Hula Girl brings about visions of laying on a sunny beach in the south Pacific with a fruity umbrella-dressed cocktail in hand. What makes this melody so distinctly Hawaiian is the Ki oh'alu or slack-key guitar style. According to the book this typically involves placing an open-tuned guitar across one's lap and sliding a steel instrument across the strings.
Sol Hoopii is often considered one of the best slack-key guitarists of his generation, and his undeniable skill is on full display with this Hawaiian-style tune. Hoopii was so famous for his mastery of the instrument that he was mistakenly credited with inventing the steel guitar (which actually came about around the end of the 19th century). The song is jazzy, upbeat, fun, and is a great representation of a genre of music that gained American popularity around World War I; but Sol Hoopii mastered in the 1920s and 1930s. I shall emphatically award it with my Worth Hearing seal.
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