Tautalatala Means Too Much Talk, Savalivali Means Go for a Walk

Piliopo Nelson-Retzlaff, The Tuli Brothers | 34 comments

Just about everybody learning the Samoan language will come to know this song. It’s a fun (and funny), tourist-y classic.

Savalivali means go for a walk
Tautalatala means too much talk
Alofa ia te oe means I love you
Take it easy, faifai lemu

Teine manaia means pretty girl
Ta’amilomilo means around the world
Whisper to me means musumusu maia
Oi aue, means my, oh my

{ CHORUS }

E ua malie o, avane i le malo
E le faia so’u loto
A e tu’u lou finagalo

Go for a ride, ti’eti’e ta’avale
Stay at home means nofo i le fale
Leai o se tupe means no more money
Much trouble means fa’alavelave

Aue ta ino’ino i lau amio pi’opi’o
Ua e musu ia ita ua e laulauina
A ua e alu e nofo i le Saina
Isa isa fuga i lou fia ai alaisa

(Jerome Grey version)

Tautalatala means too much talk
Savalivali means go for a walk
Alofa ia te oe means I love you
Take it easy, faifai lemu

x2

Ti’eti’e ta’avale means go for a ride
Leai se kupe means no more money
Lusi lo’u ulu, you make me crazy
Le iloa, I don’t know

x2

[CHORUS]

Ua malie o, avane i le malo
E le faia so’u loto
Ae tulu lou finagalo

Go hospital, alu falema’i
Inuinu pia, drink everyday
Ave a’u kupe, you spend my peso
I’m broke, ua ou masaesae

x2

[CHORUS]

Tautalatala means too much talk!
Tautalatala means too much talk!
Tautalatala means too much talk!

Too much talk!

Most of the lyrics on this site were submitted by fans of Samoan music, so the words might not be entirely correct… and we may not know who originally composed the song.

Please help us to learn.

Please share any corrections or knowledge about this song in a comment below. Whatever we can verify, we will update in this post.

Ma le fa’aaloalo lava.

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Adele L Paris

You seem to be missing verse 3 – see Jerome Grey’s You Tube video…could you please add this to your lyrics?

sina

i needed this for my teacher lol i only know the first verse and chorus.

miranda

awesome! i sang this song with my yr 6 class all the time in samoa, though that was a few years ago and i couldn’t remember the lyrics. now i have them, yay! ^_^

Robert

Does anyone know where I can get a digital recording of this song?

Adele L Paris

This song is also known as “Tautalatala means too much talk” which confuses a lot of people when trying to search for it.
If you go to SOUNZ online you can check out an old recording of it by Willie Miller & Henry Hunkin. The song was composed by Billie Nelson-Retzlaff. Hope that helps.

Avea

I really wanted it to sing to my newborn and my brothers and sisters could only remember the first verse also when I rung and asked them it was my baby sister that recommended I search it on the net, so thanks!

Liz

Shouldn’t “Teine manaia means pretty girl” be “Teine ‘aulelei….”?
Manaia means nice, ‘Aulelei means pretty. Teine manaia really means Nice girl, not Pretty girl.

M. Black

This song was written in the days when there was a naval station in American Samoa by girls who at the time dating the shipmen of the Manuao. their way of communicating to the english speaking men.

MARY-lil-lamb

dat song is rong in a way.
line 2 is supposed to say tautala soo, not tautalala
coz da meaning ov tautala soo is too much talk and derez no suj word in da samoan vocabulary that says tautalatala

=]

Fa'a

Clearly you need to learn to write in English properly lol

Adele L Paris

According to the composer, the song should read ” tele tautala” but I guess they can take artistic license with words a ea, like “derez no suj word?” no such words in the English language either.

MARY- big lamb

derez no 4nier person dan you

Daniel S, Pago Pago

Manaia can be pretty, handsome, of course. It can mean ‘nice’, too, but nice in the sense of appearence. =p

And Tautala is like, to talk. Tautalatala means someone who talks too much. My Samoan language teacher explained this one to us.

So says the palagi.

lol

carol

Help, please! I need a mp3 or any other audio version of this song! Does anyone know where I can get it? Or if you know the tune, please be so kind to sing it for me and send me a copy of your voice recording at carol52dxz@yahoo.com.cn, please, please, please!

MzPacifika ('78,'79...)

LMAO! This song! Didn’t help me understand Samoan at all, I still don’t know what my grandpa’s saying 😀 Thank you for putting this up!

Stacey, Fale, Jesse and Trinity

on the line Leai o se tupu it should be Leai o se tupe…

Lu

Hi I would Love to Play it on my Ukulele, does anybody have some chords?

Ian Watts

Our child sang the first verse at her child care centre fete (in Brisbane). very nice …

Jaap Jasperse

I’d really like to know what the meaning of the chorus is! – iapiinapia

Elle Whyte

Does anyone know the guitar chords for this song???

Liam Carter
Rachel Hickman

Is anyone reading these comments from Samoa or know someone from Samoa? I am very interested in this culture and would love to learn more! email me at rachelhickm@gmail.com if you have anyone willing to talk to me about Samoan culture! thanks!

Rachel Hickman

Is anyone from Samoa or know anyone from Samoa? I am very interested in the culture. If you know anyone I willing to teach me, I would love it! email me at rachelhickm@gmail.com thanks!

simanu

hey how are u im manu from samoa .

Dylan

la manuia le aso palagi

Paul Dietz

Thanks for the memories. Learned this song in 1965 and this is the first time I’ve seen it spelled out.

Adele L Paris

You seem to be missing verse 3 – see Jerome Grey’s You Tube video…could you please add this to your lyrics?

Nils.Person.

I’m 78yr’s old my mum used to sing this song to us when we were kids.

Robbie Hadfield

alot of my class says tautalatala wrong and so since I’m Samoan and Maori I have to teach them

Atisa

“Teine manaia” should be “teine aulelei/lalelei” both words aulelei n lalelei means pretty

Also “Tele fa’alavelave” is much trouble

Taimane

Its teine aulelei not teine manaia 😭🫶🏽