Comments on: HARRY BELAFONTE – “Mary’s Boy Child”

By: swanstep

swanstep — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 11:01:23 +0000

@mutley. Paul Robeson had his passport taken off him for most the ’50s and wasn’t able to record much during that time either, and as soon as he got his passport back he high-tailed it to the UK mainly for a few years at the beginning of the 1960s (I forget the details, but checking now it looks like wikipedia has pretty good coverage of Robeson and of course of McCarthyism’s victims more generally).

By: Mutley

Mutley — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 09:02:26 +0000

The recent “news” that MI5 opened a file on Charlie Chaplin at the request of the FBI regarding alleged communist activities in the early 1950s made me wonder whether the US entertainment industries blacklist during the period of McCarthyism ever touched pop music. As far as I know, Harry Belafonte was the only singer on the Popular list to be blacklisted, although quite a few well-known jazz and folk musicians and singers were – Lena Horne, Pete Seeger, Burl Ives etc.

Some American theatre and movie people (e.g. Sam Wanamaker) moved to the UK during this period and established themselves there. Were there any popular music equivalents?

By: Mutley

Mutley — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 14:30:05 +0000

Johnny Otis – also did pretty well with Willie and the Hand Jive. If you want to learn how to hand jive see

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qOrQTh_Cq7U&feature=related

By: lonepilgrim

lonepilgrim — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 13:18:56 +0000

R.I.P. Johnny Otis – who got to Number 2 with ‘Ma he’s making eyes at me’ behind this number 1.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2012/jan/19/johnny-otis?intcmp=ILCMUSTXT9390

By: Billy Smart

Billy Smart — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 12:53:17 +0000

Light Entertainment Watch:Harry belafonte didn’t make any appearances on UK television until the 1970s. All 3 shows survive;

HARRY BELAFONTE: with Harry Belafonte (1977)

THE JULIE ANDREWS HOUR: with Harry Belafonte, Rich Little, Sivuca (1973)

THE MUPPET SHOW: with Harry Belafonte (1979)

By: Matthew

Matthew — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 09:42:49 +0000

I knew and remain nostalgically fond of the Boney M version, but this is much classier. Heartwarming and beautiful.

By: DJ Punctum

DJ Punctum — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 09:20:12 +0000

It’s those Alabama vowels, I guess…

By: wichita lineman

wichita lineman — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 08:46:37 +0000

I think yr right, and I think Harry sings it quite beautifully. Nat’s odd pronunciation has often baffled me, “a blassom fell”, “are you rill mona lisa?” etc. What’s that all about?

By: DJ Punctum

DJ Punctum — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 07:47:38 +0000

Pretty patronising to suggest, without substantive evidence and particularly in view of Belafonte’s subsequent political activities, that he was singing like this deliberately. You might as well say that Nat “King” Cole was pandering.

By: wichita lineman

wichita lineman — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 23:51:27 +0000

I’d never thought of it like this, gently patronising one and all. It’s a good point. But I’m not sure this wasn’t a preferred clipped, enunciated style of singing that extended to Johnny Mathis, then Arthur Lee. It can also be heard in Jamaican recordings like Derrick Harriott’s Do I Worry from some years later.

Tom, I’m intrigued to know if you’ve revised yr opinion on this ‘report’ as you have on other 45s from the 50s. I think it has a tangible festive magic worth a 7, and certainly find it better than Boney M’s slouchy, joyless version.