Harry Belafonte - Collection 1949-62 (CD)

New York-born Jamaican-American singer, songwriter, actor, and activist Harry Belafonte is a truly unique personality - there really is no other performer or entertainer quite like him. With a recording career beginning in the late 1940s, he was instrumental in the popularisation of folk music of all kinds, especially West Indian calypso, but his music encompasses a range of idioms from gospel, blues, jazz and comedy to stage music and sophisticated pop. This 112-track 5-CD set is very much a celebration of that rich and varied musical canon. It comprises the A & B sides of his US singles on the Roost, Capitol, Jubilee and RCA labels during this era, plus selected UK releases, along with selected tracks from the fifteen or so albums he made during these years. It features all his US and UK pop hits, including UK No. 1 "Mary's Boy Child" and the UK top 3 hits "Banana Boat (Day-O")", a US No. 5, and "Island In The Sun". Other favourites featured here include "Scarlet Ribbons", "Jamaica Farewell" and the 'live' duet recording of "Hole In The Bucket" with Odetta. The albums featured include his two celebrated 'live' concert recordings at Carnegie Hall. It's a substantial and thoroughly absorbing overview of the primary era of his recording career, exploring music which is rarely heard these days but offers an insight into Mr. Belafonte's remarkable musical compass and it offers a fine showcase for his unique talent.

Track List:

Disc: 1

1. Lean on Me
2. Recognition
3. Close Your Eyes
4. Deep As the River
5. How Green Was My Valley
6. They Didn't Believe Me
7. Whispering
8. Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child
9. I Still Get a Thrill
10. Farewell to Arms
11. Simple Simple
12. Only One Like Me
13. Smoke Gets in Your Eyes
14. The Night Has a Thousand Eyes
15. Venezuela
16. Annabelle Lee
17. Chiminey Smoke
18. A-Roving
19. Man Smart (Woman Smarter)
20. Jerry
21. Shenandoah
22. Scarlet Ribbons (For Her Hair)
23. Gomen Nasai (Forgive Me)
24. Springfield Mountain
25. Suzanne (Every Night When the Sun Goes Down)

Disc: 2

1. Matilda, Matilda!
2. Hold Em Joe
3. I'm Just a Country Boy
4. Pretty As a Rainbow (After the Rain)
5. Acorn in the Meadow
6. John Henry
7. Tol' My Captain?
8. Troubles
9. Hello Everybody
10. The Blues Is Man - Part 1
11. The Blues Is Man - Part 2
12. Jamaica Farewell
13. Once Was
14. Mary's Boy Child
15. Venezuela
16. Banana Boat (Day-O)
17. Star-O
18. Mama Look a Bubu
19. Don't Ever Love Me
20. Island in the Sun
21. Coconut Woman
22. Little Bernadette
23. Danny Boy
24. Son of Mary

Disc: 3

1. I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day
2. The Marching Saints
3. Did You Hear About Jerry?
4. The Waiting Game
5. Ain't That Love
6. Mary Mary
7. Gotta Travel on
8. Tarrytown
9. Darlin' Cora
10. Turn Around
11. Fifteen
12. 'Round the Bay of Mexico
13. Oh Freedom
14. March Down to Jordan
15. Hole in the Bucket
16. Chickens
17. Mark Twain
18. The Fox
19. Soldier, Soldier
20. Waterboy
21. Noah
22. Unchained Melody

Disc: 4

1. I Do Adore Her
2. Come Back Liza
3. Brown Skin Girl
4. Merci Bon Dieu
5. Come O My Love
6. Eden Was Just Like This
7. Scratch, Scratch
8. Cordelia Brown
9. Angelique-O
10. Silent Night
11. Christmas Is Coming
12. A Fool for You
13. One for My Baby
14. Hallelujah I Love Her So
15. God Bless the Child
16. All My Trials
17. Green Grow the Lilacs
18. Times Are Gettin' Hard
19. Wake Up Jacob
20. My Lord, What a Mornin'
21. Swing Low

Disc: 5

1. Sylvie
2. Cotton Fields
3. Hava Nagila
4. A Woman Is a Sometime Thing
5. Oh I Got Plenty of Nuthing
6. Look Over Yonder
7. Another Man Done Gone
8. Swing Dat Hammer
9. Jump Down Spin Around
10. One More Dance
11. I Know Where I'm Going
12. Sweetheart from Venezuela
13. Jump in the Line
14. Kingston Market
15. Midnight Special
16. Crawdad Song
17. Michael Row the Boat Ashore
18. Tongue Tie Baby
19. Dark As a Dungeon
20. Try to Remember