Mele Kalikimaka


"Mele Kalikimaka" is a Hawaiian-themed Christmas song written in 1949 by R. Alex Anderson. The song takes its title from the Hawaiian phrase Mele Kalikimaka, meaning "Merry Christmas".
One of the earliest recordings of this song was by Bing Crosby and the Andrews Sisters in 1950 on Decca. It has been covered by many artists and used in several films

History of the song

Anderson recalled the inspiration for writing the song in 1949 while working at Vonn Hamm-Young:
Bing Crosby was a frequent visitor and golf partner of Anderson. Anderson played the song for Crosby, who liked it so much that he surprised Anderson with the 1950 recording. In 1955, the song became part of Crosby's famous compilation album Merry Christmas. According to Anderson's daughter Pam, the family still receives revenues from all over the world every year from his songs including Mele Kalikimaka.

Origin of the phrase

The expression Mele Kalikimaka, despite its foreign sound, is actually borrowed directly from English. But since the Hawaiian language has a different phonological system from English, it is not possible to render a pronunciation that is especially close to Merry Christmas. Standard Hawaiian does not have the or sounds of English and its phonotactic constraints do not permit consonants at the end of syllables or consonant clusters. Thus the closest approximation to Merry Christmas is Mele Kalikimaka.
The earliest record of Mele Kalikimaka in print is from 1904, in the Hawaiian language newspaper Ka Nupepa Kuokoa, published between 1861 and 1927.

Notable versions

The Beach Boys released a song of the same name but with completely different lyrics and music on their 1998 album Ultimate Christmas; it had been first released under the name "Kona Coast" on their 1978 album M.I.U. Album''.