About The Song
“Day-O (The Banana Boat Song)” is a Jamaican folk song, a mento work song, adapted and popularized by Harry Belafonte. It was released in March 1956 as the opening track on his album Calypso, issued by RCA Victor. The single, backed with “Star-O,” reached No. 5 on the Billboard Top 100 Pop Chart in 1957, spending 20 weeks on the chart, and hit No. 2 on the Billboard Jukebox chart. The Calypso album, recorded in 1955 at RCA’s Studio A in New York, became a landmark, peaking at No. 1 on the Billboard Top Pop Albums chart for 31 weeks and selling over one million copies by 1957, certified gold. It was the first LP to sell a million copies in a year, per Billboard.
The song was arranged by Belafonte, William Attaway, and Norman Luboff, drawing from a traditional Jamaican melody sung by dockworkers loading bananas onto ships at night. Its call-and-response structure mimics laborers’ chants, with lyrics about tallying fruit and yearning for daylight to end their shift. Recorded with producer Herman Diaz Jr., the track features Belafonte’s lead vocals, backed by the Norman Luboff Choir and Tony Scott’s orchestra, including Millard Thomas on guitar. Belafonte, born in Harlem to Jamaican parents, learned the song through his Caribbean roots, refining it after performing it at Greenwich Village’s Village Vanguard in 1955, as noted in Rhino’s Belafonte archives.
The song’s origins trace to early 20th-century Jamaican banana trade, where workers sang to coordinate grueling night shifts, per American Songwriter. Belafonte, a folk singer and actor, aimed to preserve Caribbean music, collaborating with Attaway, a novelist, and Lord Burgess (Irving Burgie), who co-wrote much of Calypso. The album’s success sparked a calypso craze in the US, predating rock ‘n’ roll’s dominance. Belafonte debuted “Day-O” on The Ed Sullivan Show in 1956, and its live energy shone at his 1959 Carnegie Hall concert, later released as Belafonte at Carnegie Hall. The song’s recording faced challenges, with Belafonte insisting on authenticity over RCA’s pop leanings, per Songfacts.
Covers include The Tarriers’ 1956 version (No. 4 UK), Shirley Bassey’s 1957 take (No. 8 UK), and Sarah Vaughan’s 1957 recording. It appeared in films like Beetlejuice (1988), where it underscored a comedic possession scene, and Life and Debt (2001), highlighting Jamaica’s economic struggles. The song influenced calypso’s brief US popularity, with Belafonte’s 1957 Calypso Carnival tour drawing thousands. Misheard lyrics, like “Daylight come and me wan’ go home” as “me wanna go home,” persist, per Medium. Belafonte’s version remains the standard, with no notable chart rivals, and its cultural impact endures through TV ads and cruise ship performances, as Stereogum noted in 2017.
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Lyric
Day-o, day-o
Daylight come and me wan’ go home
Day, me say day, me say day, me say day
Daylight come and me wan’ go homeWork all night on a drink of rum
Daylight come and me wan’ go home
Stack banana till de morning come
Daylight come and me wan’ go homeCome, Mister tally man, tally me banana
Daylight come and me wan’ go home
Come, Mister tally man, tally me banana
Daylight come and me wan’ go homeLift six foot, seven foot, eight foot bunch
Daylight come and me wan’ go home
Six foot, seven foot, eight foot bunch
Daylight come and me wan’ go homeDay, me say day-o
Daylight come and me wan’ go home
Day, me say day, me say day, me say day
Daylight come and me wan’ go homeA beautiful bunch o’ ripe banana
Daylight come and me wan’ go home
Hide the deadly black tarantula
Daylight come and me wan’ go homeLift six foot, seven foot, eight foot bunch
Daylight come and me wan’ go home
Six foot, seven foot, eight foot bunch
Daylight come and me wan’ go homeDay, me say day-o
Daylight come and me wan’ go home
Day, me say day, me say day, me say day
Daylight come and me wan’ go homeCome, Mister tally man, tally me banana
Daylight come and me wan’ go home
Come, Mister tally man, tally me banana
Daylight come and me wan’ go homeDay-o, day-o
Daylight come and me wan’ go home
Day, me say day, me say day, me say day
Daylight come and me wan’ go home