Esther Williams was pregnant during the filming of this movie.
Van Johnson and Cyd Charisse were the first choices for the leads, but Cyd Charisse was pregnant at the time. A new screenplay was then written for Esther Williams to star in.
The melody to the song "The House Of Singing Bamboo" was actually written in 1945 by 'Harry Warren' for the MGM picture The Harvey Girls, which starred Judy Garland. The song was called "Hayride" and it originally had lyrics by Johnny Mercer. The song was cut from the picture. In 1950, the Mercer lyrics were dumped and the melody was changed slightly for use in this picture.
The original title for this film was "Tahiti." The writers of the music for the film, 'Harry Warren' and Arthur Freed, wrote a song by that title, but when the title of the movie was changed, the song was dropped and Nacio Herb Brown and Freed's "Pagan Love Song" was added.
Three songs were cut after previews: "Why Is Love So Crazy (Reprise)" and "Sea of the Moon" (sung by Esther Williams, dubbed by Betty Wand) and "Music on the Water" (sung by Howard Keel).