Meeting Don Wilson from The Ventures in Hawaii - Tiki Music

M Mongoloid Member Long Beach Joined: Apr 25, 2008 Posts: 590	M Mongoloid Posted posted on Thu, Jan 28, 2010 6:20 PM So my wife and i just got back from Oahu last week, and had an incredible time. There was one experience that might rank as one of the all time coolest random moments. We stayed at the Sheraton Princess Kaiulani on the 6th floor with a direct view from our lanai of the stage where nightly live entertainment would occur. Hawaiian and hula of course. Well one evening we were sitting up there drinking some Primos that we got at the Longs in Kailua for $6.99 a 12 pack (seriously thats cheaper then the mainland) i saw this lady walk to the stage in between songs and hand a piece of paper to the performer, he read it and seemed to pause for a minute, i figured it was just a song request, but then he cleared his throat and said do you guys remember the show Hawaii 5-0? Well Don Wilson from The Ventures who created the song for that show is having dinner right over here, so we feel honored to perform in front of him aloooooha. I looked at my wife and we were like are you kidding me?? We went down at intermission and introduced ourselves, he said he had just flown in from Japan where apparently they still tour alot and have a huge fan base. We took a picture with him, he signed some autographs on some postcards for me and then as we thanked him he said hold on a minute. Then he gave us 2 guitar picks. It says The Ventures on one side and on the other side it says Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Class of 2008. We were so blown away to be in Hawaii meeting the guy that created the actual Hawaii 5-0 song. If you check him out on Wikipedia he was the man that formed the group. So just wanted to share our luck and fortune. We were also there the week of the epic California rainstorms enjoying 83 degree weather everyday. The tiki gods were definately looking out for us. View from our lanai
M Mongoloid Member Long Beach Joined: Apr 25, 2008 Posts: 590	M Mongoloid Posted posted on Thu, Jan 28, 2010 7:14 PM Informative interview with Don and old video clip of The Ventures performing Hawaii 5-0 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LFkoRr9MhzM
B bigtikidude Tiki Socialite Anaheim,Ca. Joined: Aug 10, 2004 Posts: 9222	B bigtikidude Posted posted on Thu, Jan 28, 2010 10:39 PM Very cool, Jeff(btd)
A aquarj Tiki Socialite SF bay area, CA Joined: Apr 02, 2002 Posts: 1125	A aquarj Posted posted on Thu, Jan 28, 2010 11:50 PM Apologies in advance for being pickety, but it was actually Mort Stevens who created the Five-O theme, played by the CBS orchestra. The Ventures cover version that came out soon after is very faithful though, and was a big hit. And Don Wilson's a living legend either way! The Ventures did a lot of covers but they also had a lot of originals, many of which were credited to all 4 of them. The ones where Wilson had the solo writer's credit were often some of their nice ballads like Lonely Sea. -Randy

M

Mongoloid Posted posted on Thu, Jan 28, 2010 6:20 PM

So my wife and i just got back from Oahu last week, and had an incredible time. There was one experience that might rank as one of the all time coolest random moments. We stayed at the Sheraton Princess Kaiulani on the 6th floor with a direct view from our lanai of the stage where nightly live entertainment would occur. Hawaiian and hula of course. Well one evening we were sitting up there drinking some Primos that we got at the Longs in Kailua for $6.99 a 12 pack (seriously thats cheaper then the mainland) i saw this lady walk to the stage in between songs and hand a piece of paper to the performer, he read it and seemed to pause for a minute, i figured it was just a song request, but then he cleared his throat and said do you guys remember the show Hawaii 5-0? Well Don Wilson from The Ventures who created the song for that show is having dinner right over here, so we feel honored to perform in front of him aloooooha. I looked at my wife and we were like are you kidding me?? We went down at intermission and introduced ourselves, he said he had just flown in from Japan where apparently they still tour alot and have a huge fan base. We took a picture with him, he signed some autographs on some postcards for me and then as we thanked him he said hold on a minute. Then he gave us 2 guitar picks. It says The Ventures on one side and on the other side it says Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Class of 2008. We were so blown away to be in Hawaii meeting the guy that created the actual Hawaii 5-0 song. If you check him out on Wikipedia he was the man that formed the group. So just wanted to share our luck and fortune. We were also there the week of the epic California rainstorms enjoying 83 degree weather everyday. The tiki gods were definately looking out for us.

View from our lanai

M

Mongoloid Posted posted on Thu, Jan 28, 2010 7:14 PM

Informative interview with Don and old video clip of The Ventures performing Hawaii 5-0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LFkoRr9MhzM

B

bigtikidude Posted posted on Thu, Jan 28, 2010 10:39 PM

Very cool,

Jeff(btd)

A

aquarj Posted posted on Thu, Jan 28, 2010 11:50 PM

Apologies in advance for being pickety, but it was actually Mort Stevens who created the Five-O theme, played by the CBS orchestra. The Ventures cover version that came out soon after is very faithful though, and was a big hit.

And Don Wilson's a living legend either way! The Ventures did a lot of covers but they also had a lot of originals, many of which were credited to all 4 of them. The ones where Wilson had the solo writer's credit were often some of their nice ballads like Lonely Sea.

-Randy