ALOHA JOE MAGAZINE
International Marketplace, Waikiki
<>
Island Recipes
<>
THE STORY OF.....
"These Islands," a Song by Danny Couch
written by Aloha JOE®
<** Most photos by: Kathy Boast**>
Danny
Couch
is a singer and composer, born in Hawaii,
who has tremendous affection for the Hawaiian Islands.
His music reflects
his
love of this place where "mountains make you cry."
Many
years ago, Danny gave our radio station (Aloha Joe Radio®)
his music to
play
and people across the airwaves responded with wonderful notes. We found
that there
were a lot of "Danny Fans" in the audience He has appeared on many of
our "LIVE" broadcasts from Hawaii, and once co-hosted the show with Aloha
JOE®.
 |
 |
|
Danny Couch Moe Keale |
Danny on-air in Waikiki |
When
Danny's signature song, “THESE ISLANDS,” won
the award as
"Song of the Year,"
he was unable to attend the award ceremony, so he asked if I would
bring
the
award to a Waikiki lu'au show where he was performing.
I came out of the
shadows
to present the Hoku Award to him on-stage,
in front of a packed house.
”These
Islands”
was chosen by the Hawaii Visitor's Bureau
as the theme song
for several of their visitor campaign commercials.
A perfect choice, in
that the
concept of the song came as a vision from the past.
THE
BOLT OUT OF THE BLUE!!
At
the time Danny wrote “These Islands,” he was experiencing
what is known
as a "writers-block." He hadn't written any music for several years.
One day, as he was stuck in Honolulu's traffic, his mind began to
wander.
He started thinking about his family and the future.
Then Danny’s thoughts turned to prayer as he asked his Mom
and other
ancestors
who had passed,
"what would you like me to leave here on your
behalf?"
Danny says, the lyrics to "These Islands"
suddenly came to him like a bolt out of the blue!
Danny doing "a luau show" **
Inspired
by the thoughts of his “Ohana, Danny
began to sing the melody of what
would become “These Islands” in the car and never changed
ONE WORD of the
original lyrics! He recorded the basic vocal track later that evening,
and what you hear on the recording is the
FIRST AND ONLY TAKE
(vocal version) of “These Islands.!”
Danny's
Mother, (Margaret Leilani Hauoli), was of Hawaiian decent, born and
raised in Honolulu. His father, (Charles Couch), is of English-Scottish-Irish
ancestry and came to Hawaii with the U.S. Navy.
Music was always a big
part of the Couch `Ohana.
He told us on many occasions that he got his singing voice from Mom;
she was a wonderful singer. Danny's family tree can be traced back to the
days of King Kamehameha the Great.
Danny's relatives spoke Hawaiian and
taught him the meaning of ALOHA.
Kamehameha the Great
established his dynasty in 1810 upon unifying the islands of Hawai’i
to become the Kingdom of Hawai’i.1758
– 1819
Please
take a moment to read the lyrics that came
"like a bolt of out of the
blue,"
about that place where “mountains make you cry.”
