On October 20th, 1955, Harry Belafonte recorded the Banana Boat Song, aka “Day-O.”
C’mon, everybody sing!
“Daylight come and me wan’ go home!..”
:: scribbles a35362 on my shit list ::
Well, thanks, now that will be stuck in my head for days. And Beetlejuice, too.
I guess I’ll have to torment my son (age 5) with it. He hates it when I sing that song.
Come Mr. Tally-man, tally me bananas…
I also loved “Mama Looka Booboo”.
“That is your daddy”. “Oh no! My daddy can’t be ugly so!”
I always thought it odd that Alan Arkin either wrote or helped write that song.
This thread brings the semi-famous Day-O Singers of Key West to mind.
“In excelsis Day-ay-oh…”
“Day-o. Day-ay-ay-o…”
Day-o one day sale, one day only at the Bon Marché
Woohoo! I’m going to hell!
Anybody here heard of [html=“http://www.bulaia.com/”]Bu La’ia?
"Daaaaay old...
Daay-ay old poi.
Day-old poi and I like some now!"
Also the man behind such Hawaiian-flavored parodies as "Oh Punani" and "No Pu' Inside."The Tarriers, of which Alan Arkin was a member, charted with the song before Harry Belafonte did. Belafonte had a bigger hit with it, though. I believe the song is an adaptation of a traditional one.
Daylight come, and me wan’ go home.
One of my other Belafonte favourites is “Mathilda”. So…
EVERYBODY!!!
Mathilda.
Mathilda.
She take me money and run Venezuela!
(Now I’m going to have both those songs rattling around my skull for the rest of the week.)
Do any of you know who besides Belafonte did a song with either the title or some lyrics that went something like:
“Go 'way from my window
Go 'way from my door
Go 'way from my bedside
And bother me no more
And bother me no more…”
I have the sound image of somebody like Judy Collins or maybe Helen Reddy singing something with similar lyrics and melody. I have thus far not been able to get a hit on any of the lyrics sites I know of.
Whaddyou mean “semi-famous”? They’re an international sensation. They’re the single most dynamic act in Calypso music today. If you’ve never heard of them, it’s because you don’t deserve to have heard of them. You. Are. Not. Worthy. (Not you, Slainte. Of course you’re worthy, you’re in the know.)
“Run Venezuela,” eh? I have a tape in my Grateful Dead collection with Jerry Garcia singing this song, and I always wondered what the end of the “she take my money” line was.
Where’s the link to the Colin Powell version?
Come, Mr. Taliban, turn over bin Laden…
You have a good point there - I retract my “semi-famous” comment. In fact, they are so famous that perhaps only Crazy Cat rivals them.
And I’m only in-the-know because I have cool friends.
Yair, but you could do worse. It’s still a cool, cool song.
I’m still trying to figure out why William Saroyan co-wrote “Come On-A My House”, myself.
while not as classic as Belafonte’s Day-o
it’s just as hard to get out of your head:
“King of the Bongo” by Manu Chao
It’s too piercing, man, it’s too piercing. And, I mean, ooo, like I don’t dig spiders, man.
Seriously, I know Marlene Dietrich did a version of that. Have you tried searching on “go away”?