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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsIrving Burgie, songwriter of calypso hit 'Day-O,' dies at 95
https://www.wfmz.com/news/irving-burgie-songwriter-of-calypso-hit-day-o-dies-at/article_855675e0-a60d-5500-bbd2-59c2980b38c4.html<snip>
Composer Irving Burgie, who helped popularize Caribbean music and co-wrote the enduring Harry Belafonte hit Day-O (The Banana Boat Song), has died at the age of 95.
At the Barbados Independence Day Parade on Saturday, Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley announced Burgie died Friday.
Day-O, written in 1952, has been ubiquitous, appearing in everything from the film and Broadway musical Beetlejuice to an E-Trade commercial. "Day-O" was also the wake-up call for the astronauts on two Space Shuttle missions in the 1990s. When a superstar list of music royalty gathered to film the We Are the World video in 1985, most burst into a playful version of Day-O in between takes. Lil' Wayne used a sample of Day-O in his 6 Foot 7 Foot.
Mike 03
(16,616 posts)Rest well, Mr. Burgie. Thanks for the song.
malaise
(269,024 posts)Belafonte favorites written by Burgie
From the article
His "Jamaica Farewell" has been recorded by Belafonte, Jimmy Buffett, Carly Simon and others. Others who have sung his songs include Mantovani, Miriam Makeba and Julio Iglesias. Burgies classic Caribbean standards include such familiar hits as "Island in The Sun," "Angelina," and he was co-writer of "Mary's Boy Child." He also wrote the 1963 off-Broadway musical Ballad for Bimshire that starred Ossie Davis.
Since it's holiday season here are two
spanone
(135,841 posts)malaise
(269,024 posts)I always thought he was born in Barbados
Aristus
(66,380 posts)malaise
(269,024 posts)Very nice - Burgie also wrote the Bajan national anthem
Hermit-The-Prog
(33,349 posts)Being so well-known and loved, the song can carry a message across a wide audience...
malaise
(269,024 posts)spanone
(135,841 posts)Daylight come and me want to go home....
malaise
(269,024 posts)spanone
(135,841 posts)Tikki
(14,557 posts)Beetlejuice (1988) came out in theaters.
From time to time the 7th & 8th graders would start singing the Day-O (Banana Boat Song)
song in a round and, also in a call and response throughout the whole cafeteria.
We, the lunch ladies, would just let it go and it would just fade out.
This happened half a dozen times or so for a few years.
Tikki