THE 1000 BEST SONGS IN THE WORLD EVER.
390-Harry Belafonte-Day-O (The Banana Boat Song)
1957-Number 2 single.
Best Bit-At 2.33. This genre of music is known as ‘Mento,’ it is a style of Jamaican Folk Music that predates, and has greatly influenced Ska and Reggae music.
Harry Belafonte was born Harold George Bellanfanti Jr. on March 1st, 1927, in New York City, United States, he died from congestive heart failure, on April 25th, 2023, at the age of 96. Harry Belafonte was a singer, songwriter, actor, and an activist. As a child he was sent to live with his grandmother in Jamaica in 1932, but returned to New York in 1940, after leaving high school he joined the Navy and served during World War II. Harry Belafonte began his music career as a club performer in New York singing Pop music, but he would later develop an interest in Folk music. Aside from his singing career Harry Belafonte acted in many films, and appeared in several documentaries. Belafonte was also politically active, being greatly inspired by the American singer Paul Robeson, (see also best songs 82) who mentored him. Belafonte supported the Civil Rights Movement in the 1950’s, and 1960’s, and was one of Martin Luther King Jr.’s (1929-1968) confidants. Among his many achievements, Harry Belafonte won three ‘Grammy Awards,’ an ‘Emmy Award,’ and was inducted into the ‘Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’ in the ‘Early Influence’ category in 2022.
The discography of Harry Belafonte includes 27 studio Albums released between 1954-1988, and 19 singles released released between 1953-1988, there are also six collaboration Albums, eight official compilation Albums, and eight live Albums available. In America on the Billboard Hot 100, seven of his singles have reached the top 40, with (‘Day-O) Banana Boat Song’ peaking the highest at Number 5, while in the UK, he has also charted within the top 40 on seven occasions, with ‘Mary’s Boy Child’ making Number 1 in 1956.
(‘Day-O) Banana Boat Song’ was the second of two singles released from Harry Belafonte’s third studio Album ‘Calypso,’ from May 1956. The song is a traditional Jamaican Folk song, probably dating back to the turn of the 20th Century. This Harry Belafonte recording includes song writing credits for Harry Belafonte, William Attaway, (1911-1986) and Lord Burgess, (1924-2019) with the production being by Ed Welker, and Herman Diaz Jr. The Album ‘Calypso’ is the first ‘Long Play’ record Album to sell over one million copies worldwide. In 2015 ‘Calypso’ was inducted into the ‘Grammy Hall of Fame,’ and in 2018, the Album was selected for preservation in the ‘National Recording Registry,’ by the ‘Library of Congress,’ as being ‘culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.’
(‘Day-O) Banana Boat Song’ tells the story of dock workers who would work throughout the night loading bananas on to ships. As daylight approaches they await the arrival of the ‘Tallyman’ who will take inventory so that they can go home. Harry Belafonte has said, ‘The most important thing to me about ‘The Banana Boat Song’ is that before America heard it, Americans had no notion of the rich culture of the Caribbean. Very few of them did, anyway, which made no sense to me. It made no sense to me back then that people in America would not respond to the Caribbean culture I knew in joyous, positive ways. But there were these cultural assumptions then about people from the Caribbean – that they were all rum drinking, sex-crazed and lazy – not they were tillers of the land, harvesters of bananas for landlords of the plantations. I thought, let me sing about a new definition of these people. Let me sing a classic work song, about a man who works all night for a sum equal to the cost of a dram of beer, a man who works all night because it’s cooler then than during the day.’
The first official recording of the song was in 1952 by the Trinidadian singer Edric Connor, (1913-1968) it was on his version that Harry Belafonte based his recording. In 1955 the American singer/songwriters Lord Burgess (1924-2019) and William Attaway (1911-1986) wrote a version of the lyrics for the American ‘NBC’ television variety series ‘The Colgate Comedy Hour,’ in which the song was performed by Harry Belafonte, this was what led to Belafonte recording the song. In America on Billboard, six different artists have made the top 40 with their differing interpretations of the song, with the American vocal group ‘The Tarriers,’ charting their version the highest at Number 4 in 1957. In the UK, as well as the Harry Belafonte recording, ‘The Tarriers’ reached Number 15, and Shirley Bassey made Number 8 also in 1957.
‘Day-o-day-o, daylight come and we want to go home. Work all night on a drink of rum, stack banana ’til the morning come.’