BLUE HAWAII
– Postcard production and… the beginning of the Presley formula- (part 5)
Hawaiian Sunset
“You know , it’s about a guy who just got out of the army (interesting, right?) and then he falls in love with a bunch of girls ,” he explained the plot of his new film Elvis during a conversation with legendary Hawaiian radio DJ and promoter Tom Moffatt * . “His girlfriend is Hawaiian too, but his parents don’t approve because they’re from the upper crust. It all kind of blends in. And there’s about eleven songs on there, too. A couple of Hawaiian songs. Yeah, we did ‘Hawaiian Weeding Song,’ ‘Hawaiian Sunset,’ and ‘Blue Hawaii.’ ”
But when the journalist began to probe the subject and ask Presley whether any additional material that did not refer to traditional Hawaiian melodies had been recorded for the film, he was told: “We had about ten songs written specifically for the film. We recorded them before we started shooting. You know, we always record all the songs that are used in the film in advance .”
Work on the soundtrack for the eighth film starring Elvis Presley began in late March 1961. A little over a week after the end of an intense, all-night recording session at the now legendary Studio B in Nashville (held on the night of March 12-13), during which, among other things, a complete set of tracks for the very successful and stylistically diverse longplay “Something For Everybody” was recorded.
On March 20, Presley was already in Los Angeles. More precisely, at one of Paramount Pictures’ studios, where at ten in the morning, wardrobe fittings and the first pre-production meeting with Hal Wallis were organized.
Then, around noon, right after discussing the initial details of the new production and getting to know the other actors and crew members, Elvis went straight to the RCA Radio Recorders studio to, with the musicians and producers waiting for his arrival, make a selection of the submitted songs – proposals for the soundtrack, and then work out the arrangements and rehearse the selected songs so that they could be recorded the next day without any major obstacles ** .
The recording session was scheduled to begin on Tuesday, March 21, 1961, at 1:00 p.m. At the appointed time, Elvis was joined at the studio at 7000 Santa Monica Boulevard by Joseph Lilley on behalf of Paramount Pictures, sound engineer Thorne Nogar, and a large group of musicians and vocalists. Most of them were instrumentalists with whom Elvis had worked on earlier musical projects.
On guitars played Scotty Moore, Hank Garland and Hilmer J. ‘Tiny’ Timbrell. On bass, Bob Moore. On drums DJ Fontana, Hal Blaine and Bernie Mattinson. On piano Floyd Cramer and Dudley Brooks ***. The latter, although omitted from the session documentation, also played an instrument called celeste (or celesta) **** . On saxophone, one could once again hear the excellent Homer ‘Boots’ Randolph, who, like Floyd Cramer, joined the rest of the band only around 3 p.m. (and worked with them until 6 p.m.).
Additionally, to give the songs a more authentic Hawaiian sound, Bernie Lewis (or rather Bernal Keoki Kalauokalani Kaai, as that was his full name) and Fred Tavares on ukulele and Alvino Rey on steel guitar were also recruited for the recordings.
Elvis’ vocal accompaniment was provided by two groups this time: The Jordanaires (with the permanent line-up of Gordon Stoker, Neal Matthews, Hoyt Hawkins and Roy Walker) and The Surfers. A vocal quartet formed in the second half of the fifties by brothers – native Hawaiians, Clay and Ala Naluai.
Along with the aforementioned siblings, the group also included multi-instrumentalist Pat Sylva and drummer Bernie Ching (they all knew each other from school, Glendale Junior College in Glandale, California).
The band released their first albums, such as “On The Rocks”, “Christmas From Hawaii”, “High Tide” and “Tahiti”, under the HiFi label. After the contract with Richard Vaughn’s (HiFi founder) label expired, the band signed a contract with Decca. And it was this decision that soon resulted in an invitation to Presley’s session ***** . “When they were recording (the soundtrack, author’s note) they wanted to get an authentic Hawaiian sound “, Clay Naluai remembered in one of his interviews. “So they asked us if we would agree to record a soundtrack album with him (Elvis, author’s note). We spent three days in the studio. That’s how much time we spent working on this soundtrack. We had a great time! Elvis was a nice, really nice guy. He was no prima donna “.
Ironically, the quartet co-founder also remembered that Elvis led a very oppressive lifestyle outside the studio walls. “He couldn’t just go out and do whatever he wanted, ” he said. “Wherever he went, he was immediately surrounded (by fans, author’s note) on all sides! And he had this entourage of guys who went everywhere with him, just to keep him company. Otherwise, he would have been a very, very lonely man .”
The first to be recorded on tape, the entire session was recorded on an Ampex Model 300 tape recorder, was “Hawaiian Sunset”. A charming ballad with music and lyrics by Sammy Kaye (or rather Samuel Zarnocay Jr, because that was his real name). American conductor, composer and performer (he was the first to record such classics as “Blueberry Hill”, later popularized by Fats Domino and “Daddy”. However, it was the ballad “Harbor Lights” that brought him the greatest popularity).
Completed after seven, mostly complete takes, the song quickly put Elvis and his bandmates in a good mood, and soon they were working on another song. This time, an old Hawaiian folk song, “Aloha Oe,” composed by “Lydia” Lili’uokalani (or Lydia Lilli’u Loloku Walania Kamaka’eha, which was her full name) who reigned from 1891 to 1893 as Queen of the Hawaiian Islands.
“Composing came to me as naturally as breathing ,” Lili’uokalani wrote in her memoirs. “And this gift of nature, which I have never ceased to use, remains to this day the source of my greatest consolation. The hours which I am not yet comfortable speaking of, and which I can already consider long and lonely, passed quickly and merrily, thanks to the fact that I was able to find solace and occupy them by expressing my thoughts in music .”
“Aloha Oe” was written in 1878 as a farewell song, and was inspired by a visit by the then 40-year-old Princess Lili’uokalani to the Boyd ranch in Maunawilli on the island of Oahu. As one story goes, as she was leaving the residence belonging to Colonel James Boyd, Lili’uokalani looked back and saw one of the girls placing a traditional wreath of flowers around the neck of the aforementioned military official and tenderly bidding him farewell. He returned the kiss and supposedly hugged her just as tenderly.
While riding her horse back to Honolulu, the princess began humming a melody that would eventually evolve into the “Aloha Oe” we know today.
It should be added here that “Aloha Oe” was also one of the songs that Lili’uokalani rewrote while serving a four-year sentence of house arrest, imposed in 1895. “At first I had no instrument, so I had to copy the notes with my voice alone ,” she explained in her autobiography. “Despite the inconveniences, I found great solace in composing. I also copied many of my songs. Three of them went straight from my prison to Chicago, where they were reprinted. Among them were ‘Aloha Oe’ and ‘Farewell To Thee,’ which later became very popular songs .”
The Hawaii State Archives still preserves an 1878 manuscript of Lili’uokalani containing the musical score and the words to “Aloha Oe” along with the monarch’s handwritten inscription: “Composed at Maunaville in 1878. Performed by the Royal Hawaiian Band in August 1883. Became very popular .”
Today, “Aloha Oe” is one of the most famous Hawaiian songs (in 2007, Honolulu Magazine even named it the best song in Hawaii’s history), with songs by Frank Sinatra and Bing Crosby among others.
When recording the film version in 1961, Elvis Presley and the musicians present in the studio divided the work on the song into two stages. On the first day of the session, only the part described as “section 2” was recorded, in which Elvis sang (this was done on the seventh take). Two days later, on March 23, members of The Surfers recorded a vocal introduction to it (described as “section 1”). The entire song was created by combining both of these parts (or more precisely, their individual fragments. A fragment of the fifth and seventh takes, the so-called “section 1”, and the fourth take of “section 1” were used to put together the master version). In some sources, the arrangement of this recording is attributed to Elvis.
- The interview was recorded at the turn of March and April 1961 in Honolulu and broadcast on the “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” show hosted by Tom Moffatt
- According to Keith Flynn’s website, the meeting at Radio Recorders studio lasted from 12:30 to 18:00.
- Dudley Brooks was not actually listed in the original documentation of the session in question. Floyd Cramer, on the other hand, was only present in the studio from 3:00 to 6:00 p.m.
- Celeste is, according to Wikipedia, a keyboard musical instrument from the group of percussion instruments invented in the late 19th century. Its appearance and shape resembles a harmonium and it produces a sound similar to the sound of bells. It usually has from 49 to 65 keys
- Decca’s parent company was MCA Corporation, which controlled Paramount Studios, among other things. So when Paramount Pictures was looking for a group to provide Elvis with authentic Hawaiian vocals for the soundtrack to “Blue Hawaii,” Decca Records executives suggested The Surfers
Article written and provided by Mariusz Ogieglo, EP Promised Land (Poland) http://www.elvispromisedland.pl/
If you want to visit more articles about the life of Elvis Presley, enter the following Elvis Radio 24h link: https://elvisradio24h.com/tag/articles Thanks TCB
We remind you that you can also listen to Elvis Radio 24 hours on your mobile phone by downloading our free applications for Android in the Play Store https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.icreo.elvisradio24h1, and for iPhone in your Apple Store https://apps.apple.com/app/elvis-radio-24h/id6444257119. Thank you very much!!..
