9:52 yes! I was hoping you’d chime in on that, because (to me) that’s what makes the song so moving and powerful… that sense of “the world isn’t always as it should be or could be” and yet what a wonderful world it is.
I've heard, that in Hawaii people aren't sad that a person dies, but happy that the person lived. I think this is the most beautiful way to think about it.
This has ALWAYS been the only version of this song to me. When my teacher played this on a little cd player in class when i was seven, it was the first time I though a song was "beautiful".
from memory, we only have this song because he was at a recording studio with someone, and they asked if he wanted to play anything, and he just belted this out in one throwaway take. Not sure if it got re-recorded later or not, and I could have a few details wrong, but that's what I remember reading
Wikipedia: "In 1988, a friend of Kamakawiwoʻole called a Honolulu recording studio owned by Milan Bertosa at 3:00 am with a request that Kamakawiwoʻole be allowed to come in to make a recording. Bertosa was about to shut down, but told the friend that Kamakawiwoʻole could come if he was able to make it within 15 minutes. In a 2011 interview, Bertosa recalled, "In walks the largest human being I had seen in my life. Israel was probably like 500 pounds. And the first thing at hand is to find something for him to sit on." A security guard gave Kamakawiwoʻole a large steel chair. "Then I put up some microphones, do a quick sound check, roll tape, and the first thing he does is 'Somewhere Over the Rainbow.' He played and sang, one take, and it was over."
supposedly, when he first did a recording for this he came in at 3am(?) with the idea and absolutely nailed it the first take. I would recommend you listen to the remastered version that is a mashup of somewhere over the rainbow & Louis Armstrong's What a wonderful world; that was the version I grew up with as a kid growing up with family in Hawaii Some other songs to check out from him would be his cover/version of Country roads (in which he changes the place names to places within Hawai'i), and Hawai'i '78, which is a very political song (as a highway that would go through ancient burial and historical sites was being built in spite of the protests by native Hawaiian and the growing Hawaiian Renaissance that happened during that time period)
9:52 yes! I was hoping you’d chime in on that, because (to me) that’s what makes the song so moving and powerful… that sense of “the world isn’t always as it should be or could be” and yet what a wonderful world it is.
I've heard, that in Hawaii people aren't sad that a person dies, but happy that the person lived. I think this is the most beautiful way to think about it.
I think his legacy is that he brought joy and hope to many with his version of this song.
This song gets me teary every time
This has ALWAYS been the only version of this song to me. When my teacher played this on a little cd player in class when i was seven, it was the first time I though a song was "beautiful".
from memory, we only have this song because he was at a recording studio with someone, and they asked if he wanted to play anything, and he just belted this out in one throwaway take. Not sure if it got re-recorded later or not, and I could have a few details wrong, but that's what I remember reading
Wikipedia: "In 1988, a friend of Kamakawiwoʻole called a Honolulu recording studio owned by Milan Bertosa at 3:00 am with a request that Kamakawiwoʻole be allowed to come in to make a recording. Bertosa was about to shut down, but told the friend that Kamakawiwoʻole could come if he was able to make it within 15 minutes. In a 2011 interview, Bertosa recalled, "In walks the largest human being I had seen in my life. Israel was probably like 500 pounds. And the first thing at hand is to find something for him to sit on." A security guard gave Kamakawiwoʻole a large steel chair. "Then I put up some microphones, do a quick sound check, roll tape, and the first thing he does is 'Somewhere Over the Rainbow.' He played and sang, one take, and it was over."
This song WILL be played at my funeral alongside with Larry Riveras Love Song of Kalua.
IZ died in 1997. Such a shame, he had a wonderful voice.
When he sang it I believed it.
supposedly, when he first did a recording for this he came in at 3am(?) with the idea and absolutely nailed it the first take. I would recommend you listen to the remastered version that is a mashup of somewhere over the rainbow & Louis Armstrong's What a wonderful world; that was the version I grew up with as a kid growing up with family in Hawaii
Some other songs to check out from him would be his cover/version of Country roads (in which he changes the place names to places within Hawai'i), and Hawai'i '78, which is a very political song (as a highway that would go through ancient burial and historical sites was being built in spite of the protests by native Hawaiian and the growing Hawaiian Renaissance that happened during that time period)
Eva Cassiday did a beautiful cover of this song and I urge you to check it out, if not for your channel, for yourself.
Yessssssd!!! Such a beautiful version