Filed under: Inspirational Anthems, sing like no one is listening, Songs of Triumph | Tags: Day-O, Harry Belafonte, The Muppet Show, Turn the World Around
Harry Belafonte is easily one of the most talented, remarkable performers in history. The son of Jamaican immigrants, Belafonte was born in New York in 1927, but lived in Jamaica from 1932-1940. As far as I know, Belafonte is most famous as a singer, but I was fascinated to discover that he originally began singing in clubs in order to pay for acting classes that he and his good friend Sidney Poitier were taking. From these club gigs he eventually signed with RCA Victor in 1953 and went on to record in a variety of genres, though most notably in American folk and Caribbean Calypso music. His 1956 album Calypso was Belafonte’s second number one album, and became the first album in history to sell over one million copies. The track everyone knows from Calypso is, of course, the famous “Day-O (The Banana Boat Song).”
I didn’t know that that song was Belafonte’s until he sang it on The Muppet Show during his season three appearance in 1979. Belafonte’s episode is easily one of the greatest episodes of one of the greatest television shows of all time. After her first time seeing it, my wife turned to me and said, “Damn. That man has presence.”
The episode ends with Belafonte singing my personal favorite song of his “Turn the World Around.” The title track to his 1977 album of international folk songs, “Turn the World Around” is a kumbaya-style masterpiece of goodwill that Belafonte was inspired to write after speaking with a Guinean storyteller during a trip to Africa. As Belafonte puts it while explaining the song to Fozzie Bear, “All of us are here for a very, very short time. In that time that we’re here, there really isn’t any difference in any of us, if we were to take time out to understand each other. And the question is… do we care about each other? Because if we do, together we can turn the world around.”
I don’t care how sentimental or idealistic it is, I love it. And I love Harry Belafonte for writing it. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.
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Songs For Your Day 