Raggedy ann song prince tui teka biography

He was nicknamed The Prince, but Tūhoe legend Tui Teka lived his life as the king of Māori entertainment. He was the ultimate showband performer, able to play a multitude of instruments, act, and sing anything from country and western and rock'n'roll to love ballads and waiata, interspersed with side-splitting comedy.

Tui Teka, or Tui Latui as he sometimes billed himself, was born on 8 March 1937 in Ruatāhuna, a small Urewera settlement on the unsealed road between Wai-O-Tapu and Wairoa.

His mother played mouth organ and clarinet; his father was a saxophonist with a bush band deep in the heart of Tūhoe country.

He was said to be playing guitar and saxophone by age three. Teka refined his talents at local woolshed dances as a teen before joining a circus in the early 1950s, which took him across the Tasman.

In Australia Teka quickly graduated from sweeping up after the elephants to singing and performing.

He learned showmanship traveling round the continent. In 19