Disney
Pop, 2002

If you haven’t watched the movie – and you should – this soundtrack will still send a sparkling laughter through you. Okay, maybe it’s just me, but that’s what it does to me. This soundtrack is amazing, because it makes Elvis Presley fun all over again.

I know I’m ancient when I see my kiddie granddaughter hugging her teddy bear and dancing stupidly to the King’s Stuck On You. Heartbreak Hotel is still cute, as is Hound Dog, and it’s more fun when I imagine Stitch in that adorable Elvis hair and suit doing his thing. It’s embarrassing to admit this, but I think Stitch is cuter than the real deal himself. Other Elvis tracks here include Suspicious Minds and Can’t Help Falling in Love, although the last is covered by the atrocious teenybopper group A*Teens. The A*Teens’ version is predictably horrific, and I can’t wait for them to grow up and join the rank of pop has-beens. Wynonna’s version of Burning Love is good, though.

But long after Elvis’ blistering presence has left the hotel, Mark Keali’i Ho’omalu’s Hawaiian folk-tinged Hawaiian Roller Coaster Ride and the enchanting He Mele No Lilo will remain always on my mind, and I will do a happy twirl as I hum along to the cute, cute tracks. No, not cute: He Mele No Lilo is the perfect happy song for the inner child in me. I usually cannot stand children singing, but the Kamehameha Schools Children’s Chorus has me jigging along. Simultaneously delightfully kiddy and the best of pop/folk music, He Mele No Lilo is worth the price of this CD alone.

The movie brings out the inner child in me, but this CD celebrates it. I feel like a carefree, gaily child all over again, damn life’s incessant little hiccups and problems, and I want to kick off my shoes and run around giggling like an exuberant maniac as this soundtrack plays in the background. I want to hug fat doggies and sing the chorus of He Mele No Lilo along with their howling. Did I mention the really cute CD sleeve art?