Which famous musical group got its start at Punahou School? This threesome launched an interest in folk music and paved the way for such artists as Peter, Paul & Mary and Bob Dylan.
The group was the Kingston Trio, one of the biggest groups to come out of Hawaii. The trio ultimately became the No. 1 vocal group in the world until the Beatles came along.
Two members of the trio, Dave Guard and Bob Shane, went to Punahou together and graduated in 1952. In their junior year they formed a group to sing folk songs at the Punahou Carnival.
Shane was from Hilo, the great-grandson of missionaries. He said he took up the guitar to gain some popularity with girls.
"I sang in the Punahou Glee Club," Bob Shane recalled, "and appeared in several school plays and variety shows. I pursued entertaining purely for fun. I was always on the beaches with a ukulele, learning songs from my Hawaiian friends."
Dave Guard was from Waikiki and his idol was Gabby Pahinui.
"When my folks gave me my earliest guitar," Guard recalled, "I learned to play in the G slack-key tuning first. I would hang around the Queen’s Surf nightclub just to hear Gabby’s trio, with Joe Diamond and Ralph Alapai.
"I pestered Gabby for lessons and he showed me one of his C tunings, but he said ‘It’s not how you tune ’em up, it’s how you pluck ’em.’"
"Gabby played the sweetest, cleanest, most soulful Hawaiian guitar music ever heard," Guard said. "He had one of the finest voices in the world."
After graduation the two went to Bay Area colleges. Shane formed a duet with Nick Reynolds, a college buddy. They sang at parties and school functions, and Dave occasionally joined them as a trio.
After college in 1956, Shane returned to Hawaii to work for his father’s business: toys and sporting goods.
"Still loving to entertain, I also became the first-ever Elvis impersonator, actually billed as ‘Hawaii’s Elvis.’ I soon discovered that the family business wasn’t for me, and when Nick called a year later and asked to form a trio, I was ready. I had always enjoyed singing with Nick and Dave, and that year — 1957 — The Kingston Trio was born.
The Kingston Trio name was chosen for its Ivy League/calypso appeal, they said.
In February 1958 the group recorded its first album, titled simply "The Kingston Trio." It included "Scotch and Soda" and "Tom Dooley." It sold more than 3 million copies and earned them a Grammy. Both Billboard and Cash Box magazines voted them 1959’s best group of the year.
Most listeners did not know that the richness of the Trio’s harmonies was the result of a double-voicing recording technique.
On the first take, the voices were recorded softer than the guitars and banjo. Then they’d overdub the singing, creating a six-voice choral effect. It would often take 50-100 takes to get it right.
The Kingston Trio’s other hits included "Greenback Dollar," "MTA," "Tijuana Jail," "Worried Man," and "(The Wreck of the) ‘John B,’" later covered by the Beach Boys as "Sloop John B."
They had five albums in the Billboard top 10 at one time, and inspired hundreds of folk groups all over the country, notably Peter, Paul & Mary, The Brothers Four, The Chad Mitchell Trio, The Limeliters and The New Christy Minstrels.
The trio released 19 albums that made Billboard’s Top 100, 14 of which ranked in the top 10, and five of which hit the No. 1 spot.
"The thing I’m most proud of, next to my kids, is that I have played live to over 10 million people," Shane said.
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Bob Sigall, author of the “Companies We Keep” books, looks through his collection of old photos to tell stories each Friday of Hawaii people, places and companies. Email him at Sigall@Yahoo.com.
