After his death in December 1966, Columbia Records released his debut studio album, The Extraordinary Kui Lee the same month.

[1] At the age of five, after his mother died, Lee returned to Hawaii with his father who feared the escalating tensions in the area around Shanghai, and the threat of war.

[1] After his stint with the Coast Guard, Lee traveled to the US mainland and became a knife dancer in Los Angeles, New York City, and Puerto Rico.

[6] While working at The Lexington Hotel in New York City, Lee met his wife, hula dancer and singer Rose Frances Naone "Nani" Leinani.

[3] Ho, the featured singer whose mother owned the club, began to perform Lee's original songs.

[10] During an interview with Paradise of the Pacific, Honolulu radio D.J Hal Lewis said of Lee, "Kui is a gold mine for his song-writing alone.

[5] Tony Bennett, Andy Williams, Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass, and Vic Schoen covered it in English.

[15] Around that time, Lee expressed to childhood friend Douglas Mossman his regret towards not graduating from high school.

[21] Eventually, Lee traveled to Tijuana, Mexico, where he sought treatment with laetrile, which was banned by the Food and Drug Administration in the US.

[5] Nani Lee stressed in a later interview that though she did not believe in the treatment's effectiveness, and her husband "knew very well what little chance there was", that "he wanted so much to live.

[24] By 1:00 pm, his body and 90 mourners sailed from Kuhio Beach Park on the catamaran Ale-Ale Kai to the burial location 21°15′N 157°49.8′W / 21.250°N 157.8300°W / 21.250; -157.8300.

10,000 orchids were dropped from a plane to the signal of a flare, and Lee's lei-covered casket was released to waters with a depth of between 500–600 feet (150–180 m).

[27][28] The label's publisher Mickey Goldsen credited Lee with bridging a generational gap in Hawaiian music.

[29] A part of the Hawaiian Renaissance, his fan base regarded him as a "rebel" for departing from the themes in traditional music.

[13] During an interview, Lee said that while performing on the mainland early in his career, the mainstream stereotypes of Hawaiian culture, and the adoption of them by his peers on the Islands aggravated him.

[30] Upon his return to Hawaii, Lee discarded his previous outfit of choice, the suit and tie, and favored informal shirts, while he let his hair grow.

[5] Lee's followers compared him to James Dean, as the themes of several of his songs dealt with social deception and oligarchy.

[1] According to author Adrienne L. Kaeppler, Lee's sound "experimented with a laid-back English balladic style, harmonically and rhythmically complex".

Hawaii newspaper columnist Eddie Sherman had created the fund shortly before the event to assist cancer research at the University of Hawaiʻi.