Don Ho

1930年8月13日，Don Ho出生于夏威夷的檀香山，是夏威夷人、中國(guó)人、葡萄牙人、荷蘭人和德國(guó)人的混血種人，原名Donald Tai Loy Ho，在以前還是農(nóng)村的卡內(nèi)奧赫長(zhǎng)大。父親是一家酒巴的老板，他本人于上世紀(jì)60年代初闖入懷基基海灘一帶的娛樂(lè)圈，此后幾乎再也沒(méi)有離開(kāi)過(guò)這個(gè)小圈子。象他這樣一生幾乎不曾離開(kāi)同一演唱地的藝人，世上鮮有。
Don Ho曾于2004年這樣對(duì)美聯(lián)社記者說(shuō)：“夏威夷是我的伙伴！”
中學(xué)時(shí)候，Don Ho曾是學(xué)校里明星級(jí)的足球運(yùn)動(dòng)員，當(dāng)學(xué)生期間在一家菠蘿罐頭廠(chǎng)里工作過(guò)一段時(shí)間。1949年中學(xué)畢業(yè)后，憑運(yùn)動(dòng)獎(jiǎng)學(xué)金進(jìn)入馬薩諸塞州的斯普林菲爾德學(xué)院深造，后因思鄉(xiāng)心切，返回夏威夷群島，最終于1953年大夏威夷大學(xué)完成學(xué)業(yè)，獲得社會(huì)學(xué)學(xué)位。
受二戰(zhàn)期間美軍飛機(jī)進(jìn)出夏威夷的影響，Don Ho曾經(jīng)參加美國(guó)空軍。朝鮮戰(zhàn)爭(zhēng)結(jié)束后，他先后多次駕駛軍用運(yùn)輸機(jī)，往返于檀香山的希開(kāi)姆空軍基地和東京之間。解甲回鄉(xiāng)后，他從父親手中接過(guò)經(jīng)營(yíng)多年的酒巴Honey's，并組建了一個(gè)樂(lè)隊(duì)，并應(yīng)父親的請(qǐng)求開(kāi)始登臺(tái)表演。
Don Ho曾吐露心跡說(shuō)：“我原來(lái)根本無(wú)意成為一名藝人，我只是唱了幾首從收音機(jī)里聽(tīng)來(lái)的自己喜歡的歌曲，但過(guò)了不久，那里就人滿(mǎn)為患了。每到周末，等著聽(tīng)我演唱的人總會(huì)把長(zhǎng)隊(duì)排到大街上。”
后來(lái)，Honey's酒巴成了瓦胡島上一個(gè)不容游客錯(cuò)過(guò)的好去處，夏威夷其他地方的音樂(lè)人，也經(jīng)常駐足這里，即興舉辦一些搖滾爵士樂(lè)演奏會(huì)。他開(kāi)始到夏威夷的各種地方演唱，并于1966年獲得突破性成就，在好萊塢參加椰子林演唱會(huì)，并推出首張唱片《Tiny Bubbles》，獲得極大成功。
此后，他又到賭城拉斯韋加斯的火烈鳥(niǎo)酒店，開(kāi)拓自己的演藝事業(yè)舞臺(tái)。露西·寶爾、弗蘭克·辛那特拉等著名明星，都曾是他的忠實(shí)觀眾。1976-1977年，他還在ABC主持過(guò)電視節(jié)目“The Don Ho Show”，Don Ho最難以忘記的電視表演，是他于1972年在電視劇《The Brady Bunch》的一段表演。“這些年來(lái)我得到過(guò)太多的歡樂(lè)，但確實(shí)為那一次感到遺憾。”他在2004年接受采訪(fǎng)時(shí)這樣說(shuō)。
在對(duì)Don Ho進(jìn)行評(píng)價(jià)時(shí)，美國(guó)夏威夷現(xiàn)任州長(zhǎng)琳達(dá)·林格說(shuō)，Don Ho為夏威夷州創(chuàng)造了一份遺產(chǎn)，他將激勵(lì)未來(lái)一代又一代的夏威夷本土音樂(lè)人努力前進(jìn)。她說(shuō)：“夏威夷失去了一份真正的財(cái)富，他奠定了夏威夷音樂(lè)界目前享有的國(guó)際聲譽(yù)的基礎(chǔ)。”
除《Tiny Bubbles》外，Don Ho演唱的其他著名歌曲還包括：《我會(huì)記著你》(I'll Remember You)、《給你我所有的愛(ài)》(With All My Love)和《夏威夷婚禮曲》(Hawaiian Wedding Song)等。
by William Ruhlmann
Don Ho employed his talents as a middle-of-the-road pop singer and musical ambassador for Hawaii to launch a mainland career that included half a dozen chart albums, numerous television appearances, and engagements at top venues starting in the mid-60s. He was born in Kakaako, a small neighborhood in Honolulu on the island of Oahu in Hawaii and grew up in the city of Kaneohe, also on Oahu. After a stint in the Air Force, he took over a cocktail lounge in Kaneohe named Honeys, after his mother. There, he started a band, eventually called the Aliis, with himself as singer and organist. In 1962, he moved to the Oahu resort district of Waikiki, where he played in a nightclub called Dukes. There he began to come to the attention of the mainland entertainment business. He was signed to Reprise Records, which released his debut album, Don Ho Show, in 1965. In 1966, he made his debut at the Coconut Grove in Los Angeles, an engagement followed by others at such high-profile locations as the Sands in Las Vegas, Harrahs at Lake Tahoe, the Palmer House in Chicago, and the Americana Hotels Royal Box in New York. He also began turning up as a guest on network TV talk shows. Meanwhile, his records began to sell. His second album, a live collection called Don Ho — Again!, reached the charts in March 1966, but it was the release of Tiny Bubbles that fall which really broke him in record stores. The single placed in the pop and the easy listening charts, stimulating sales of a Tiny Bubbles LP that made the Top 20 and stayed in the charts nearly a year.
Ho continued to cultivate television, appearing as himself on such sitcoms as Batman and I Dream of Jeannie. His next album, another live collection, East Coast/West Coast, reached the charts but was only a modest seller. Subsequent records didnt do as well, but another live LP, Suck em Up (the title referring to his on-stage exhortation to the audience to drink heartily), gave him his fourth chart album in the spring of 1969. That summer, he co-hosted the Kraft Music Hall TV variety series with Sandler & Young, which increased his exposure and helped put Don Ho — Greatest Hits! and The Don Ho TV Show onto the charts.
Hos record sales declined after the late 60s, but he continued to perform extensively and appeared on television, notably on episodes of The Brady Bunch, Charlies Angels, and The Fall Guy. From October 1976 to March 1977, he hosted a half-hour daytime variety series, The Don Ho Show, broadcast over ABC-TV. By the 90s, he had launched his own label, Honey Records, to release his recordings and others by island favorites. He continued to make occasional TV appearances, and in 1996 had a small part in the film Joes Apartment. He performed regularly at his own club in Hawaii. Hoku, the seventh of his ten children, launched a singing career in 2000 with her song Another Dumb Blonde, which was used in the movie Snow Day and became a Top 40 hit, followed by the release of her debut album, Hoku.