Originally posted by craigwatanabe
For me the time between the mid 1960s to the early 80s brought about a lot of top 40 hits that were not necessarily hits on the mainland but big in Hawaii. The so-called Hawaiian music reneissance occured at this time where new, younger artists picked up on traditional Hawaiian music and made it their own. The funny thing is that radio stations which were not specifically programming Hawaiian music, would include this type of music into their pre-dominantly top 40 mix. This was especially true in the 1970s when you would hear songs by Cecilio & Kapono, Liz Damon & the Orient Express, John Rowles, Kalapana, the Brothers Cazimero, Olomana, the Peter Moon Band, Gabby and others right along with top 40 hits by Elton John, Three Dog Night, the Jackson Five, The Eagles and Fleetwood Mac and many others.
And yes, I think KKUA's "Homegrown" albums were quite a big factor at the that time moving Hawaiian music more into the conciousness of younger listeners. I remember Noelani Cypriano's track "Lihue" being included on either the 1st or 2nd of those albums. It was a great track and was probably instrumental in getting her musical career off the ground.
As I mentioned a lot of other pop and rock records became hits in Hawaii but nowhere else. See if you remember any of these:
- "Endless Summer" by The Sandals (1966)
- "Sunlight" album track by Three Dog Night (1971)
- "Pipeline Sequence" by Honk (1972)
- "Summer Sun" by Jamestown Massacre (1972)
- "If That's The Way That You Want It" by Diamond Head (1973)
- "Give Up Your Guns" - The Buoys (1971)
- "Grovin' Out On Life" - The New Beats (1970)
- "Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep" - Middle of the Road (1971)
- "Mandrill" - Mandrill (1971)
- "Morning of Our Lives" - The Arkade (1971)
- "I Found Someone of My Own" - Free Movement (1971)
- "I Dig Everything About You" - The Mob (1971)
- "Circle Game" - Rick Ely (1971)
- "Cubano Chant" - El Chicano (1971)
- "Precious & Few" - Climax (1971)
- "Life And Breath" - Climax (1972)
- "Child of December" - Climax (1972)
- "Caroline This Time" - Climax (1972)
- "Ebony Eyes" (1972 - b side single)
- "You'll Never Get To Heaven" (1973)
- "Star on a TV Show" (1975)
- "Sunshine Keri" - Lee Oskar (1976)
- "Smiling Islands" - Robbie Patton & Stevie Nicks (1983)
- "Lahaina" - Loggins & Messina (1973)
- "Tahiti Tahiti" - Voyage (1979)
- "What Cha Doin'" - Seawind (1980)
- "Keep it in the Family" - The Road Home (1971)
If any of the old timers remember these songs, wouldn't it be neat to get some if not all of them on a CD? I recently took a small poll at the main Hawaii Radio & Television Guide website and got a small sample of what people wanted to here on CD.
Here are the results from that poll:
As you can see the polling sample was quite small and so was the list of songs to choose from (the poll only allows a maximum of 10 selection options). That said I think the people who recognized some of the song titles wanted to get them all if not only some of them.
Anyway tell us of the kind of music you used to listen to on Hawaii's top 40 radio stations of the 1950s to early 80s.
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