It was the middle of the night in 1988 when the phone rang in a quiet Honolulu recording studio. On the line was a familiar voice.
“This is Israel,” he said. “I need to record something. Right now.”
It was 3 a.m. The studio owner, Milan Bertosa, was hesitant—no one calls at that hour unless it’s urgent. But something in Israel Kamakawiwo’ole’s voice made him say yes.
Fifteen minutes later, Milan opened the door, and in walked a giant of a man—nearly 500 pounds, barefoot, carrying nothing but a ukulele. A security guard scrambled to bring in a heavy steel chair for him to sit on.
Milan quickly set up microphones, ran a sound check, and pressed record.
And then it happened.
Israel closed his eyes, cradled the small ukulele in his massive hands, and began to sing. His voice—gentle yet vast, fragile yet unshakable—filled the room. “Somewhere over the rainbow… way up high…”
No rehearsals. No second takes. Just one pure, unbroken flow of music that seemed to come not from his lungs, but from his soul.
“When he finished,” Milan later recalled, “there was silence in the studio. I knew I had captured something that would live forever.”
That single take—recorded in the stillness of a Hawaiian night—became one of the most beloved renditions of all time.
Israel Kamakawiwo’ole, known to many simply as “Iz,” would pass away in 1997 at just 38 years old. But his version of “Somewhere Over the Rainbow/What a Wonderful World” continues to transcend borders, cultures, and generations. It has played at weddings, funerals, births, and countless quiet moments when the world needed a reminder of hope.
Today, his voice is a global anthem of peace. It is the most requested version of the classic song, a recording that reminds us all of the power of simplicity, of vulnerability, of music born from the heart.
What began as a spontaneous call in the middle of the night became a gift to the world—a reminder that sometimes, magic happens in a single, unrepeatable moment.
✨ One man. One ukulele. One take. And music was never the same.
