This Week's "Oldie But Goodie": "Day O" (The Banana Boat Song)
Most people know “Day O” as Harry Belafonte’s song, however, he didn’t write it and he didn’t record it first.
The song is a traditional folk song. It was sung by dockworkers, loading bananas onto ships. They typically worked at night to avoid the heat of the daytime sun. When daylight arrived, they waited for their boss who would arrive to tally the bananas so they could go home.
The song was first recorded by Trinidadian singer Edric Connor and his band the Caribbeans in 1952. The song was called "Day Dah Light". Jamaican folk singer Louise Bennett recorded the song in 1954. Bennett is credited with giving Harry Belafonte the foundation for his version of the song.
In 1955, American singer-songwriters Lord Burgess and William Attaway wrote a version of the lyrics for The Colgate Comedy Hour, and the song was performed by Harry Belafonte. Belafonte later recorded this version of the song, "Day O”, for his 1956 album Calypso. It reached number five on the Billboard charts in 1957 and later became Belafonte's signature song.
Often described as a Jamaican folk song, it is described as a traditional work song from Trinidad on the Calypso album liner notes:
Day O is based on the traditional work songs of the gangs who load the banana boats in the Harbor at Trinidad. The men come to work with the evening star and continue through the night. They long for daybreak. When they will be able to return to their homes. All their wishful thinking is expressed in the lead singer's plaintive cry: Day O, Day O…” The lonely men and the cry in the night spills overtones of symbolism, which are universal.
In a 2011 interview with Gwen Ifill on PBS NewsHour, Belafonte described "Day-O" as "a song about struggle, about black people in a colonized life doing the most grueling work."
Harry Belafonte’s 1955 recording:
Day Dah Light by Louise Bennett, 1954:
Day Dah Light by Edric Connor, 1952: