Honolulu City Lights
"Honolulu City Lights" | |
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Song by Keola Beamer and Kapono Beamer | |
Released | 1978, re-released 1999 |
Genre | Hawaiian |
Label | Paradise Productions SLP 808 |
Songwriter(s) | Keola Beamer |
"Honolulu City Lights" is a song composed by Hawaiian singer/songwriter Keola Beamer (b. 1951) in the 1970s. The song opens an album by the same name, Honolulu City Lights, which became the all-time bestselling Hawaiian album.[1] It won several of the Hawaiian music industry's Na Hoku Hanohano Awards in 1979, among them that for Best Contemporary Hawaiian Album, and both song and album went on to become one of the most popular and most played works of contemporary Hawaiian music.
"Honolulu City Lights" | ||||
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Cover of the Carpenters' single "Honolulu City Lights" | ||||
Single by Carpenters | ||||
from the album Lovelines | ||||
B-side | "I Just Fall in Love Again" | |||
Released | 1986 | |||
Recorded | 1978 | |||
Genre | Pop | |||
Label | A&M 1940 | |||
Songwriter(s) | Keola Beamer | |||
Producer(s) | Richard Carpenter | |||
Carpenters singles chronology | ||||
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It has also become a Christmas music standard and is played on heritage radio station KSSK on its Christmas Music format during the Holiday season from November to December along with a handful of other Hawaiian standards and/or artists. A month long Christmas event in December that takes place in downtown Honolulu is also called Honolulu City Lights which began in 1985, but adopted the name officially in 1987.
A contemporary remake of the song was recorded by Richard and Karen Carpenter in 1978, but was not released until 1986 on single, and 1989 on album.
The Beamer Brothers album was re-released in 1999 as "Honolulu City Lights – 20th Anniversary" but listed as "Honolulu City Lights – 20th Anniversary" in leading catalogs and remains in print as of 2009.
Carpenters' version
According to the official website, Richard and Karen were vacationing in Hawaii in 1977 when they heard Keola Beamer's "Honolulu City Lights". They liked it and wanted to record it, eventually recording it at the same session as "Slow Dance".
The recording was not commercially released until three years after Karen Carpenter's death. They finally released it in 1986, three years before it was released on the Lovelines album.
Personnel
- Karen Carpenter – lead vocals
- Richard Carpenter – keyboards
- Joe Osborn – bass guitar
- Ron Tutt – drums
- Tim May – acoustic guitar
- Jay Dee Maness – pedal steel guitar
- Earle Dumler – English horn
- Gayle Levant – harp
- The O.K. Singers – backing vocals
References
- v
- t
- e
- Karen Carpenter
- Richard Carpenter
- Offering (Ticket to Ride) (1969)
- Close to You (1970)
- Carpenters (1971)
- A Song for You (1972)
- Now & Then (1973)
- Horizon (1975)
- A Kind of Hush (1976)
- Passage (1977)
- Christmas Portrait (1978)
- Made in America (1981)
- Voice of the Heart (1983)
- An Old-Fashioned Christmas (1984)
- Lovelines (1989)
- As Time Goes By (2001)
- Live in Japan (1975)
- Live at the Palladium (1976)
- The Singles: 1969–1973 (1973)
- The Singles: 1974–1978 (1978)
- The Very Best of the Carpenters (1982)
- Yesterday Once More (1984)
- Only Yesterday (1990)
- From the Top (1991)
- Interpretations: A 25th Anniversary Celebration (1995)
- Love Songs (1997)
- Reflections (1998)
- The Singles: 1969–1981 (2000)
- The Essential Collection: 1965–1997 (2002)
- Carpenters Perform Carpenter (2003)
- Gold: 35th Anniversary Edition (2004)
- The Ultimate Collection (2006)
- 40/40 (2009)
- Carpenters with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (2018)
- Time (1987)
- Karen Carpenter (1996)
- Pianist, Arranger, Composer, Conductor (1998)
- "Looking for Love"
- "Ticket to Ride"
- "(They Long to Be) Close to You"
- "We've Only Just Begun"
- "Merry Christmas, Darling"
- "For All We Know"
- "Rainy Days and Mondays"
- "Superstar"
- "Bless the Beasts and Children"
- "Hurting Each Other"
- "It's Going to Take Some Time"
- "Goodbye to Love"
- "Sing"
- "Yesterday Once More"
- "Top of the World"
- "Jambalaya (On the Bayou)"
- "I Won't Last a Day Without You"
- "Please Mr. Postman"
- "Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town"
- "Only Yesterday"
- "Solitaire"
- "There's a Kind of Hush (All Over the World)"
- "I Need to Be in Love"
- "Goofus"
- "All You Get from Love Is a Love Song"
- "Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft"
- "The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire)"
- "Sweet, Sweet Smile"
- "I Believe You"
- "Touch Me When We're Dancing"
- "(Want You) Back in My Life Again"
- "Those Good Old Dreams"
- "Beechwood 4-5789"
- "Make Believe It's Your First Time"
- "Your Baby Doesn't Love You Anymore"
- "Little Altar Boy"
- "Honolulu City Lights"
- "Something in Your Eyes"
- "If I Had You"
- "Ave Maria"
- "The Rainbow Connection"
- "Let Me Be the One"
- "A Song for You"
- "This Masquerade"
- "Breaking Up Is Hard to Do"
- "Can't Smile Without You"
- "I Just Fall in Love Again"
- "Tryin' to Get the Feeling Again"
- "Where Do I Go from Here"
and specials
- Make Your Own Kind of Music (1971)
- Live at the BBC (1971)
- Very First TV Special (1976)
- Space Encounters (1978)
- A Christmas Portrait (1978)
- Music, Music, Music (1980)
- Gold: Greatest Hits (1991 VHS / 2002 DVD)
- Interpretations (1995 VHS / 2003 DVD)
- Close to You: Remembering The Carpenters (1998)
- Only Yesterday: The Carpenters Story (2007)
- Discography
- Songs
- John Bettis
- Tony Peluso
- If I Were a Carpenter
- Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story
- The Karen Carpenter Story
- Classic Carpenters
- Category