Words & Music:
Bill Giant
Bernie Baum
Florence Kaye
She sells sea shells by the seashore
But I know a girl who sells so much more
Queenie Wahine's Papaya rates higher than pineapple, pumpkin or poy
Please pick her papaya put Queenie Wahine in perfect perpetual joy
'Though some people's palates prefer pickled salads
For pudding pick popcorn peach pie
Oh Queenie's papaya you'll truly desire
When that Queenie Wahine passes by
Queenie Wahine's Papaya rates higher than pineapple, pumpkin or poy
Please pick her papaya put Queenie Wahine in perfect perpetual joy
'Though some people's palates prefer pickled salads
For pudding pick popcorn peach pie
Oh Queenie's papaya you'll truly desire
When that Queenie Wahine passes by
Queenie Wahine's Papaya rates higher than pineapple, pumpkin or poy
Please pick her papaya put Queenie Wahine in perfect perpetual joy
'Though some people's palates prefer pickled salads
For pudding pick popcorn peach pie
Oh Queenie's papaya you'll truly desire
When that Queenie Wahine passes by
Recordingdate: 1965/07/27, first released on: Paradise, Hawaiian Style (album)
Musicians
Musicians who contributed to the first recording of Queenie Wahine's Papaya:
(guitar)
(guitar)
(guitar)
(steel guitar)
(bass)
(drums)
(drums)
(drums)
(piano)
(vocals)
(vocals)
(vocals)
(vocals)
Availability
Find available albums with Queenie Wahine's Papaya.
Extreme example of wasting talent!
Awful! tripe! but a good pay day for the songwriters.
One of the bottom 10 of his career. A low point coming at a crucial time in pop music, the mid 60's. At this time, I was thinking will he ever come back to making real music again? Oh yeah, and the movie was just as bad!
Elvis has done more than anyone but I do wonder how much more he would have done if it wasn't for being stuck in a film deal and singing film 'songs' for all those years... TCB
This is a great example of why some hardline E fans just don't get it sometimes - this is a fun little song. It's all about context - if E did this as an opening number in Vegas, it wouldn't be cool, but as a fun little bit of fluff from the underrated "Paradise, Hawaiian Style," it works. And speaking of context, I can also see why this song might have been painful to the E fan at the time of release.
It works so much in fact, that the other day my 4 year old daughter started singing it in the supermarket ... which leads me to my other point: some of these "waste of talent" songs are cool gateways to get kids into Elvis! To me, that's cool. I used to perform "Confidence" in my kiddie rock 'n' roll band - it went over well, though I am now sick of it (ha ha) ... But, back to "Queenie" - I'll take this over many of the later-day overwrought ballads!
Smells more like a dead fish than pineapple, pumpkin or poy.
Would have been a smart inclusion on the old "Elvis Sings For Children" album. These songs are tough calls, critically speaking. If you look at it from the point of view of what Elvis was capable of and what he'd been doing 10 years earlier--the Sun Records music and the massive hits of 1956, etc--and also compared to what was taking place misically around him at this time--the Beatles, Bob Dylan, etc--it is hard not to look at this and be supremely disappointed. But as a children's song, it's ok. I am as angry and saddened as any Elvis fan out there about the disappointment of the movie years. But I think those bad movies and very non-adult songs did usher in a younger generation and still do. As an adult, it is a frustrating period, but ultimately songs like "Queenie" or "Ito Eats" may have pulled in children and as they got older got to discover the real masterpieces from the period before and after the movie stuff.
Every song does not has to be a masterpiece. Of course it was an important period in popular music but I believe that Elvis didn´t know what to do during this time. He had scored so many hits, in so many different kinds of music. He wanted to be a serious actor. He didn´t want to sing in his movies so I believe that he would have been unhappy no matter what. And lesser songs can be fun too, just listen to his jam on "Froggy went a-courtin´". People would not associate him with songs like this, because of his many hits in the past
Not a favourite and do agree about the general feeling of disappointment re the movie years, but this is tempered by the fact that without the movie years and dross like this, there wouldn't have been the 68 comeback..........imagine!?!
PHS is actually at the bottom of my list of favourite Elvis movies. Not least for the way he looked, especially in that movie. I'm not over the opening scenes yet! Regarding the soundtrack, even how much Elvis must have hated to record it, it's not on the bottom list of soundtrack albums. I have three songs that I like very much on there: Drums Of The Island, This Is My Heaven and Sand Castles. About Queenie... It was a little fun at a time, but not on the playlist anymore.
QWH would have fitted very well as a flip side of Old McDonald ;-)
Obviously a mountain region cannot be one mountain. This song is one of the low lands in between. Typical a movie song, which I also feel Elvis hated. But what to do. He was trapped by contracts. His movies range from serious to those like the 'Road to ...' series. Initially this was projected as a road to serious acting but it turned out the road to musicals, not taking into account his greatness. Hardly ever listen to it. It sort of happens to pass by.
Anyone who's read my posts in the time that I've been a member here knows that generally speaking I enjoy Elvis' movies and their accompanying soundtracks (some more than others). I even enjoy a lot of the situational filler like "Cotton Candy Land" or HEY! Hey! Hey! or even "Yoga Is As Yoga Does." It's funny as heck within the context of the scene for which it was written. But "Queenie?" Yuck! It's just piece of crap! Especially on record. It's not even remotely good even when you see it in PHS. Yuck!
Just remember: Elvis didn't like it either. He wasn't the only performer stuck in that position at one time or another. Remember Frank Sinatra & his hit "Strangers In The Night"? He hated that song, especially the ending of doobie, doobie, do. Plus he took a lot of ribbing about it from his fellow singers.
Queenie Wahine's Papaya did fit in this movie. I like it, as I like the soundtrack and the movie. Nothing wrong with that.
i happen to like this song and found it very enjoyable and funny!!-it did fit into the movie,and it proves that Elvis could sing anything...its more enjoyable on the RCA/FDT deluxe cd version,which has got great session outtakes from the "Paradise,hawaiien Style" soundtrack!9elvis laughter and sense of humour are clearly evident at the sessions when you listen to all the outtakes-he had a great laugh!!)
I could get by for the rest of my life without having to listen to this song. There not many Elvis recordings i can say that about.
I'd rather listen to chalk on a blackboard than this crap. The King should have kicked the Col. in his big fat rear end, rather than recording this.
Considering what Elvis was capable of, this is poor. A bad day at the office!
The best and most important rock singer of all times .... singing this???? This is the guy who inspired John Lennon/Paul McCartney, Mick Jagger, Bruce Springsteen, well, actually everyboy big in the history of pop/rock music! Interesting personaliyt!
I guess, the there are two problems which do not even involve Parker: you can't get good movie songs out of a lousy script three times per year. second: as Bienstock was in charge of the songplugging for Elvis at the time (if my memory doesn't fail, Bienstock saw every song to be recorded by Elvis first until 1968 and selected the stuff he meant would fit for the man), so how can you have more than a bunch of bad songs to record? I guess, here's Bienstock and the mass movie production to blame, and not Parker.
This song was featured in a fairly cute scene in "Paradise, Hawaiian Style" with Donna Butterworth, but on record it is the equal of "Ito Eats". Elvis does do a good job of speeding up the lyrics as he repeats the same verse three times, but it isn't a real song. You don't mind "Ito Eats" as much on "Blue Hawaii" because they are 13 other songs on the album. On PHS, this is one of only 10 tracks and it isn't the worst track.
To get kids into Elvis this is perfect. You can also see how limited writers are with such movie-scripts, these are the same writers who wrote "Power of my Love" one of the best song on the "From Elvis in Memphis" album.
Not a great song obviously but for some reason it keeps popping into my head. Not proud of that though!!! Still, I can live with it if i think of it as a silly kiddies song from a frothy movie rather than a serious album track. Don't get me wrong, I'm not a blind love everything Elvis fan - stuff like Old McDonald and Yoga Is as Yoga Does has no redeemable qualities there whatsoever - bad music, bad melody, bad lyrics, bad subject matter and even poor vocals it has to be said though I can understand why the vocals were subpar. But Queenie Wahine? Yeah, she's ok, but only as a throwaway kids song.
How bad is this? I havent played this or watched the movie in about 20 years.
Paradise Hawaiian Style is probably the worst LP of Elvis his entire career. This song is completely ridiculous but it sticks in your head for whatever reason. A dragon of a soundtrack, horrible!
There is absolutely nothing good about this absurd and embarrassing song. Elvis should have refused to ever record it.
The only redeeming feature of this song is the Elvis voice, which is why I am a fan, but even that can't rescue this one from the doldrums.
Also in this list should be Que sera sera, which Elvis sang a part of in Bad Nauheim. "When I was just a little queer, no", he sings. On a other version he sings "When I was just a little pub I asked my mummy what will I be will I be hound will I be mut, she told me tenderly:you ain't nothing but a hound dog". Fun for sure.
Crazy song. It sounds like Elvis is running downhill and goes faster and faster. In the end, he falls flat on his face. Aww.
This was a Parker nonsense, and he should be ashamed.....very ashmed to subject Elvis to this very poor song & film.
Parker $$$$$$ Parker $$$$$$ rot in hell parker.
The blame was entirely at Elvis' door.He was the biggest star and most successful recording artist ever.He really didn't have to put up with this stuff.
Embarrassing, Elvis should have fired Colonel Parker the moment he saw this song. I see way too much praise of Parker by some, they should listen to this trash. There is no way Elvis would have wasted his time with this if he was not contractually trapped.
Paradise Hawaiian Style ties with Stay Away Joe and The Trouble with Girls as the weakest Elvis movie. The entire PHS soundtrack was awful; QWP is not worth discussing. I still marvel that the title song was used in the Aloha Special.
awful song, sung in an awful movei.... so after all it fits together perfectly.
Absolutely terrible tune but I like it! One star. The movie itself is absolutely horrendous. He should have quit while he was ahead. How many stupid travelogues can one do? I do like the soundtrack even though we do have songs like "Queenie"
I like the movie as a colorful, breezy travelogue set in Hawaii. It's the closest I'm ever going to get. The script leaves a lot to be desired. But the absolute worst about this movie is the soundtrack. IMO the worst of his '60's films. The best of the bunch written for this film, "Sand Castles," wasn't even used. Film: 3 stars. Song fits the movie scene well, but...2 stars.
It is what it is. If you listen to it on its own its a terrible song, but it does come across better when he is singing it to a child in a movie.
Really feel so sad for Elvis, did he really want to record this rubbish ??
It is what it is, a silly song sang with a child for a movie that has a child as a co star. I’m certain Elvis hated it and I feel sorry for him as I watch him sing it. But I wonder what would have happened if Elvis didn’t make movies….We’ll never know. So I shall just be content with what we have, a massive legacy and a massive repertoire of songs that contain the occasional clunker. 2 stars