4/19/2021 0 Comments Harry Belafonte Top Songs
During the 1960s he introduced several artists to American audiences, most notably South African singer Miriam Makeba and Greek singer Nana Mouskouri.One of the most successful Jamaican-American pop stars in history, he was dubbed the King of Calypso for popularizing the Trinidadian Caribbean musical style with an international audience in the 1950s.His breakthrough album Calypso (1956) was the first million-selling LP by a single artist.
Belafonte is known for his recording of The Banana Boat Song, with its signature lyric Day-O. He has recorded and performed in many genres, including blues, folk, gospel, show tunes, and American standards. He has also starred in several films, including Otto Preminger s hit musical Carmen Jones (1954), Island in the Sun (1957), and Robert Wise s Odds Against Tomorrow (1959). Since 1987, he has been a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador. He was a vocal critic of the policies of the George W. Belafonte acts as the American Civil Liberties Union celebrity ambassador for juvenile justice issues. In 2014, he received the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award at the Academys 6th Annual Governors Awards. His father also was born in Jamaica, the child of a black mother and Dutch Jewish father of Sephardi origins. Belafonte has described his grandfather, whom he never met, as a white Dutch Jew who drifted over to the islands after chasing gold and diamonds, with no luck at all. From 1932 to 1940, he lived with one of his grandmothers in her native country of Jamaica, where he attended Wolmers Schools. When he returned to New York City, he attended George Washington High School 15 after which he joined the Navy and served during World War II. In the 1940s, he was working as a janitors assistant in NYC when a tenant gave him, as a gratuity, two tickets to see the American Negro Theater. He fell in love with the art form and also met Sidney Poitier. The financially struggling pair regularly purchased a single seat to local plays, trading places in between acts, after informing the other about the progression of the play. At the end of the 1940s, he took classes in acting at the Dramatic Workshop of The New School in New York with the influential German director Erwin Piscator alongside Marlon Brando, Tony Curtis, Walter Matthau, Bea Arthur, and Sidney Poitier, while performing with the American Negro Theatre. He subsequently received a Tony Award for his participation in the Broadway revue John Murray Andersons Almanac. The first time he appeared in front of an audience, he was backed by the Charlie Parker band, which included Charlie Parker himself, Max Roach and Miles Davis, among others. At first, he was a pop singer, launching his recording career on the Roost label in 1949, but later he developed a keen interest in folk music, learning material through the Library of Congress American folk songs archives. With guitarist and friend Millard Thomas, Belafonte soon made his debut at the legendary jazz club The Village Vanguard. In 1953, he signed a contract with RCA Victor, recording regularly for the label until 1974. He and associated acts such as Liberace, Ray Vasquez, and Sammy Davis Jr. His breakthrough album Calypso (1956) became the first LP in the world to sell over 1 million copies within a year, Belafonte confirmed on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporations The Link program on August 7, 2012. He added that it was also the first million-selling album ever in England. 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. The album introduced American audiences to calypso music (which had originated in Trinidad and Tobago in the early 20th century), and Belafonte was dubbed the King of Calypso, a title he wore with reservations since he had no claims to any Calypso Monarch titles. His second-most popular hit, which came immediately after The Banana Boat Song, was the comedic tune Mama Look at Bubu, also known as Mama Look a Boo-Boo (originally recorded by Lord Melody in 1955 18 ), in which he sings humorously about misbehaving and disrespectful children. From his 1959 album, Hava Nagila became part of his regular routine and one of his signature songs. ![]() Kennedy in 1961. Later that year, RCA Victor released another calypso album, Jump Up Calypso, which went on to become another million seller.
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