Show 24: Addeo/Cates

This week’s show pays tribute to two artists who made some excellent “tiki bar” music. Not quite straight ahead exotica, not quite hapa haole, not quite Hawaiian... but a good blend of it all.

Leo Addeo (b. October 14, 1914) was a Brooklyn born Italian-American who worked in several capacities in the music industry – as a performer, arranger, conductor, and producer. But, judging by the many albums he released, he seemed to specialize in Hawaiian music. A little bit of info on Addeo can be found here and at spaceagepop, of course. I’m featuring songs from what I believe are Addeo’s first two Hawaiian records. I’ve read that guitarist Billy Mure plays on More Hawaii in Hi-Fi.

There seems to be a bit more information available on our second featured artist, George Cates (b. October 19, 1911), mostly due to his 25-year association with Lawrence Welk (info and a photo here and, once again, at spaceagepop). Cates released two Hawaiian records, Polynesian Percussion and Hawaii, which some folks believe to be the same record minus two songs. However, having given the two records a good listen, I noticed that while some arrangements on Hawaii are identical to those on Polynesian Percussion, they are missing intros or certain other small details. Maybe some songs are the same recordings, maybe they just share arrangements... who knows. What matters is that it’s all good stuff.


Song 1 : : Sweet Leilani
Artist : : Leo Addeo
Album : : Hawaii in Stereo

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Song 2 : : Red Sails in the Sunset
Artist : : Leo Addeo
Album : : More Hawaii in Hi-Fi

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Song 3 : : Drifting and Dreaming
Artist : : George Cates
Album : : Hawaii

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Song 4 : : Bali Hai
Artist : : George Cates
Album : : Polynesian Percussion

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Song 5 : : The Sheik of Araby
Artist : : Leo Addeo
Album : : More Hawaii in Hi-Fi

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Song 6 : : Beyond the Reef
Artist : : George Cates
Album : : Hawaii