Seeking Popular ‘Hit’

Samoa’s Former Billie Nelson As a Comooser

According to those who have heard their work, two residents of Western Samoa may find their music heading the popular hit-parades.

The composer is Mrs. Herman Retzlaif, and the interpreter of her work is a Samoan singer named Henry Hunkin, whose Samoan name is Encele, and whose voice will bear comparison with top-rank popular broadcasters.

When Mr. C. W. Mansell, whose firm distributes gramophone record ings, was in Samoa in July, he was told of Mrs. Retzlaff’s lyrics, written under her maiden name of Billie Nelson. Mr. Mansell had a tape recorder with him, and he recorded the songs.

One is a catchy morsel entitled “I’m Looking For the Little Man Called Love,” sung by Henry Hunkin to music of his own com position, with guitar and ukelele accompaniment. Swingsters who heard this recording at the Grand Pacific Hotel, in Suva, think it may be a “hit”.

Mrs. Retzlaff is currently working on a sequel to this song, named “I’ve Found the Little Man Called

Love”. Other songs, including some in Samoan, were also recorded. In some, Henry is joined by a Samoan choir. —JPS.

II Mr. Cliff Roy, Manager of Edmonton Travel Agency, in a lightning visit to Fiji late July,

caused a lot of interest in Suva as he dashed from location to location with a portable tape recorder cap turing a record of the day’s doings of a representative cross-section of the community for radio listeners in Canada. He was escorted by Mr. Bob Hewlett, the untiring chief of the Fiji Visitors Bureau.