Day-O (The Banana Boat Song)

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"Day-O (The Banana Boat Song)" is a traditional Jamaican folk song. The song has mento influences, but it is commonly classified as an example of the better-known calypso music. It is a call and response work song, from the point of view of dock workers working the night shift loading bananas onto the large ocean-going cargo ships known as banana boats. The lyrics describe how daylight has come, their shift is over, and they want their work to be counted up so that they can go home. The best-known version was released by Jamaican-American singer Harry Belafonte in 1956 (originally titled " Banana Boat (Day-O)") and later became one of his signature songs. That same year, the Tarriers released an alternative version that incorporated the chorus of another Jamaican call and response folk song, "Hill and Gully Rider". This version was played during an interview with Bob Carey (formerly of the Tarriers) on Folk Music Worldwide in January 1964. Both versions became simultaneously popular the...

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