| Submit your comments on this article |
| -Short Attention Span Theater- |
| Don Ho Dead at 76 |
| 2007-04-15 |
| HONOLULU — Legendary crooner Don Ho, known for his raspberry-tinted sunglasses and catchy signature tune "Tiny Bubbles," has died, his publicist said. He was 76. Publicist Donna Jung said the singer died Saturday morning of heart failure. He had suffered with heart problems for the past several years, and had a pacemaker installed last fall. In 2005, he underwent an experimental stem cell procedure on his ailing heart in Thailand in 2005. Ho entertained Hollywood's biggest stars and thousands of tourists for four decades. For many, no trip to Hawaii was complete without seeing his Waikiki show — a mix of songs, jokes, double entendres, Hawaii history and audience participation. Shows usually started and ended with the same song, "Tiny Bubbles," which Ho mostly hummed as the audience enthusiastically took over. "I hate that song," he often joked to the crowd, adding that he saved it for the end because "people my age can't remember if we did it or not." Donald Tai Loy Ho, who is Hawaiian, Chinese, Portuguese, Dutch and German, was born Aug. 13, 1930, in Honolulu and grew up in the then-rural countryside of Kaneohe. |
| Posted by:Steve White |
| #4 Don Ho Dead at 76 I blame Imus. |
| Posted by: Zenster 2007-04-15 16:55 |
| #3 Went to a Don Ho show in the first couple days of 2002. He'd been sick or otherwise MIA for a while, and this was his first concert back. It was a little sad, since it was held in a smallish banquet room, and was only half full. You got the feeling Don wasn't the draw he used to be. He sat at a desk and twiddled knobs, and occasionally sang. Most of the singing was done by other people. There was a little round Portuguese guy with an enormous voice, who was terrific. And a Japanese (I think) banjo player who sang "Locky Top". No kidding. Good player, but maybe he should pick other material. Don sang "Tiny Bubbles", his signature tune, and confessed that he hated the song. Toward the end he sang "Born Free" (I believe it was), and during the song -- in the actual middle of the phrase -- he was talking on the phone. We couldn't hear what he was saying into the phone, but we guessed he was ordering his post-show pizza: Cause yoooou're -- large sausage and mushroom -- boooorn -- Italian sausage this time, dammit -- freeeeeeee -- and an order of crazy bread.I enjoyed the show, in an anthropological sort of way, but I wished I could've seen it in an outdoor tiki hut with a bunch of sloshed Midwesterners in leis. My mistake, I realize now, was in not being drunker at the time. |
| Posted by: Angie Schultz 2007-04-15 12:56 |
| #2 Donald Tai Loy Ho, who Fixed that for 'em. He isn't anything more than a legend now (my grandparents used to love Don Ho and mercilessly forced us kids to watch him whenever he was on TV). |
| Posted by: FOTSGreg 2007-04-15 12:25 |
| #1 Unique Honolulu history, Thanks Don..always got a lift from you and the band. RIP DON Caught his act in Waikiki [Honolulu] in the 70s, once with her highness and another with some rock band friends from the mainland. [leaving out the sad ones] The good memories of Hawaii = party, surf, flying around the islands, diving, fishing, bearded clams and ..did I say party? |
| Posted by: RD 2007-04-15 06:10 |