RCA Victor 1248
Producer: None listed
Track listing: Day O / I Do Adore Her / Jamaica Farewell / Will His Love Be Like His Rum? / Dolly Dawn / Star O / The Jack-Ass Song / Hosanna / Come Back Liza / Brown Skin Girl / Man Smart (Woman Smarter)
September 8, 1956
31 weeks (nonconsecutive)
Harry Belafonte had already scored two hit albums is 1956. His first album, Mark Twain and Other Folk Favorites, reached number three. A few months later, on March 24, the Harlem-born singer’s Belafonte spent six weeks at Number One until it was knocked from the summit by Elvis Presley. Despite his success with straight pop music, Belafonte decided to some something different on his third album.
“There were things that I had a big interest in that came from places that were not reflective of where popular American culture was headed at the time,” says Belafonte. “I talked about doing this album of music that came from the Caribbean region with a cross-section of folk music coming from Jamaica, Trinidad, and other islands. There was significant resistance to that concept.”
Executives at RCA urged the young Belafonte, who was just 28 at the time, to stick with the winning formula. Yet the singer had a vision influenced by his heritage. His mother was Jamaican and his father West Indian. “I took my appeal to George Merek, who then was the president of RCA. I told him about my desire to do this album. He felt my request wasn’t outside the purview of RCA’s ability and game plan for me.”
Once Belafonte got the green light, the album was recorded fairly quickly with accompaniment by Tony Scott and His Orchestra, guitarist Millard Thomas and composer/conductor Norman Luboff. Most of the songs were well-rehearsed before Belafonte and company entered the studio. “The only kind of spontaneous thing that went on was the creation of a throwaway song to fill out the album called ‘Day O,'” says Belafonte. A second version of the song, retitled, “Star O,” was featured on side two. Although Calypso climbed to Number One less than three months after it debuted on the chart, the album didn’t develop its legs until “Day O,” now retitled as “Banana Boat,” was released as a single.
While RCA focused on “Jamaica Farewell” and Belafonte’s Christmas single “Mary’s Boy Child,” a folk trio called the Tarriers, which featured the then-unknown actor Alan Arkin, scored a hit with a cover of “Day O.” The single, which Glory Records titled “The Banana Boat Song,” hit number four.
When RCA finally released Belafonte’s original version of the song, it peaked at number five. That hit and Belafonte’s growing legion of fans were enough to keep Calypso lodged firmly on top of the album chart.
With a total of 31 weeks at the summit, Calypso set the early standard as the Number One album with the most weeks at the top. Two years later, South Pacific would tie that mark, and in 1962, West Side Story broke the record with 54 weeks on top.
THE TOP FIVE
Week of September 8, 1956
1. Calypso, Harry Belafonte
2. The King and I, Soundtrack
3. My Fair Lady, Original Cast
4. Elvis Presley, Elvis Presley
5. The Eddy Duchin Story, Soundtrack