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Liner Notes

The King of Calypso

When I featured this artist the first time on this show, he was still with us.

Unfortunately, Harry Belafonte passed away just a few weeks later.

This is the second record we will hear of the two my dad had from this singer. This was Harry’s second LP in his illustrious career. While his first did hit number three on the Billboard charts. This was his first of two number one albums.

So, get ready to hear one of the purest singing voices ever recorded in Volume 231: Simply Belafonte.

Video Intro

Listen here or on my PodBean Podcast Episode page:

You can check out the video version here or on YouTube:

Go Directly to Any Song or Break on YouTube:

00:00 – Season’s Show Intro
00:49 – Episode Introduction
01:45 – Waterboy
05:24 – First Break: Why I chose this record for this episode
07:22 – Troubles
10:59 – Second Break: More information about the record, its marketplace value and what condition my dad’s vinyl is in.
14:44 – Matilda
18:17 – Third Break: Artist Bio
21:44 – Noah
26:32 – Fourth Break: this episode’s Interesting Side Note.
28:30 – Scarlet Ribbons (For Her Hair)
31:48 – Unchained Melody
35:05 – Fifth Break: Final Words
37:36 – Jump Down, Spin Around
39:30 – Close

Credits and Copyrights:

Harry Belafonte – Belafonte
Label: RCA Victor – LPM 1150, RCA Victor – LPM-1150
Format: Vinyl, LP, Album, Mono, Rockaway Pressing
Released: 1956
Genre: Pop, Folk, World, & Country
Style: Calypso, Vocal, Folk

We will hear 7 of the 11 songs from this album.

Waterboy
Written-By – Harry Belafonte

Troubles
Written-By – Harry Belafonte

Matilda (This one made me get my bongo drums out)
Written-By – Harry Thomas

Noah (Next up a song of biblical proportions)
Written-By – Harry Belafonte and William Attaway

Scarlet Ribbons (For Her Hair)
Written-By – Evelyn Danzig, Jack Segal

Unchained Melody
Written-By – Alex North, Hy Zaret

Jump Down, Spin Around
Written-By – H. Belafonte, Norman Luboff, and William Attaway

I do not own the rights to this music. ASCAP, BMI licenses provided by third-party platforms for music that is not under Public Domain.

#harrybelfonte #calypsomusic #musicalmemories #musichistory #vinylcollecting #vinylrecords #fyp

Here is the Episode Script!

Thanks sweetie and thank YOU for tuning into episode 231 of Spinning My Dad’s Vinyl.

When I featured this artist the first time on this show, he was still with us.

Unfortunately, Harry Belafonte passed away just a few weeks later.

This is the second record we will hear of the two my dad had from this singer. This was Harry’s second LP in his illustrious career. While his first did hit number three on the Billboard charts. This was his first of two number one albums.

So, get ready to hear one of the purest singing voices ever recorded in Volume 231: Simply Belafonte.

[Music: Waterboy]

There is Harry Belafonte accompanied on Guitar by Millard J. Thomas with Waterboy
Written-By – Harry Belafonte

Mr Belafonte’s Waterboy is an entirely new interpretation of this venerable hammer song. Here the sound of the Hammers gives way to the agonized Cry of one who craves for more than just water.

Those brief words are part of the liner notes. I’ll use those for all of the songs on this episode.

Ok…Why this record for this episode?

Because I thought it was past time to pull out the only other record my dad had from this great artist. The first one we pulled out was that even more popular LP Calypso that I’ll mention a few times as we move through this episode. I featured it in Volume 109: Harry’s Day O.

This album, while considered the calypso style, is a little more laid back. Several of these songs were featured in a Broadway musical called 3 for Tonight starring a young Belafonte. That includes the song he eventually used as his theme song, which you’ll hear in a few.

And after listening to this record several times to prepare for this episode, I couldn’t get over how pure his voice is on it. I also appreciated the minimal instrumentation around him. That’s why I called it Simply Belafonte. Of course the title of the album helps too.

Next up, in Troubles we have a delightful transmigration, as an old New Orleans Street vendor’s song is raised to a more spiritual plane.

All I know is, this one has a really funky bass line.

[Music: Troubles]

Tony Scott And His Orchestra backing Belafonte on Troubles
Written-By – Harry Belafonte

Now let me tell you about my dad’s vinyl I am spinning for this episode.

Harry Belafonte – Belafonte
Label: RCA Victor – LPM 1150
Format: Vinyl, LP, Album, Mono,
A Rockaway Pressing
Released: 1956
Genre: Pop, Folk, World, & Country
Style: Calypso, Vocal, Folk

We will hear 7 of the 11 songs from this album.

The text besides the notes I’m using to introduce songs is lengthy. But I did want to pick out a bit of it.

Once heard, Harry Belafonte will be remembered. He is a voice of fire with an almost Apostolic fervor. His burning need? To return to the people a sense of the magnificence of their own cultural heritage. He has been described as America’s foremost balladeer in folk singer, and has surely earned this distinction. while moving us through laughter and tears, he imparts a fresh sense of the reality and truth of our legends.

Most of the songs in this collection will be familiar to all, but that is as it should be, great folk themes are Immortal and timeless. However, great music demands equally great interpretation if it is to survive in our everyday lives as a living force. We think that Harry Belafonte has made this music live through his own vitality and love.

Let’s see what prices this record is being sold at on discogs dot com.

$14.76 High
$0.57 Low

$3.41 Average
$1.60 Median

Last sold on Nov 20, 2023 for that $14.76 high

My dad’s record is way cleaner than I expected. Especially if you remember the bad condition Calypso was in. There is very little hiss, which is important since so much of the music you’ll hear is just Belafonte’s voice.

That’s because my dad’s record is so clean. I don’t see many marks on the LPs surface. Just enough to know that it had been played.

The cover is in good condition. Harry’s photo is still bright and clear. There’s just a bit of a circular outline where the record rests beneath.

There’s a shorter than normal green magic marker streak on the back cover with no word stamped on the back.

He does have a unique address label on the front. I don’t think I remember seeing the little dog with the Uncle Sam hat before.

So I’ll value my dad’s vinyl at two bucks.

Back to music. In Matilda we are taken to Jamaica where, to a Calypso beat, we hear the sero-comic tale of a lover betrayed.

This one made me get my bongo drums out.

[Music: Matilda]

Once again Tony Scott And His Orchestra behind Harry performing Matilda
Written-By – Harry Thomas

I just wanted to give you a bit more information about that song.

Harry Belafonte’s first recording of the song was on April 27, 1953 and was released as a single. He re-recorded it for this album. The oft-repeated phrase in his rendition of the song is:
Hey! Ma-til-da; she take me money and run a-Venezuela.
Belafonte often performed the song in concert, and he would encourage the audience to sing that line. An example is heard on his 1959 live album Belafonte at Carnegie Hall, where the total playing time for “Matilda” is nearly 12 minutes.
Now, I looked back and really went into depth in the last episode featuring Belafonte, so I thought I would do a very quick and not at all thorough summary of his life.

Harry Belafonte was born Harold George Bellanfanti Jr. on March 1, 1927, in Harlem, New York, the son of Jamaican-born parents.

He was a famous singer who helped make calypso music popular in America during the 1950s. His album *Calypso*, released in 1956, was a huge success and became the first album ever to sell more than one million copies in a year. Some of his best-known songs are “Day-O (The Banana Boat Song),” “Jamaica Farewell,” and “Jump in the Line (Shake, Senora)”.

Belafonte didn’t just sing calypso—he also performed blues, folk, gospel, and pop music. He won many awards, including three Grammys and he was the first Black American man to win an Emmy Award. Besides music, he acted in movies like *Carmen Jones* and *Island in the Sun*, and he helped introduce other artists to American audiences.

Throughout his career, Belafonte used his fame to help others. He worked for civil rights and supported important causes like fighting hunger and helping children. He was known as the “King of Calypso,” but he was also a leader who made a difference in music and in the world.

In 1996, Belafonte was diagnosed with prostate cancer and was treated for the disease. He suffered a stroke in 2004, which took away his inner-ear balance.

From 2019, his health began to decline, but he remained an active and prominent figure in the civil rights movement.

He died from congestive heart failure at his home on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, New York City, on April 25, 2023.

Harry Belafonte was 96 years old.

Next up is a song of biblical proportions.

Noah is the voice of Prophecy from the Old Testament, calling through the passion of a backwoods preacher.

[Music: Noah]

With a little help from the The Norman Luboff Choir, there is Noah
Written-By – Harry Belafonte and William Attaway

Time now for this episode’s interesting side note and it has to do with Cuban rap music.

Belafonte is also known for his visit to Cuba that helped ensure hip-hop’s place in Cuban society. According to Geoffrey Baker’s article “Hip hop, Revolucion! Nationalizing Rap in Cuba”, in 1999, Belafonte met with representatives of the rap community immediately before meeting with Castro. This meeting resulted in Castro’s personal approval of, and hence the government’s involvement in, the incorporation of rap into his country’s culture. In a 2003 interview, Belafonte reflected upon this meeting’s influence:

“When I went back to Havana a couple years later, the people in the hip-hop community came to see me and we hung out for a bit. They thanked me profusely and I said, ‘Why?’ and they said, ‘Because your little conversation with Fidel and the Minister of Culture on hip-hop led to there being a special division within the ministry and we’ve got our own studio.’.”

There’s an artist whose career spanned Calypso to Rap.

OK, I couldn’t decide between the next two old familiar melodies. So I’ll play them both.

First stop. Everyone who knows this singer loves the lyrical beauty of scarlet ribbons. Other singers have attempted this deceptively simple tune but it remains Mr Belafonte’s own.

[Music: Scarlet Ribbons (For Her Hair)]
[Music: Unchained Melody]

Did that just become my favorite version of this song?
Unchained Melody
Written-By – Alex North, Hy Zaret

The fact that Mr Belafonte has chosen to include the Contemporary Unchained Melody in this album demonstrates that creation of songs with Integrity is an unending process. His sensitive rendition of this number is convincing proof that it belongs.

Before that we heard Scarlet Ribbons (For Her Hair), a hit for Doris Day.
Written-By – Evelyn Danzig, Jack Segal

Both of those songs, Harry was accompanied on Guitar by Millard J. Thomas.

Well, I hope you enjoyed this episode as much as I enjoyed bringing it to you.

This voice. Especially on this album. Just so clear, so pure and so young. And the simple instrumentation for most of it. It was giving me goosebumps as I listened.

I don’t think I remember this album cover from my growing up days in the house.

But it also could fall into the category of just not recognizing that I saw the cover.

It is a nice photograph of the young Belafonte wearing a salmon colored Cuban collared shirt. It’s an open front shirt with no buttons. He is sitting, although you can’t see what he is sitting on, with his left arm laid across his left leg. He must be wearing dark slacks.

His attention is not towards the camera but to his left off screen. This photo is on a light green background. Other than the RCA Victor Logo, the only words that appear are the white serif font that simply says Belafonte.

The back cover is a simple black text on a white background with the song listing and the liner notes.

Pretty plain cover.

And…last but not least is a song that you hear a snippet of in this season’s opening.

Jump down, spin around, a folk round from Slavery days, captures the spirit of rebellious gaiety which reaffirms the fact that man’s spirit is indeed indestructible.

[Music: Jump Down, Spin Around]

The Norman Luboff Choir Jump Down, Spin Around
Written-By – H. Belafonte, Norman Luboff, and William Attaway

And there you have selections from the man who put Calypso on the musical map.

So thanks for tuning into Volume 231: Simply Belafonte

however you did. If you want more information about this SHOW, head over to spinning my dad’s vinyl dot com.

I’ll be back next week with all my skips, scratches, and pops

FOR Volume 232: Ray on the Road

Until then,
Go with the flow my friends.

 

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