Harry Belafonte's early career was spent as an actor until he had time to demonstrate his silky smoth and relaxing singing voice. He appeared in Oscar and Hammerstein's Carmen Jones, and in 1956 he was snapped up by RCA Victor. Belafonte was then at the forefont of the calypso craze.
His early hits included 'Jamaica Farewell', 'Mary's Boy Child' and the classic transatlantic hit, 'Banana Boat Song', with its unforgettable refrain: "Day-oh, Dayyy-oh, daylight come and me wanna go home". His album, Calypso, became the first album to sell a milion copies and remained at the top of the US charts for 31 weeks.
He continued throughout the 50's with incredible success. He appeared in many movies, including 'Island in the Sun', singing the title song. Between 1956 and 1962 he was hardly ever absent from the album charts.
Throughout the 60's Harry was an ambassador of human rights and in the mid 80's he was a leading light for the 'USA for Africa Appeal' and sang on "We are the World". He continued into the 90's working for UNICEF and Harry Belafonte was one of the few black artists who broke down barriers of class and race. |
