Christmas Music Advent Calendar: Killer Little Songs

Day One - Hawaii!

Well, hold up. Let's back up a bit first.

Every year, I hear all the Christmas music on our stations, and like you, I occasionally get the itch for something...different. Okay, maybe I don't need the Rob Zombie version of "Silent Night", but you get what I mean. So, what I'm going to do is from now until Christmas, I'm going to explore all sorts of different Christmas Music to find something you might not have heard this season.

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I mean, we don't need to reinvent the wheel. But you might wanna mix it up a little at your next holiday party or something. Or maybe it can be a trivia question you pop at over Egg Nog. Who knows. Anyway, today's entry into the Advent Calendar is... ..

THE SURFERS!

To really understand this one, you'll have to go back in time. After World War II, the official push to make Hawaii a state became a real thing. In fact, most of the "lower 48" so to speak, became obsessed with "Hawaiian" culture. People loved Hawaiian shirts, Lais, hula dancing, anything they attributed to that culture. And groups like this were formed because of it! The group started out as a couple of brothers attending High School in southern California.

In 1957, Al and Clay were attending Glendale Junior College in Glendale, California. There they befriended two other native Hawaiians: percussionist Bernie Ching and Pat Sylva, a multi-instrumentalist who could hold his own on piano, vibes, ukelele or trombone. Both Pat and Bernie sang as well. They all ended up joining the school choir, and traveling up and down the West Coast doing concerts. One day, the choir director asked the four friends to work up arrangements of some traditional Hawaiian tunes and perform them as specialty numbers. They did, and the boys' act went over big on stage. That's when, according to Clayton, "we started having fun with it."

Eventually the guys ended up recording albums and performing in Vegas! After that, it seems like they became a working, touring band. I'm not sure about all of what happened after that - they don't have a Wikipedia page - but you can enjoy the song all the same.

What are some songs you'd add to the Wacky Christmas Song Advent Calendar?

Advently yours,
Behka

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