Customer Reviews

Island Summer 60's & 70's

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Hey, if you have to get an oldies compilation CD this year, buy this one. This collection features a great selection of radio hits that were popular in Hawaii during the late 60s and early 1970s.

Of particular note are the tracks "Forevermore" by the Tokyo Happy Coats, which has up to now been largely out of print. This is the song's first appearance on CD. Tokyo Happy Coats were a popular singing group from Japan that were featured on the Ed Sullivan show in the 1960s and racked up a string of albums and singles on the King Record label. "Forevermore" is the kind of bilingual love song that should truly become a Karaoke standard if not already.

Sweet Marie's rousing rocker, "Remember Mary" is a cross between Jimi Hendrix and Santana's style, featuring soaring vocals and guitar work. Sweet Marie set local radio on fire in 1970 with this rocker.

Among the local artists who were popular in the early 70s make are Liz Damon & the Orient Express who scored a Billboard Top 40 hit with "1900 Yesterday." This is a very mellow, Carpenters-like tune that reached #1 on local radio.

Should have been bigger hits: Cecilio & Kapono and the band Kalapana could have been huge national sellers if their records were marketed correctly on the mainland. The 2 tracks on "Island Summer" presents the first time listener with a sample of their immensely popular catalogue. Both "Sunflower" and "You Make It Hard" were radio staples of the mid-1970s and still get airplay today.

Sonny Gerraci and Climax hit the #1 spot on local radio charts with their well known hit, "Precious & Few" 6 months before the record made the Top 10 on the mainland in 1972.

All of these tracks are part of this beautifully packaged release that is a must for anyone who remembers Hawaii top 40 radio for what it once was. Get "Island Summer 60s and 70s" today.

Excellent compilation of some rare singles that were very popular on the local Honolulu radio stations in the late 60's & early to mid 70's. You never hear most of these on the oldies stations on the mainland now days. Extremely rare is the track Forevermore by the Tokyo Happy Coats. I believe that this is the only digital copy of this song ever to be put out. Liz Damon (1900 Yesterday) was a long standing night club act at the same hotel Don Ho used to perform at. Kalapana, Cecilio & Kapono, and Country Comfort were extremely popular local Honolulu bands in the early to mid 70's. The person(s) who put this together obviously lived on the islands during this time period and was in tune with the local music scene. Excellent value and a must have for the Hawaiian baby boomer collector.

This superb collection is so good--these are precious songs rarely heard anymore; some no longer in circulation today. They are guaranteed to bring back wonderful memories.

I agree with the above reviewers. These songs will wisk you back to a simpler, joyful time. This is a priceless collection that's hard to find anywhere that got good airplay on the AM radio. The mastering is good, a couple of the tracks were dubbed from vinyl, and the sound on some of the tracks are enhanced to restore some of the wider range and balance. I've given many of these CDs away as gifts to friends who are classmates and enjoy the music of the time.

This is a wonderful mix of local Hawaii-produced music, mixed with others from elsewhere that also became hits in Hawaii. Most of these are hard to find on CDs elsewhere. I personally don't care for a couple of the tracks, but with 12-14 favorites, who's to complain?