Hula Girl - Sol Ho'opi'i

Aloha!  Now in 1934 our list brings us to the islands of Hawaii and the steel guitar virtuosity of Sol Ho'opi'i.  By this point in the 20th century Hawaiian music had become a huge fad (I would assume the largest sales in ukuleles until the hipster revival of the current decade) and the people were clambering to see the girls in their grass skirts and hear the strains of the steel guitar.  Sol was a native Hawaiian born in Honolulu (to what looks like a Duggar-type situation - he was child number 21) and early on learned to play the ukulele and in his teenage years the guitar.  Sol mastered the lap-steel guitar and developed the open tuning which is still used today and in Hula Girl we get to hear him improvising.  In 1938 Sol found religion and added hymns to his steel guitar repertoire.  Anyway, his recording of the Gershwin brother's Fascinating Rhythm was selected for preservation by the Library of Congress in 2012.

Kelly:

Oh man this shit is cheesy.  I'm actually surprised we never learned this song in ukulele back in the day, as it's the sort of high energy cheese-ball shit that we would perform.  Anyway, I really like Hawaiian music, but this song doesn't bring me back to the Islands.  I do, however, love the vaudevillian/barbershop style backup singers and harmony and I love that ukulele is keeping the energy in the song up enough that no drums are involved in this song.  I really like the extended solos too, we get to hear a bit of Sol's virtuosity.  Alas, there are other Hawaiian performers and songs that like better than this one.  3/5

Holly:

        Hula Girl (Sol Hoopii): 3/5 Ah. Hawaiian music. I feel like I should sit back and let Kelly review this one, since she has much more experience with it than I do. I actually had to try 3 times before even spelling Hawaiian right, so…

I liked this song! I found it really full of energy with kind of quirky guitar playing, and definitely unmistakeably Hawaiian. I don’t know if I’m just falling for the kitsch factor of the guitar playing, but I really liked the guitar solos. On the other hand though, I just can’t help but feel like it sounds a little bit like a novelty song!

It does have some historical significance, though, since the slack-key guitar playing craze influenced blues slide guitar playing later on, which is a really cool connection between these two styles.

Hula Girl