Lost or Forgotten Oldie of the Day: 1959 The Islanders – The Enchanted Sea

1959 The Islanders – The Enchanted Sea 

The Islanders was an instrumental group in the late fifties. The primary members of the band were Frank Metis on accordion and Randy Starr on guitar. The pair wrote The Enchanted Sea and recorded it using sound effects produced by Ralph F. Curtis.

Their single on Mayflower Records reached #15 on the Hot 100 in 1959. They recorded an album, but never charted again. Randy continued with a solo career as a singer/songwriter. His biggest success came in 1964 when Elvis recorded a song Randy had written, Kissing Cousins.

Martin Denny led a group in Hawaii beginning in 1954. They played mostly on Oahu at the Shell Bar in the Hawaiian Village. One night, the band was fooling around and making noises like birds and frogs during one of their numbers, and the result inspired a listener to get the band to record the song for Liberty Records. The result was The Quiet Village, which reached #4 on the Hot 100 in early 1959. Their next single only reached #88 on the Hot 100. Searching for a better follow-up, they covered The Enchanted Sea. They once again added sound effects to the music, and the single reached #28 about the same time that The Islanders’ single peaked.

Their band recorded dozens of albums, but only reached the Hot 100 one more time. Their jazzy cover of A Taste of Honey reached #50 on the Hot 100 in 1962 and gave them their only entry on the Adult Contemporary chart, where it peaked at #13.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Islanders_(American_band)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Denny

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