Every weekend there would be lines down the street.” “I just played songs I liked from the radio, and pretty soon that place was jammed. “I had no intention of being an entertainer,” Ho said. When he returned home and took over his parents’ struggling neighborhood bar, Honey’s, he put together a band and started performing at his father’s request. As the Korean War wound down, he piloted transport planes between Hickam Air Force Base in Honolulu and Tokyo. military planes flying in and out of Hawaii during World War II, Ho joined the Air Force. He grew homesick, returned to the islands and ended up graduating from the University of Hawaii in 1953 with a degree in sociology. After graduating in 1949, he attended Springfield College in Massachusetts on an athletic scholarship. In high school, he was a star football player and worked for a brief time in a pineapple cannery. 13, 1930, in Honolulu and grew up in the then-rural countryside of Kaneohe. “Hawaii is my partner,” Ho told The Associated Press in 2004.ĭonald Tai Loy Ho, who was Hawaiian, Chinese, Portuguese, Dutch and German, was born Aug.
Few artists are more associated with one place. The son of bar owners, Ho broke into the Waikiki entertainment scene in the early 1960s and, except for short periods, never left. He said he performed it twice because “people my age can’t remember if we did it or not.” “I hate that song,” he often joked to the crowd. Shows usually started and ended with the same song, “Tiny Bubbles.” Ho mostly hummed the song’s swaying melody as the audience enthusiastically took over the familiar lyrics: “Tiny bubbles/in the wine/make me happy/make me feel fine.” For many, no trip to Hawaii was complete without seeing his Waikiki show - a mix of songs, jokes, double entendres, Hawaii history and audience participation. Ho entertained Hollywood’s biggest stars and thousands of tourists for four decades. Afterward, Ho reminisced about his many years in Waikiki and talked about how Judy Garland sang with him one night. Promoter Tom Moffatt said he attended Ho’s final show Thursday and Ho received a standing ovation. In 2005, he underwent an experimental stem cell procedure on his ailing heart in Thailand. Ho had suffered with heart problems for the past several years, and had a pacemaker installed last fall. He died Saturday morning of heart failure, publicist Donna Jung said. Well I did end up singing it for him a couple days later at one of his shows.HONOLULU - Legendary crooner Don Ho, who entertained tourists for decades wearing raspberry-tinted sunglasses and singing the catchy signature tune “Tiny Bubbles,” has died. ( Later I heard that Kalani and Pat didn't get home till 5 in the morning ).
so I gave him a copy and said " later dude". Fire jugglers, the pit, the pig, the whole bit.They go on for days.Anyways, I was going to sing it for him at the party but my day was long and I was running on fumes.
Kalani and his wife Pat are known to have thrown some of the biggest and best outdoor Luau's this side of the mighty Miss. The place was decked out to the hilt.With an authentic musical band and traditional beautiful dancers to boot.Which included one of his own daughters who just flown in from Hawaii to surprise Dad.It was very cool. Just recently turned 70.His birthday party was the best I've ever been to. I did finally get around to writing the second half of this parody.I dedicate this to an old friend - Kalani.He is a very talented musician, singer entertainer with plenty of Hawaiian charm.