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The “Stand By Me” hula

Maybe it’s just a coincidence but every live band I’ve seen in Honolulu, from the Jimmy Buffet wannabees to a troupe of ukulele players strumming on Kuhio Beach, has played “Stand By Me.” The band at the Shorebird in the Outrigger Reef hotel did a lovely slack-key version of it the other night. At the Moana Surfrider a woman who played the organ and sang a lot like Karen Carpenter did a version that was so soulful you knew for certain there was a story behind why she was singing that particular song. No doubt a sad story.

Sunday afternoon a duo playing at Duke’s, one of its members sporting a Hawaiian Mohawk haircut, did it fronted by a hula dancer. I’m still not sure how I feel about that.

photo by David Lansing

photo by David Lansing

As you probably know, the only reason that song ever got recorded in the first place is because Ben E. King was in the studio recording “Spanish Harlem” and finished up early. As he was packing up, the producers asked him if he had anything else. So he played “Stand By Me,” which he thought was a throw-away song, on the piano, and the producers loved it. Somebody ran out to get the other musicians before they left and an hour later, they’d cut a classic record.

And now, some 50 years later, some little lady at a bar on Waikiki is dancing the hula to it. I wonder what Mr. King would make of that.

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