wondering about what the band looks like!

But although the songlists overlap, the performances are not identical. And of course the Crown label is notorious for trotting out budget LPs with studio bands and the like doing lots of covers. Since the Polynesians were so prolific on Crown, I kind of imagined that they must've been a house band in Waikiki or something like that, discovered by some enterprising Crown A&R guy to roll out a whole bunch of Hawaiian LPs. Maybe Harry Baty et al were formerly the "Royal Polynesians" who played with Charles Mauu, and later went on their own as just the Polynesians, and that's why the version on their LP sounds so similar. Or maybe they were just a totally different combo recording for Crown, and some Crown person handed them the Mauu 10" and said, "Do this for your next longplayer." Anyway, hope this is all slightly interesting to someone besides me!

-Randy