The famous tiki musician Don Ho was born in Honolulu in 1930. With Chinese, Hawaiian, Portuguese, Dutch, and German ancestors, Don Ho was born Donald Tai Loy Ho, and would become a Hawaiian pop musician and entertainer at the height of the tiki craze in the 1950’s and 1960’s. Even today, his songs stand out as beautiful Hawaiian melodies.

Ho grew up in Honolulu and O’ahu, before entering the Air Force in 1954. While stationed in Concord, California, he bought an electronic keyboard and began playing. When he left the Air Force in 1959 to return home to Hawaii in order to care for his ailing mother, he began playing at Honey’s, his mother’s cocktail lounge in Kaneohe. This club soon became a nightly hotspot of local entertainment, visited by many servicemen from the nearby Kaneohe Marine Base. Don Ho moved the club to Waikiki in 1963. There he caught the attention of Kimo Wilder McVay, a music promoter, who asked him to play at Duke’s, a nightclub owned by Duke Kahanamoku. There, he caufht the attention of Reprise Records.

Don Ho’s debut album, “Don Ho Show,” was released in 1965. Soon he was playing huge shows from Las Vegas to New York City, including a record-breaking two week engagement at the Cocoanut Grove, a posh Hollywood club. Many of these shows featured hula dancers to accompany his Hawaiian tunes; veterans of the war in the Pacific were invited on stage to join the dancers. In the fall of 1966, he released “Tiny Bubbles,” which would become his most famous hit, followed by “Pearly Shells,” another hit song. By this time, he was making guest appearances on The Brady Bunch, Charlie’s Angels, and I Dream of Jeannie, among other hit shows, and appeared alongside Johnny Carson, Art Linkletter, Johnny Cash, and other stars of the day. In 1976 and 1977 he starred in the Don Ho Show variety program, which aired on ABC weekday mornings.

Ho got his start in Waikiki, and always considered it his home. For many years, he headlined a show at the Waikiki Beachcomber, a famous tiki resort. Ho created his own musical style, based on local tunes and traditional Hawaiian melodies. Backed by a band of drums, guitar, bass, xylophone, and piano, Ho played an organ while he sang. Five nights a week, Ho played and sang while sharing Hawaiian culture with the audience. Don Ho was known for calling upon the audience to sing, clap, or dance. Tourists, locals, and even visiting Hollywood stars came to see Don Ho.

Ho passed away in Waikiki due to heart failure in 2007, leaving behind a legacy of more than 50 years of tiki music. Today, his music remains one of the most popular choices for those looking to recreate a tropical Hawaiian ambience for a luau or a tiki party. Whether you’re from the islands or are looking to create the energy of the tropics in your own backyard, look towards Don Ho for sounds from the tiki heyday of the 1960s.

Author Bio: Royal Tiki has a wide range of Tiki, hand-carved on Hawaii. Also check our Tiki hut specials

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