Remembered as part of the hilarious National Lampoon Christmas Vacation movie, the holiday would not be as bright without the movie, and the story behind the song ‘Mele Kalikimaka’. Merry Christmas, and enjoy!
Like you, perhaps, I lost a perfectly good three hours this week watching the National Lampoon Christmas Vacation movie, the one with Chevy Chase, Randy Quaid (Cousin Eddie), and Nicollette Scorsese (Mary, the girl in the swimming pool).
And like you, perhaps, I’ve seen it so many times I’ve memorized the lines, but they’re still funny, and I never turn down the opportunity.
There’s a lot of favorite scenes in that movie. Everyone has their own, but the one that I like best is the one with the model in Clark Griswold’s fantasy Christmas swimming pool, set to the music of Bing Crosby and the Andrews sisters – Mele Kalikimaka, or the Hawaiian Christmas song.
Written by a native Hawaiian named Robert Anderson in 1949, for decades it was assumed that Mele Kalikimaka was an island translation for ‘Have a Merry Christmas’. More contemporary Hawaiians, however, dispute that, claiming that the term is basically gibberish. It doesn’t mean a thing.
But it came to mean something to Robert Anderson, who as it happened became friends and a regular golfing partner with Bing Crosby on his frequent visits to the islands. Anderson showed Crosby the lyrics and the tune, and Crosby liked it so well that he decided to surprise Anderson in 1950 by recording it with the Andrews Sisters on the Decca record label.
Five years later the song had become so popular that Crosby included it on his iconic Merry Christmas holiday album, and the Anderson family has received royalties from the Male Kalikamaka for the past 74 years.
Countless others have recorded the song, but no one had the lasting identity of Crosby, thanks in large part to the movie Christmas Vacation, filmed in 1989…and the swimming pool scene with Chase, Quaid, and Scorsese. That recording is much funnier than the one attached, but I didn’t want to hear the uproar over too much Nicolette Scorsese at the end, if you know what I mean. But for laughs, go look it up on YouTube!
Mele Kalikimaka…gibberish?
Sadly, it’s forgotten, along with the Andrews Sisters, all of whom are gone. They’re known now only to music historians, having last appeared as a trio fifty five years ago, in 1968.
Randy Quaid is 74, was deported from Canada a decade ago for an expired passport, and I think it’s safe to say that his career peaked with the National Lampoon series.
Nicollette Scorsese hasn’t acted for more than two decades, and like Quaid, has slipped into professional anonymity.
Bing Crosby died suddenly of a heart attack in 1977. He was 74.
Chevy Chase is still around, still alive at 80, despite a near-fatal heart attack in 2021.
The Dave Arbogast family of dealerships is the official transportation source for Press Pros Magazine.com.