PRIVATE LABEL HAWAIIAN 78 Paradise Islanders SAM KOKI 1st NIGHT YOU SAID ALOHA?

$

60

  PRIVATE LABEL HAWAIIAN 78 Paradise Islanders SAM KOKI 1st NIGHT YOU SAID ALOHA?

Offered for sale for the first time anywhere...

THE NIGHT YOU SAID ALOHA TO ME (Koki) / BEYOND THE REEF (Pitman)
Paradise Islanders
Vocal by Leilani Woolf (on "Beyond the Reef")
Featuring Phil Hale, Electric Steel Guitar (both songs)
after 1948 / Paradise Islanders 501 [private label]
Vintage 10" 78rpm Record

Features interesting labels that were printed on a printing press, but the original art and lettering for each side was hand-drawn individually.

Ultra obscure record that doesn't show up on Discogs or anywhere else.

Perhaps most interesting is the appearance of "The Night You Said Aloha to Me" and it being attributed to Sam Koki -- who indeed led a band called the Paradise Islanders. However, the song doesn't show up on any of his American records.

And, it doesn't officially seem to be his song...

"The Night You Said Aloha to Me" has become a standard in the Hawaiian repertoire, particularly at steel guitar festivals, and was copyrighted in 1945 with words and music by Hal Aloma and John Leal -- but did not appear on any of Aloma's American LP releases until his 1962 "Hal Aloma Sings Island Songs" (Dot Records DLP 3451).

The record I am offering certainly predates Aloma's 1962 release, and "The Night You Said Aloha To Me" doesn't show up on ANY American album I could find before 1962. Does it appear on obscure Hawaiian label records? I don't know.

But, if it doesn't, this might actually be its earliest appearance on record.

"Beyond The Reef" was written in 1948 and first recorded in 1949, so this record can't be older than  that.

Now, of course, there were other "Paradise Islanders" bands besides Sam Koki's.

One interesting possibility is Carl "Kalani" Asercion. His Paradise Islanders band toured the United States extensively during the period the record likely came out, including the midwest.

And, who is steel guitarist "Phil Hale"? I get nothing on him.

I had better luck with vocalist Leilani Woolf.

A strong candidate is Winona Leilani Woolf (1925-2015). There are online tribute pages for her that  provides facts about her life and performing that mesh well with this record. She was a Hawaii-born hula performer who married an American serviceman and moved to Ohio after the war. She died in 2015, but performed with steel guitarist Bobby Ingano at the Dayton CityFolk Festival in 2008.

I found this record in Celina, Ohio.

Google searches for "Leilani Woolf" will lead you to her tribute pages.

A worthy addition to even the most advanced collection of Hawaiian music, with enough unknowns about it to provide a challenge for further research and potentially significant discovery. And, a record that is not likely to surface again soon.

Condition: Record is in played condition and has numerous scratches, but plays without skipping. Labels are beautiful. 

All photographs are of actual item.

Full refunds cheerfully given for any item that I have misdescribed.