Aloha ʻOe


"Aloha ʻOe" is a Hawaiian folk song written by Queen "Lydia" Liliʻuokalani, who was then Princess of the Hawaiian Kingdom. It is her most famous song and is a common cultural symbol for Hawaii.

Background

The story of the origin of the song has several variations. They all have in common that the song was inspired by a notable farewell embrace given by Colonel James Harbottle Boyd during a horseback trip taken by Princess Liliʻuokalani in 1877 or 1878 to the Boyd ranch in Maunawili on the windward side of Oʻahu, and that the members of the party hummed the tune on the way back to Honolulu. Different versions tell of alternate recipients of the embrace—either Liliʻuokalani's sister Princess Likelike Cleghorn or a young lady at the ranch. According to the most familiar version of the story:

This tender farewell set Liliʻuokalani to thinking, and she began humming to herself on the homeward trip. Overhearing, Charles Wilson observed, "That sounds like The Lone Rock by the Sea," a comment with which Liliʻuokalani is said to have agreed. When the party paused to rest in an orange grove on the Honolulu side of the Pali, the others joined in the hummings, and the song was completed later at Washington Place.

The Hawaiʻi State Archives preserves a hand-written manuscript by Liliʻuokalani, dated 1878, with the score of the song, the Hawaiian language lyrics, Liliʻuokalani's English translation, and her note evidently added later: "Composed at Maunawili 1878. Played by the Royal Hawaiian Band in San Francisco August 1883 and became very popular."
The first known recording of the song was released by Berliner Gramophone in 1898. A catalogue issued by Columbia Records in 1901 mentioned two wax cylinders labeled "Vocal Solos in Hawaiian", containing some of the earlier recordings of "Aloha ʻOe" and "Kuʻu Pua I Paoakalani". However, it is uncertain if this was recorded in Hawaii or if the performer was Hawaiian and the cylinders are now lost. Columbia Records later recorded a duet of the song by Nani Alapai and Henry N. Clark in 1911.
A 1913 score can be seen at the Levy Sheet Music Collection.

Lyrics

Musicology

Parts of "Aloha ʻOe" resemble the song "The Lone Rock by the Sea" and the chorus of George Frederick Root's 1854 song "There's Music in the Air". "The Lone Rock by the Sea" mentioned by Charles Wilson, was "The Rock Beside the Sea" published by Charles Crozat Converse in 1857, which itself was derived from a Croatian/Serbian folk song, "Sedi Mara na kamen studencu". The chorus' melody was also used as the counterpoint to the chorus of the jazz song "Hula Lou" and also could be a counterpoint to Woody Guthrie's folk song, "This Land Is Your Land" or Dan Baird's "I Love You Period".

Notable recordings

"Aloha ʻOe" appeared in the scores of many of Warner Bros.' classic Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies cartoons, as composer Carl Stalling's stock musical cue for Hawaii-themed gags. Usually instrumental, but Bugs Bunny actually sings one line of the refrain at the very end of Case of the Missing Hare. In the 1953 cartoon short, Duck Amuck part of it is briefly sung by Daffy Duck when the scenery is changed to a Hawaiian setting, courtesy of a sadistic mystery animator and again in A Squeak in the Deep. In the 1958 Oscar-winning short Knighty Knight Bugs, the cartoon ends with an enchanted sword performing an instrumental version of the song.
The song has appeared in several instances throughout Disney's Lilo & Stitch franchise. In Lilo & Stitch, Nani sings it to Lilo as a farewell the night before they were to be separated. In the Lilo & Stitch: The Series episode "Spooky", Lilo reveals to Stitch that she sings the song to herself as a coping mechanism, which leads to Stitch doing so for himself later in the same episode, to Lilo's approval. In Leroy & Stitch, Jumba Jookiba uses Elvis Presley's cover of the song during the creation of Leroy to secretly program a fail-safe within him; this is exploited during the climax in Stitch, Lilo, and Reuben play an upbeat rock version during the finale to shut Leroy and his clones down.
In the episode "Cruise Cat" of Tom and Jerry, a guitar version of this song plays in the background.
In the first episode of the 1963 Hanna-Barbera cartoon Top Cat entitled "Hawaii, Here We Come", at the start of the episode, Benny the Ball sings the song, after winning a free trip to Hawaii, sometime later Officer Dibble also sings the song. They both however replace some of the lyrics with English ones.
In the Japanese anime Space Dandy, the eponymous main character is captain of a spaceship called the Aloha Oe.
The Jack London short story Aloha Oe features the chorus of the song.
When Jiang Zemin, then-Chinese President and the General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party, arrived at Hawaii at the beginning of his state visit to U.S. in October 1997, he played "Aloha ʻOe" with a Hawaiian lap steel guitar and invited then Hawaiian First Lady Vicky Cayetano to sing the song at a dinner with the presence of Governor Ben Cayetano. Jiang recounted that he used to frequently play this song when he was in college in 1940s.
Aloha 'Oe also inspired a traditional farewell ceremony of the same name for graduating seniors of the University of Tennessee beginning in 1926.