Bill Tapia

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(from http://www.ukulele.org/?Inductees:2004-2007:Bill_Tapia):

Born in Honolulu on New Year's Day, 1908, Bill Tapia taught himself `ukulele as a young child, and by age 10, was strumming on the streets for tourist tips and entertaining WWI troops stationed at Pearl Harbor. At age 12, he left school to help support his family by working in the Honolulu vaudeville circuit, where he became a huge hit playing his `ukulele behind his head and offering up his trademark, spirited interpretation of "Stars and Stripes Forever."

At age 19 in 1927, Tapia opened the Royal Hawaiian Hotel as a featured player in famed Hawaiian bandleader and composer Johnny Noble's orchestra. He became one of the Royal Hawaiian's "musical drivers," who chauffeured wealthy hotel guests around the island, stopping to sing Hawaiian songs to their passengers with Diamond Head in the background.

During the 1920s and 1930s, Tapia became a fixture on the Waikiki music scene. He gave lessons to celebrities such as Betty Grable, Jimmy Durante, and Buster Crabbe, and he hung out with Waikiki beach boys, such as Sam and Duke Kahanamoku. He was in demand as a guitar and `ukulele player with top bands and had his own group, Tappy's Island Swingers.

Tapia would play his `ukulele at home for his wife, Barbie, and his daughter, Cleo. Their favorite song was "To You, Sweetheart, Aloha". Tapia lost both his wife and daughter within a short period of time in 2001. In the down period following their deaths, Tapia was rediscovered as an `ukulele player and embarked on a comeback.

In 2002, Tapia played at the 75th anniversary of the Royal Hawaiian Hotel -- the only musician who had played at the Royal Hawaiian's grand opening in 1927. He released his first CD, "Tropical Swing" in 2004, followed by "Duke of Uke" in 2005. He has since been performing sellout shows all over the West Coast and Hawai`i.