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Tiki Talk: The Hawaiian Elvis and the Legacy of Tiny Bubbles · Mega Rock On Demand

• 0:11
  SPEAKER_00: It's Friday afternoon, and it's time we light the torches once again for Tiki Talk on Mega Rock.
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_00: Ben Willis with you, and one of the big personalities when you talk about mid-century tiki and Hawaiian tourist culture in particular was a man by the name of Donald Ty Loy Ho, better known as Don Ho.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, the Hawaiian Elvis was one of his many nicknames, was born in Honolulu, Hawaii, to families of native Hawaiian, Chinese, Portuguese, Dutch, and German heritage.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_00: So, truly, the result of a grand melting pot as we see in so many places in the world, but in particular in Hawaii.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_00: In the 1950s, Don Ho spent some time in the U.S.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_00: Air Force, but left by 1959 to return to Hawaii, not only to care for his ailing mother, but also to help run the family bar, Honeys, in Kanaohe, where he began performing as a vocalist.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_00: By 1963, he was hired to perform at Duke's, which was owned by the legendary surfer Duke Kohanamoku, which is where he was discovered by officials from Reprise Records.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_00: Released his debut album, The Don Ho Show, in 1965, and the rest, as they say, is history.
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_00: Don Ho was known for his friendly rapport with the audience.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_00: His most famous song, Tiny Bubbles, actually hit number 57 on the Billboard charts, and his album of the same name was in the top 200 for almost a year, believe it or not.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_00: Now, one of those souvenirs that you would have taken home from Duke's at a show with Don Ho was one of the Double Rocks or Mai Thai glasses, featuring his face and his name.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_00: And in that glass, you would most likely have been served an Island Mai Thai.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_00: It's a variant on Trader Vic's original 1944 classic Mai Thai with some added fruit juice for a more tropical beach drink flair.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_00: And the island Mai Thai is as follows.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_00: In your Shaker tin, you're gonna add one and a half ounces of orange juice, one and a half ounces of pineapple juice, three-quarter ounce of your fresh lime juice, a half ounce of your orjot almond syrup, three-quarter ounce of your orange curacao liqueur, an ounce and a half of light rum, and three-quarter ounce of a nice dark Jamaican rum.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_00: And maybe save a little bit extra to float later on.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_00: In your shaker with your ice, gonna shake that up nice and cold, dump everything into your Don Ho glass, and float a little bit of that dark rum right on top of everything.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_00: Garnish with your mint sprig, a lime wedge, and a skewered cherry, and there you go, your Don Ho style island Mai Thai.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_00: As he would have said, suck 'em up.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_00: So until we meet on another island somewhere out there in the sea, this is Ben Willis saying aloha, and we're gonna send you off with a banger this week with the Don Ho bop, it's the Hula Girls on Tiki Talk on Mega Rap.