NEW YORK CITY, 1956: It is this year that Belafonte releases the album that will be the cornerstone upon which his calypso kingdom is built. While it doesn’t rival the success of his following album, Belafonte distinguishes itself on the music scene with enough sales to rank it #1 on the very first Billboard Top Pop Album listing, where it remains for six weeks before being knocked from its spot by another young newcomer in RCA Victor’s stable, one Elvis Presley.
The growing success of the musical career he never sought, along with the arrival of his second daughter, have kept Harry busy, but not so busy that he lost sight of his original passion: acting. In the two years since Mark Twain’s album debut, he captured the lead role in Carmen Jones, Otto Preminger’s all-black version of Bizet’s opera Carmen, and he appeared on the TV series General Electric Theater and Front Row Center. He was also invited to perform at the 28th Annual Academy Awards, where he balladeered a song from an obscure 1955 prison movie called Unchained. The song in question was the movie’s saving grace, a lovely tune called Unchained Melody. While the Righteous Brothers catapulted the song to fame in the Sixties, they and Harry were among 670 artists to have recorded the tune (and counting!). Belafonte also performed in 1955’s 3 for Tonight on Broadway, the source of three of this album’s songs.
During the past couple of years, the fight for civil rights has also ramped up. 1955 saw media coverage of Mississippi’s brutal murder of Emmett Till, a black teen who committed no crime other than flirting with a white woman, as well as Rosa Parks refusing to yield her seat on the bus in Alabama, leading to the year-long Montgomery bus boycott. Following in the footsteps of his role model and mentor Paul Robeson, Belafonte uses his growing success not only support his family, but to fund activist efforts. He participates in the March on Montgomery alongside friend and freedom fighter Dr. Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., to whom Belafonte pledges his commitment to civil rights.
Belafonte opens with Waterboy, a traditional American folk song that hearkens back to plantation days, as does this album’s Jump Down, Spin Around, which can make them both uncomfortable for those of any race to listen to today. The album then segues into nightclub standard Troubles, with Harry applying his newfound voice to the music that set him on his trajectory to superstardom. It continues with early versions of songs that he would revisit on further releases: Suzanne, Take My Mother Home, and one of his signature hits, Matilda, which sounds a bit hollow without the audience participation that would accompany later live versions.
Side two takes a different direction, starting strong with the Belafonte/William Attaway original neo-gospel tune Noah. It also features Belafonte standards Scarlet Ribbons and Sylvie, as well as the aforementioned Unchained Melody and Jump Down, Spin Around; however, the song that’s the real powerhouse of this release is:
You can feel the kinetic energy building in the initial bars as Harry belts out, preacher-style, “I’m gonna tell ya ‘bout the comin’ of the judgment…” (fare thee well, fare thee well). But in the First United Church of Belafonte, this isn’t a time to fear: all we sinners shall be delivered to the promised land. This, along with the track Noah, is the first of many religious tunes that the good reverend would go on to cover, each in spectacular fashion, some featured on their own albums. This song, however, remains my favorite of them all. It’s not just the high energy and inspirational lyrics, but also that Harry just seems to be having fun with it. This is a welcome foreshadowing into the humor he shares with the audience during all of his live performances, yet another reason this one rates this week’s featured selection.
Next week we’ll take a look at the album that cemented Harry into musical history and ensured that no matter how far he rose in the acting world, it would always remain his side gig. In the meantime, if you want to talk Belafonte, leave a comment below!
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