Robert Edward Lin Nelson was a Hawaiian songwriter, composer, pianist, and singer. He is best known for his most popular songs, "Hanalei Moon" and "Maui Waltz". He was also a staunch defender of the copyrights and royalties of Hawaiian songwriters and composers, and served on advisory boards at ASCAP for two decades. In 2013 he received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Hawaii Academy of Recording Arts.
Career
Songwriting and performing
Nelson was born in 1934 in Wailuku, Maui. For his musical career he moved to Oahu, where he wrote songs and performed. He was interviewed as a songwriter by the Honolulu Advertiser in 1969. He played the piano bar at the Yacht Harbor Towers in Honolulu from 1976 to 1988. In the 1970s and 1980s, Nelson wrote several popular songs, such as "Hanalei Moon", "Maui Waltz", and "Just a Little Girl". In 1976 "Hanalei Moon" received the award for Best New Song at the first Nani Awards, the predecessor to the Na Hoku Hanohano Awards. In 1978 he was nominated for Best Composer, and his song "Maui Waltz" was nominated for Best Song, at the very first Na Hoku Hanohano Awards. In 1978 "Hanalei Moon" and "Maui Waltz" were among the top 15 most-popular songs in Hawaii. In 1980 he released an album of 13 of his songs titled Bob Nelson & Friends. His album Bob Nelson Live at the Piano won the 1986 Na Hoku Hanohano award for Instrumental Album of the Year. He was interviewed at length in the late 1970s by Ron Jacobs on Hawaii Public Radio stationKKUA, and the tape of the interview was donated in 1979 to the Hawaiian MusicPreservation Hall and Academy. In 2013 Nelson received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Hawaii Academy of Recording Arts.
Songwriters' advocacy
Throughout his career Nelson was a staunch advocate for Hawaiian songwriters' and composers' copyrights and royalties, writing articles and giving workshops on how to register and protect copyrights and safeguard royalties. Nelson was the President of the Hawaii Composers Organization beginning in 1975, and spearheaded the Hawaiian Professional Songwriters Society beginning in the late 1970s. In 1977 he was selected as ASCAP's resident representative in Hawaii, and he remained on ASCAP advisory boards for 17 years.
Personal life
In 1998 Nelson and his wife Irene moved to Scottsdale, Arizona. He continued to occasionally perform, mainly at private engagements. Nelson moved back to Honolulu late in life. He performed every Wednesday night at the Honolulu Elks Club. He died at the age of 80 in May 2015.
