The year was 1983. Polynesian women had “the look” the national fashion industry was going gaga over, and they suddenly found themselves in demand for photo shoots and fashion show runways.

Noland Conjugacion — best known as Brother Noland — took note of the trend and wrote a song about a “local boy” whose girlfriend had left him for a modeling career on the mainland. The song was “Coconut Girl.” It became a cultural milestone in modern island music.

“Coconut Girl” was more than one of the biggest local hits of the year. It was also the second local hit — after Henry Kapono’s 1981 solo debut single, “Stand in the Light” — that incorporated catchy Afro Caribbean rhythms. Like Kapono before before him, Noland sang it without affecting a faux-Jamaican accent or adopting a Rastafari look.

Riding the rhythms were his multilayered lyric observations on relationships between men and women, economic opportunities and cultural alienation.

Looking back, Noland said he had no expectation that “Coconut Girl” was going to be the hit of a lifetime.

“Absolutely not,” he said recently. “You’re just writing songs and first, as a songwriter, you’re just lucky that you get a chance to write and record, and then you get a chance to hear them on the radio.”

“Coconut Girl” made Noland a mega-star in the galaxy of island talent, and the song has been his musical signature ever since.

The song was introduced to new audiences when it was included in the soundtrack of the 2008 action comedy “Pineapple Express.”

Jump forward to 2023, and Noland is celebrating the song’s 40th anniversary with the release of a collector’s item 45-rpm vinyl single by Aloha Got Soul records. On one side is the original 1983 recording; on the other, a newly recorded arrangement. Call it “Coconut Girl 2023,” with Noland and his bass player from 1983, Kata Maduli, joined by Kapena “Pena Bu” De Lima, Olivia Ruff, Lion Fiyah, Asaiah Dread and guitarist Fred Schreuders. Local audiences may remember Schreuders as a member of Music Magic, Hawaii’s pioneering jazz-funk-fusion quartet of the late 1970s and early 1980s. The others are “new school” talents of the here and now.

“The only originals are me and Kata,” Noland said. “Working with the young guys, the young girls, we love it!”

“It’s really cool that the young kids are taking over and doing their thing — and working with my daughter, who took over my music business for me. They’re young, they’re energetic, they’re different (from my generation), yet they’re very respectful.”

The biggest changes for 2023 are the additional lyrics and the additional voices, male and female. De Lima and Noland co-produced the 2023 recording and keep the original version’s sense of rhythm intact. The lyric message is as relevant now as it was 40 years ago.

“When Noland approached me about doing it, I was hesitant to approach it,” De Lima said. “It’s such a classic, and it comes from that era of tape machines and analog gear, and … it’s almost impossible to recreate. … Noland pushed the music to the limit, and that’s … what we did with this newer version — it’s Brother Noland with that twist, the modern digital sound incorporated.”

De Lima let each of the young vocalists write their own lyrics about what the term “coconut girl” means to them.

“Reinterpretations from different standpoints,” he said. “There are a lot of tracks on this one because there’s so many different artists. Just to get the blend where we can hear everybody at the same time was kind of tricky. We also took a couple of snippets from the original.”

Join Brother Noland and Aloha Got Soul for the official release party Saturday at Na Waiwai, formerly known as the Waiwai Collective, in Moliliili.

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Brother Noland – Celebrating 40 Years of Coconut Girl

>> Where: Ka Waiwai, 1110 University Ave.

>> When: 5 p.m. Saturday

>> Cost: $5-$20 (general admission); Sliding scale, pay what you want. All ticket proceeds donated to Hawaii People’s Fund.

>> Tickets and more info: 808ne.ws/bronoland