Banana Boat Song
| Banana Boat Song | |
|---|---|
| Harry Belafonte | |
| publication | 1956 |
| length | 3:09 |
| album | Calypso |
The Banana Boat Song is an old Jamaican folk song , the most famous version of which was sung by the calypso singer Harry Belafonte .
History of origin
The song goes back to an old Jamaican folk song called Day dah light , which is about shivers (dock workers for loading and unloading) who loaded bananas during night shifts and sang about their work. They experienced the break of day and the end of the shift that went with it: Daylight come and I wanna go home . This chorus , like the melody, is common to all early, traditional versions of the song. The stanzas varied, however, and were often likely made up on the spot .
The term Tallyman ( Come Mister Tally Man, tally me banana ) used in the lyrics means the load controller, who counted the number of "hands" on a "tuft of bananas" (fruit cluster) , as the workers were paid according to the quantity of bananas delivered: Six hand, seven hand, eight hand, bunch! A "bunch" was a "tuft" with more than eight "hands". Other versions of the text read: Lift six foot, seven foot, eight foot, bunch! which referred to the lifting of the "tuft", while its length was measured.
Interpretations
The folk song was first popularized by Edric Connor & His Caribbeans , a group from Trinidad who first recorded the song in England in 1952 for their album Songs from Jamaica under the title Day dah Light (banana charger song). 1954 followed a version by Louise Bennett , which came from Jamaica.
The Tarriers (with, among others, Erik Darling , Marshall Brickman and Alan Arkin ) were able to reach the first hit parade after the song was slightly changed lyrically by folksinger Bob Gibson and appeared as Banana Boat Song in November 1956 and subsequently in the pop charts except for 4th place. The most famous recording to date was the first song on Harry Belafonte's album Calypso , which was listed at No. 1 in the LP charts for 31 weeks (not continuously) and was released in May 1956, long before the Tarriers single. The album was produced by Herman Diaz Jr. But Day O was only intended as an album filler and was recorded spontaneously. Calypso was the first LP to be sold more than a million times. In order to participate in the beginning success of the Tarriers, Belafonte's label RCA decided to release the banana song as a single in December 1956. It became the third million-seller for Belafonte. The lyrics to Belafontes Day-O (Banana Boat Song) were written by Irving Burgie (Burgess) and William Attaway . In February 1957, Shirley Bassey brought out a number one hit in the UK with Gibson's version, while US artist Steve Lawrence had a hit with his version of the song.
Cover versions
The Banana Boat song received a BMI award and, according to the BMI, has been covered 37 times. As a direct cover, the version by Leo Leandros reached eleventh place in the German charts in September 1957 under the title Komm Mister Talliman . Like many other popular songs, the Bananenboot song was often adapted and parodied (e.g. Jedermann Kollapso “Come Mister Jedermann, gemma bisserl die!” By Gerhard Bronner, 1957; Waarom zijn de bananen krom by Andre van Duin, 1972; Come, Mister Taliban, turn over Bin Laden - daylight come and we drop the bomb in a version circulating on the Internet) and used for advertising purposes (e.g. " Fanta Mango ") and in films (e.g. Beetlejuice ).
A known especially in children German language version is the banana bread song by Rolf Harris of November 1983, in which the text "Day-O" is replaced by "Theo". ( "Come on, about, and the point of" Come, Mr. Tally man " Tally man [so I can go home and count 'my banana]") is "Do a bit Dalli, man." In August 2004, Rick Maniac & Dr. Loop a hands up trance version of it. The chorus of the Banana Boat song was used by Jason Derulo for his 2011 hit Don't Wanna Go Home . The line of text “Six foot seven foot eight foot bunch” was used as the refrain for Lil Wayne's song “6 Foot 7 Foot”.
In September 2015, the satirical magazine has extra 3 a parody of the song entitled Neeeeoooo! Neee-eeee-eeee-ooohh! Neo-Nazis , you better go home published as a “song for opponents of refugees”.
In 2019, Conkarah released a new version entitled Banana , which reached number 92 in the German single charts.
Individual evidence
- ^ Graig Rosen, Number One Albums , 1996, p. 3
- ^ Joseph Murrells, Million Selling Records , 1985, p. 94
- ^ Joseph Murrells, Million Selling Records , 1985, p. 104
- ↑ Rolf Zuckowski, lyrics: Theo (Der Bananenbrot-Song) ( Memento from July 5, 2010 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ https://twitter.com/extra3/status/639393010434879488
- ↑ Chart data: Conkarah feat. Shaggy - Banana. Retrieved July 5, 2020 .