"Mele Kalikimaka" is a Hawaii

Hawaii

Hawaii is the newest of the 50 U.S. states , and is the only U.S. state made up entirely of islands. It is the northernmost island group in Polynesia, occupying most of an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean, southwest of the continental United States, southeast of Japan, and northeast of...

an-themed Christmas song that takes its title from the Hawaiian

Hawaiian language

The Hawaiian language is a Polynesian language that takes its name from Hawaii, the largest island in the tropical North Pacific archipelago where it developed. Hawaiian, along with English, is an official language of the state of Hawaii...

 phrase, "Mele Kalikimaka," meaning "Merry Christmas." The phrase is borrowed directly from English, but, since Hawaiian has a different phonological

Phonology

Phonology is, broadly speaking, the subdiscipline of linguistics concerned with the sounds of language. That is, it is the systematic use of sound to encode meaning in any spoken human language, or the field of linguistics studying this use...

 system (in particular, Hawaiian does not possess the /r/ or /s/ of English, nor does it have the phonotactic

Phonotactics

Phonotactics is a branch of phonology that deals with restrictions in a language on the permissible combinations of phonemes...

 constraints to allow consonants at the end of a syllable), "Merry Christmas" becomes "Mele Kalikimaka."
The song

Song

In music, a song is a composition for voice or voices, performed by singing.A song may be accompanied by musical instruments, or it may be unaccompanied, as in the case of a cappella songs...

 was written in 1949 by Robert Alex Anderson who is better known to fans of Hawaiian and hapa

Hapa

Hapa is a Hawaiian language term used to describe a person of mixed Asian or Pacific Islander racial or ethnic heritage.-Etymology:In the Hawaiian language, hapa is defined as: portion, fragment, part, fraction, installment; to be partial, less. It is a loan from the English word half...

 haole

Haole

Haole , in the Hawaiian language, is generally used to refer to an individual that fits one of the following: "White person, American, Englishman, Caucasian; American, English; formerly, any foreigner; foreign, introduced, of foreign origin, as plants, pigs, chickens"...

 music as R. Alex Anderson. One of the earliest recordings of this song was by Bing Crosby

Bing Crosby

Harry Lillis "Bing" Crosby was an American singer and actor. Crosby's trademark bass-baritone voice made him one of the best-selling recording artists of the 20th century, with over half a billion records in circulation....

 & The Andrews Sisters

The Andrews Sisters

The Andrews Sisters were a highly successful close harmony singing group of the swing and boogie-woogie eras. The group consisted of three sisters: contralto LaVerne Sophia Andrews , soprano Maxene Angelyn Andrews , and mezzo-soprano Patricia Marie "Patty" Andrews...

 in 1950 on Decca 27228 (78 rpm) / 9-27228 (45 rpm) and has been covered by several artists. The song is featured in National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation

National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation

Christmas Vacation is a 1989 Christmas comedy film directed by Jeremiah S. Chechik. It is the third installment in National Lampoon's Vacation film series, and was written by John Hughes, based on his short story in National Lampoon Magazine, Christmas ‘59...

.

Notable versions

• Bing Crosby
  Bing Crosby
  Harry Lillis "Bing" Crosby was an American singer and actor. Crosby's trademark bass-baritone voice made him one of the best-selling recording artists of the 20th century, with over half a billion records in circulation....
  
   and the Andrews Sisters
• Don Ho
  Don Ho
  Donald Tai Loy "Don" Ho was a Hawaiian and traditional pop musician, singer and entertainer.-Life and career:Ho, of Chinese, Hawaiian, Portuguese, Dutch, and German descent, was born in the small Honolulu neighborhood of Kakaako, but he grew up in Kāneohe on the windward side of the island of Oahu...
  
  
• Davy Jones
  Davy Jones (actor)
  David Thomas "Davy" Jones is an English rock singer-songwriter and actor best known as a member of the Monkees.-Early life:...
  
  
• Arthur Lyman
  Arthur Lyman
  Arthur Lyman was an American jazz vibraphone and marimba player. His group popularized a style of faux-Polynesian music during the 1950s and 1960s which later became known as exotica...
  
  
• KT Tunstall
  KT Tunstall
  Kate Victoria "KT" Tunstall is a Scottish singer-songwriter and guitarist from St Andrews, Scotland. She broke into the public eye with a 2004 live solo performance of her song "Black Horse and the Cherry Tree" on Later... with Jools Holland...
  
  
• Chris Isaak
  Chris Isaak
  Christopher Joseph "Chris" Isaak is an American rock musician and occasional actor.-Early life:Isaak was born in Stockton, California, the son of Dorothy , a potato chip factory worker, and Joe Isaak, a forklift driver. Isaak's mother is Italian American, originating from Genoa...
  
  
• Hawaii Calls
  Hawaii Calls
  Hawaii Calls was a radio program that ran from 1935 through 1975 that featured live Hawaiian music conducted by Harry Owens, the composer of "Sweet Leilani"...
  
  
• Jimmy Buffett
  Jimmy Buffett
  James William "Jimmy" Buffett is a singer-songwriter, author, entrepreneur, and film producer. He is best known for his music, which often portrays an "island escapism" lifestyle. Together with his Coral Reefer Band, Buffett's musical hits include "Margaritaville" , and "Come Monday"...
  
  , from Christmas Island
  Christmas Island (album)
  Christmas Island is a 1996 collection of Jimmy Buffett's Christmas-themed music and is his 22nd studio album. It features covers of popular Christmas songs in Buffett's musical stylings as well as two tracks which Buffett wrote for the album. "Twas the Night Before Christmas" is a hidden...
  
  
• Reel Big Fish
  Reel Big Fish
  Reel Big Fish is an American ska punk band from Huntington Beach, California, best known for the 1997 hit "Sell Out". The band gained mainstream recognition in the mid-to-late 1990s, during the third wave of ska with the release of the gold certified album Turn the Radio Off. Soon after, the band...
  
  
• One Eighty
• Nick Hexum
  Nick Hexum
  Nicholas Lofton Hexum is an American musician, currently the vocalist and rhythm guitarist for the alternative rock band 311.-Early life:Born in Madison, Wisconsin, Hexum went to Westside High School in Omaha, Nebraska...
  
  
• The Good Lovelies
  The Good Lovelies
  The Good Lovelies are a Canadian folk/country trio, consisting of Caroline Brooks, Kerri Ough and Sue Passmore.The group's three members were all solo artists in the Toronto area when they came together in 2006 to perform at a Christmas concert at Toronto's Gladstone Hotel. They subsequently...
  
  
• The Puppini Sisters
  The Puppini Sisters
  The Puppini Sisters are a vocal trio. Arion Berger described them as part of "Retro's futuristic vanguard" and described their sound as "swing-punk". The group has sought to be associated with a burlesque revival....
  
  , from Christmas With The Puppini Sisters
• Bette Midler
  Bette Midler
  Bette Midler is an American singer, actress, and comedian, also known by her informal stage name, The Divine Miss M. She became famous as a cabaret and concert headliner, and went on to star in successful and acclaimed films such as The Rose, Ruthless People, Beaches, and For The Boys...
  
  , from Cool Yule
  Cool Yule
  Cool Yule is a holiday album by Bette Midler released on October 10, 2006. The album features many Christmas tunes as well as a reworking of her Grammy-winning hit "From a Distance"....
  
  
• Blue Hawaiians, from Christmas On Big Island
• Willie K., from Willie Kalikimaka
• Orbie Custinger, from Mele Kalikimaka
• Kanilau, from Mele Kalikimaka From Kanilau
• Genoa Keawe
  Genoa Keawe
  ‘Aunty’ Genoa Leilani Adolpho Keawe-Aiko was a Hawaiian musician. Aunty Genoa was born on the island of Oʻahu in the Kakaʻako district of Honolulu and grew up in Lā'ie. She is an icon in Hawaiian music and has been a mainstay on the Hawaiian music scene for more than 60 years...
  
   & her hula
  Hula
  Hula is a dance form accompanied by chant or song . It was developed in the Hawaiian Islands by the Polynesians who originally settled there. The hula dramatizes or portrays the words of the oli or mele in a visual dance form....
  
   maid
  Maid
  A maidservant or in current usage housemaid or maid is a female employed in domestic service.-Description:Once part of an elaborate hierarchy in great houses, today a single maid may be the only domestic worker that upper and even middle-income households can afford, as was historically the case...
  
  s, on the compilation album
  Compilation album
  A compilation album is an album featuring tracks from one or more performers, often culled from a variety of sources The tracks are usually collected according to a common characteristic, such as popularity, genre, source or subject matter...
  
   Vintage Hawaiian Treasures, Vol. 8: Santa's Gone Hawaiian!
• Teresa Carpio
  Teresa Carpio
  Teresa Carpio is a Hong Kong English pop and Cantopop singer, actor and singing teacher, born in Hong Kong. She is the mother of singer T. V. Carpio.-Family background:Carpio's father is Filipino and her mother Chinese. Born into a musical family...
  
  
• Steve Brock
• on the compilation Aloha Christmas 2004: Mele Kalikimaka
• Mina
  Mina (singer)
  Anna Maria Quaini, Grand Officer , known as Mina, is an Italian pop singer. She was a staple of Italian television variety shows and a dominant figure in Italian pop music from the mid-1960s to mid-1970s known for her three-octave vocal range, the agility of her soprano voice, and her image as an...
  
  

External links

• Lyrics to Mele Kalikimaka