Facing Future by Israel Kamakawiwo'ole

Facing Future, the second album from Hawaiian singer Israel Kamakawiwo'ole, came out on Mountain Apple in 1993, and it's the record that carried the singer everyone called IZ from the islands to the rest of the planet. It mixes traditional songs in the Hawaiian language, hapa-haole tunes played on traditional instruments, laid-back Jawaiian island reggae and straight-up pop, all anchored by his ukulele and that feather-light, heart-on-sleeve voice.

The track that did the traveling is his medley of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" and "What a Wonderful World", tender enough to stop a room cold, which went on to turn up in films like Meet Joe Black and 50 First Dates and in TV shows from ER to Glee. That kind of reach pushed the album to platinum in 2005 and made it the best-selling album ever by a Hawaiian artist.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.