Calypso is the 3rd album by Harry Belafonte

Harry Belafonte

Harold George "Harry" Belafonte, Jr. is an American singer, songwriter, actor and social activist. He was dubbed the "King of Calypso" for popularizing the Caribbean musical style with an international audience in the 1950s...

, released by RCA Victor (LPM-1248) in 1956. The CD was released on April 28, 1992 . It is the first full-length gramophone LP

Gramophone record

A gramophone record, commonly known as a phonograph record , vinyl record , or colloquially, a record, is an analog sound storage medium consisting of a flat disc with an inscribed, modulated spiral groove...

 to sell over one million copies (the singles Bing Crosby

Bing Crosby

Harry Lillis "Bing" Crosby was an American singer and actor. Crosby's trademark bass-baritone voice made him one of the best-selling recording artists of the 20th century, with over half a billion records in circulation....

's "White Christmas

White Christmas (song)

"White Christmas" is an Irving Berlin song reminiscing about an old-fashioned Christmas setting. According to the Guinness Book of World Records, the version sung by Bing Crosby is the best-selling single of all time, with estimated sales in excess of 50 million copies worldwide.Accounts vary as...

" and Tennessee Ernie Ford

Tennessee Ernie Ford

Ernest Jennings Ford , better known as Tennessee Ernie Ford, was an American recording artist and television host who enjoyed success in the country and Western, pop, and gospel musical genres...

's "Sixteen Tons

Sixteen Tons

"Sixteen Tons" is a song about the life of a coal miner, first recorded in 1946 by American country singer Merle Travis and released on his box set album Folk Songs of the Hills the following year...

" had surpassed 1 million copies previously). The album is number four on Billboard's "Top 100 Album" list for having spent 31 weeks at number 1, 58 weeks in the top ten, and 99 weeks on the U.S. charts.

The tracks

The first track, "Day-O (Banana Boat Song)" largely contributed to the success of the album and it is still the song for which Harry Belafonte is best known, reaching number five on Billboard

Billboard (magazine)

Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...

s Pop

Billboard Hot 100

The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...

 chart.

It is a traditional Jamaican folk song not a calypso, sung from the point of view of dock workers working the night shift loading banana

Banana

Banana is the common name for herbaceous plants of the genus Musa and for the fruit they produce. Bananas come in a variety of sizes and colors when ripe, including yellow, purple, and red....

s onto ships. Daylight has come, the shift is over, and they want their work to be counted up so that they can go home (this is the meaning of the lyric "Come, Mr. Tally Man, tally me banana / Daylight come and me wan' go home.")

The song was also used in a famous dinner scene in Tim Burton

Tim Burton

Timothy William "Tim" Burton is an American film director, film producer, writer and artist. He is famous for dark, quirky-themed movies such as Beetlejuice, Edward Scissorhands, The Nightmare Before Christmas, Ed Wood, Sleepy Hollow, Corpse Bride and Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet...

's Beetlejuice

Beetlejuice

Beetlejuice is a 1988 American comedy horror film directed by Tim Burton, produced by The Geffen Film Company and distributed by Warner Bros...

.

The third track, "Jamaica Farewell

Jamaica Farewell

"Jamaica Farewell" is a calypso about the beauties of the West Indian Islands.The lyrics for the song were written by Lord Burgess . Lord Burgess was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1926. His mother was from Barbados and his father was from Virginia. The song first appeared on Harry Belafonte's...

", is another calypso folk song about the beauties of the West Indian islands and a love left behind. This was the first album on which it was published. It reached number fourteen on Billboard's Pop chart, becoming the second hit from the album.

"Man Smart (Woman Smarter)" is featured in both The Simpsons

The Simpsons

The Simpsons is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical parody of a middle class American lifestyle epitomized by its family of the same name, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie...

 and I Love Lucy

I Love Lucy

I Love Lucy is an American television sitcom starring Lucille Ball, Desi Arnaz, Vivian Vance, and William Frawley. The black-and-white series originally ran from October 15, 1951, to May 6, 1957, on the Columbia Broadcasting System...

.

Track listing

1. "Day-O" (Banana Boat Song
   Banana Boat Song
   "Day-O " is a traditional Jamaican mento folk song, the best-known version of which was sung by Harry Belafonte. Although it is really Jamaican mento, the song is widely known as an example of calypso music. It is a song from the point of view of dock workers working the night shift loading bananas...
   
   ) (William Attaway
   William Attaway
   William Alexander Attaway was an African American novelist, short story writer, essayist, songwriter, playwright, and screenwriter.-Early Life:...
   
   , Harry Belafonte) – 3:02
2. "I Do Adore Her" (Lord Burgess
   Lord Burgess
   Irving Louis Burgie, better known as Lord Burgess, is a songwriter, born in Brooklyn, New York in 1926, or possibly on July 28, 1924. His mother was from Barbados and his father was from Virginia....
   
   ) – 2:48
3. "Jamaica Farewell
   Jamaica Farewell
   "Jamaica Farewell" is a calypso about the beauties of the West Indian Islands.The lyrics for the song were written by Lord Burgess . Lord Burgess was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1926. His mother was from Barbados and his father was from Virginia. The song first appeared on Harry Belafonte's...
   
   " (Lord Burgess) – 3:02
4. "Will His Love Be Like His Rum?" (Attaway, Belafonte) – 2:33
5. "Dolly Dawn" (Lord Burgess) – 3:13
6. "Star-O" (Attaway, Belafonte) – 2:02
7. "The Jack-Ass Song" (Lord Burgess, Attaway) – 2:52
8. "Hosanna" (Lord Burgess, Attaway) – 2:34
9. "Come Back Liza" (Lord Burgess, Attaway) – 3:03
10. "Brown Skin Girl" (Norman Span
    King Radio
    King Radio was a calypsonian active in the 1930s and 1940s.He was the composer of many calypsos which later became standards, such as "Mathilda", "Man Smart, Woman Smarter", and "Brown Skin Gal".-References:...
    
    ) – 2:43
11. "Man Smart (Woman Smarter)" (Norman Span) – 3:31

Personnel

• Harry Belafonte – vocals
• Millard J. Thomas – guitar (1, 4, 6 ,7)
• Frantz Casseus
  Frantz Casseus
  Frantz Casseus was a Haitian guitarist and composer.Although born and raised in Port-au-Prince, Haiti he spent most of his adult life in the United States. His music maintained a focus on Haitian folk forms, which he incorporated into his recordings and his published compositions...
  
   – guitar
• Tony Scott and His Orchestra (2 ,3 ,5 ,8 ,9 ,10 ,11)
• The Norman Luboff Choir (8, 9, 10)

Production notes:

• Ed Welker – producer
• Herman Diaz Jr. – producer
• Henri René
  Henri René
  Henri René was an American-born German producer, conductor and arranger. René mother's was German and his father French; while young, his family moved to Germany, and René studied at the Royal Berlin Academy of Music. Returning to the U.S. in the mid 1920s, he began appearing with several...
  
  – producer ("Man Smart (Woman Smarter)")
• Tony Scott – conductor
• Broc Peters – chorus leader
• Roy Stevens – cover photo
• William Attaway – liner notes

External links

• Belafonte Tracks discography site.