Aloha ʻOe
"Aloha ʻOe" ("Farewell to Thee") is a Hawaiian folk song written circa 1878 by Liliʻuokalani, who was then Princess of the Hawaiian Kingdom. It is her most famous song and is a common cultural symbol for Hawaii. Background. The story of the origin of the song has several variations. They all have in common that the song was inspired by a notable farewell embrace given by Colonel James Harbottle Boyd during a horseback trip taken by Princess Liliʻuokalani in 1877 or 1878 to the Boyd ranch in Maunawili on the windward side of Oʻahu, and that the members  of the party hummed the tune on the way back to Honolulu. Different versions tell of alternate recipients of the embrace—either Liliʻuokalani's sister Princess Likelike Cleghorn or a young lady at the ranch. According to the most familiar version of the story: This tender farewell set Liliʻuokalani to thinking, and she began humming to herself on the homeward trip. Overhearing, Charles Wilson observed, "That sounds like "The Lone Rock by the Sea"," a comment with which Liliʻuokalani is said to have agreed. When the party paused to rest in an orange grove on the Honolulu side of the  Pali, the others joined in the hummings, and the song was completed later at Washington Place. The Hawaiʻi State Archives preserves a hand-written manuscript by Liliʻuokalani, dated 1878, with the score of the song, the lyrics, Liliʻuokalani's English translation, and her note evidently added later: "Composed at Maunawili 1878. Played by the Royal Hawaiian Band in San Francisco August 1883 and became very popular." The first known recording of the song was released by Berliner Gramophone in 1898. A catalogue issued by Columbia Records in 1901 mentioned two wax cylinders labeled "Vocal Solos in Hawaiian", containing some of  the earlier recordings of "Aloha ʻOe" and "Kuʻu Pua I Paoakalani". However, it is uncertain if this was recorded in Hawaii or if the performer was Hawaiian and the cylinders are now lost. Columbia Records later recorded a duet of the song by Nani Alapai and Henry N. Clark in 1911. A 1913 score can be seen at the Levy Sheet Music Collection. Musicology. Parts of "Aloha 'Oe" resemble the song "The Lone Rock by the Sea" and the chorus of George Frederick Root's 1854 song "There's Music in the Air". "The Lone Rock by the Sea" mentioned  by Charles Wilson, was "The Rock Beside the Sea" published by Charles Crozat Converse in 1857, and itself derives from a Croatian/Serbian folk song, "Sedi Mara na kamen studencu" (Mary is Sitting on a Stone Well). The "Aloha Oe" Chorus melody was also used as the counterpoint to the chorus of the jazz song, "Hula Lou" and also could be a counterpoint to "Woody Guthrie"'s folk song, "This Land is Your Land". In popular culture. The song also plays in many episodes of "SpongeBob SquarePants", albeit in instrumental form. The song also plays in Disney's "Lilo and  Stitch" where Nani sings to Lilo, in beautiful soft tones. During the climax in Leroy & Stitch, Stitch (dressed up as Elvis), Lilo, and Reuben (along with several of the Experiments near the end) play an up-beat rock version during the finale. In the episode "Cruise Cat" of the Tom and Jerry in 1952, a guitar version of this song became one of the animation's Background music, and the destination of the liner in the episode was Hawaii. In the first episode of the 1963 Hanna-Barbera cartoon; "Top Cat" entitled "Hawaii, Here We Come", at the start of  the episode, Benny the Ball sings the song, after winning a free trip to Hawaii, sometime later Officer Dibble also sings the song. They both however replace some of the lyrics with English ones. "Aloha 'Oe" appeared in the scores of many of Warner Bros.' classic "Looney Tunes" and "Merrie Melodies" cartoons, as composer Carl Stalling's stock musical cue for Hawaii-themed gags. Usually instrumental, but Bugs Bunny actually sings one line of the refrain at the very end of "Case of the Missing Hare". In the 1953 cartoon short, "Duck Amuck" part of it is briefly sung by  Daffy Duck when the scenery is changed to a Hawaiian setting, courtesy of a sadistic mystery animator and again in "A Squeak in the Deep". In the 1958 Oscar-winning short "Knighty Knight Bugs", the cartoon ends with an enchanted sword performing an instrumental version of the song (played by a musical saw). The chorus of the song serves as the intro for Spike Jones' interpretation of "Hawaiian War Chant". ("As the sun pulls away from the shore, and our boat sinks slowly in the west...") The song also appeared in the Popeye the Sailor short, Alona on the Sarong  Seas, where it was played in the beginning of the short, and after Popeye eats his spinach. In the Japanese anime "Space Dandy" (created in 2014), the eponymous main character is captain of a spaceship called the "Aloha Oe". The Jack London short story "Aloha Oe" features the chorus of the song. When Jiang Zemin, then-Chinese President and the General Secretary of the Communist Party of China, arrived at Hawaii at the beginning of his state visit to U.S. in October 1997, he played "Aloha ‘Oe" with a Hawaiian lap steel guitar and invited then Hawaiian First Lady Vicky  Cayetano to sing the song at a dinner with the presence of Governor Ben Cayetano. Jiang recounted that he used to frequently play this song when he was in college in 1940s. It also used in the final scene of "Train to Busan" when Soo-an sings in the tunnel as tribute to her father's sacrifice. The castaways sing the song as a good luck charm to a robot toward the end of the "Gilligan's Island" episode "Gilligan's Living Doll," as it is about to walk from the island underwater all the way to Hawaii. The song  is played in the eighth episode of the 8th season of "The Simpsons", "Hurricane Neddy", when Ned Flanders drives away to the psychiatric hospital. The song appeared in episode 4 of the HBO miniseries "The White Lotus".