Composer and band leader Harry Owens was so emotionally moved by the birth of his first child, Leilani, in 1934, that the very next day he wrote a lullaby he called "Sweet Leilani."Even though he orchestrated it for his band at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel on Waikiki Beach and considered it largely a private tribute to his daughter, "Sweet Leilani" stole the hearts of millions of listeners, starting with the most beloved crooner of the day — Bing Crosby.
Owens was a dream merchant of the highest caliber. During the 1930s, his style of Hawaiian music created larger-than-life visions of sun-kissed beaches, palm trees and languid hula maidens.
Owens was born in 1902 in Nebraska, but got his musical start as a boy in Montana, where he learned to play the cornet in a small band on an Indian reservation. At 14, he was playing vaudeville acts, but he wound up studying law — and hating it — in Los Angeles. During a break from his studies one night, he wrote a song that sold a million copies of sheet music in six months, and his career as a budding lawyer was finished.
In 1934, Owens was invited to move to Hawai'i and reorganize the orchestra at the posh Royal Hawaiian.
Smitten by his new home, Owens researched numerous old Hawaiian songs that had never been written but had instead been passed from generation to generation by word of mouth. Using modern arrangements, he gave the world a genre of hapa-haole music. By focusing on the steel guitar, with its sweet, rhythmic sound, Owens created songs with an alluring, tropical feel.
In 1936, Crosby arrived in Hawai'i to soak up local atmosphere for an upcoming role in the Paramount Studios musical "Waikiki Wedding." While dancing at the Royal Hawaiian one evening, he heard Owens and his band perform "Sweet Leilani."
Crosby couldn't pronounce the song title but nonetheless requested it four times. In fact, Crosby liked it so much that he told Paramount executives they had to include it in the film or he wouldn't be in it.
"Sweet Leilani" won an Oscar in 1937 for best song. After Crosby recorded it, it seemed that every radio station and jukebox in America had to play it every day. It was said to have revived the record industry during the Great Depression and stands atop the composer's 300 compositions. At the time of his death, "Sweet Leilani" had sold 26 million copies.
Owens didn't remain in the Islands after 1941, when he ended a three-year Mainland tour. Sadly, he would say: "The Islands — they weren't beautiful to me anymore."
Owens was the host of a popular Mainland television show during the 1950s and its theme was "Sweet Leilani."
When he died in 1986, Owens was 84.
