Although this album was recorded in Hawaii you'd never know it if you didn't have the CD insert at hand. That's not to say this is a bad recording. But if you're looking for genuine Hawaiian instrumentals with ukulele and steel and slack key guitar this isn't going to appeal to you. It's strictly an orchestral recording.
Hawaii's Favorite Instrumentals was issued in 1983 by Hula Records, one of the islands' top recording enterprises, but was probably recorded earlier as the CD was mastered from analog sources. The sound quality and stereo separation are superb, so lovers of easy listening music that has an expansive aural palette would be well advised to search for a copy.
Recording credits are slim; no arranger or musicians are credited. The executive producer was Don McDiarmid Jr., the head of Hula Records, while his son, Donald P. (Flip) McDiarmid III, was the hands-on producer.
McDiarmid Jr., who died in 2010 at age 88, campaigned for years to have a Hawaiian music category added to the Grammy Awards. That finally happened in 2005.
McDiarmid Jr. helped launch the careers of many Hawaiian entertainers, including Don Ho, who made his first commercial recordings for Hula Records. Among the other artists who recorded for Hula were Gabby Pahinui and the Cazimero Brothers.
"One thing that he really stressed was the importance of preserving Hawaiian music correctly, by doing that not only through recorded music, but by printed lyrics and biographical material about the artists and about the songs themselves," Flip McDiarmid told the Honolulu Advertiser newspaper after his father's death.
Unfortunately that kind of information isn't available for this album. But the Orchestral Strings, whoever the might be, provide a fine version of Don Ho's signature song Tiny Bubbles.
Tiny Bubbles
Hawaii's Favorite Instrumentals is out of print and doesn't look like it's available as a download. However, copies of the CD frequently turn up on eBay and other auction sites at a reasonable price. Those sold on Amazon tend to be overpriced.
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