"Back to My Little Grass Shack in Kealakekua, Hawaii"

An island song, if there ever was one!

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Our Sometimes a Song for today falls into the fun category of the novelty song. But as it turns out, that’s not ALL it is. It was composed when the style of music that came to be called “hapa haole” was taking hold of the American imagination in the first three decades of the 20th century. That’s a mix of Ragtime, jazz and the traditional music of what was then the American territory of Hawaii.

”Hapa haole” can be roughly translated in English as “half-foreign,” and that’s a pretty good description of the blend of melodies with Hawaiian settings sung to English lyrics, mixed in with steel guitars and ukuleles and sung by crooners everywhere. This style of Hawaiian music became immensely popular in the US and Canada and around the world by the 1930’s and has never entirely lost its appeal.

Written in 1933, our song today, “Back to My Little Grass Shack” is, I believe, a very fine example of the hapa haole style. But it was inspired by a song that hit the airwaves a decade earlier called “I Want to Go Back to My Little Black Shack in Hackensack, New Jersey!” What, you say?? Hackensack, New Jersey? Yes, it appears that the writers of the Hawaiian song were casting about for a tune to be sung in Kona, on the Big Island, for a Forth of July celebration. And they wrote “My Little Grass Shack” as kind of a borrowing, or a parodying of the New Jersey song, customized for Kona’s holiday and with no idea that their version would “go viral,” as we now would say, and hit Number One on the Billboard charts just a year later.

Now THAT hit version was itself modified and properly copyrighted by a genuine “hapa haole,” a fellow named Johnny Noble, born and raised in Hawaii, with a Hawaiian mother and a “haole” father. Johnny Noble had, by 1934, finished school, moved to the mainland, and become a rather well-known and very popular (particularly on radio) band leader. Johnny Noble contribute his two-cents worth to the song and added it to his repertoire. But it wasn’t Noble who hit the big time with “Back to My Little Grass Shack.” That honor went to an Italian-American band leader named Ted Fiorito, whose hit version I’m including for today. I just love the song, and I hope you do as well.

Sit back and enjoy a really charming song — and a couple of surprises as well.

PS: Our daughter told us something she learned about this song as a choir singer. During WWII servicemen stationed in Hawaii, for security reasons, were forbidden to reveal where they were stationed in their letters home. But the soldiers found a way to “say it in pictures.” You see, the tune had become so popular that after its release someone opened a tourist shop in Kona called “The Little Grass Shack.” And clever servicemen began posing for pictures in front of that shop, and sending those photos home — so families and sweethearts could draw their own geographical conclusions!

Here’s the Ted Fiorito hit from 1934. (See lyrics below)

Here’s the prototype song from 1924, when Hackensack, NJ, was a small town!

And finally, here’s a parody of a parody by “Yogi Yorgensson” in 1950.(Comedian/singer, Harry Stewart). Uff da!

I want to go back to my little grass shack in Kealakekua, Hawaii.
I want to be with all the Kanes and Wahines that I knew so long ago.
I can hear the old guitars a-playin′ on the beach at Hōonaunau.
I can hear Hawaiians saying "Komo mai no kāua i ka hale welakahao."

I want to go back to my little grass shack in Kealakekua, Hawaii,
Where the humuhumunukunukuapua'a goes swimming by.
Where the humuhumunukunukuapua′a goes swimming by.

It won't be long ′til my ship will be sailing back to Kona.
It's a grand old place that's always fair to see.
I′m just a little Hawaiian and a homesick Island boy
I want to go back to my fish and poi!

I want to go back to my little grass shack in Kealakekua, Hawaii,
Where the humuhumunukunukuapua'a goes swimming by.
Where the humuhumunukunukuapua′a goes swimming by.

Word & Song is an online magazine devoted to reclaiming the good, the beautiful, and the true. We publish six essays each week, on words, classic hymn, poems, films, and popular songs, as well a weekly podcast, alternately Poetry Aloud or Anthony Esolen Speaks. To support this project, please join us as a free or paid subscriber.