The U.S.A. Calypso Craze & The First Million Dollar Music of the World
"Calypso became a huge fashion in the States in the ‘50s," recalled Music Publisher/ Producer Jean Michel Gibert, " Thanks to Harry Belafonte, who released a Calypso, with some traditional songs, and other West Indian mento songs. It was the first Caribbean album to sell more than one million records." Calypso music then became something of an international craze with Belafonte scoring a major U.S. hit in 1956 with "Day-O" (the Banana Boat Song), a reworked version of a traditional Jamaican mento song. Belafonte later became an important figure in the folk revival of the 1960s, and although critics say his music was really a watered-down version of Calypso, he still deserves credit for popularizing the genre.
The music also traveled to England with West Indian immigrants, and throughout the ‘50s and early ‘60s it was far from uncommon to hear calypso from performers black and white.
And as island music, it flourished. The calypsonians who'd come of age earlier continued to write and perform, and new talents emerged to join them, like Lord Pretender. But while it was still a folk music form, outsiders who thought of it as quaint and amateurish were in for a shock at Carnival time, since "there's a big band with a horn section. All the charts are written out, and have been since the ‘60s," Funk explained. "Many calypsonians will write their song, work out an arrangement in their head, sing it into a tape recorder and take it to one of the arrangers and they'll do the band charts. It's arranged big band music. Before that in the ‘50s it was head arrangements, and before that it was just the singer with guitar.
The music also traveled to England with West Indian immigrants, and throughout the ‘50s and early ‘60s it was far from uncommon to hear calypso from performers black and white.
And as island music, it flourished. The calypsonians who'd come of age earlier continued to write and perform, and new talents emerged to join them, like Lord Pretender. But while it was still a folk music form, outsiders who thought of it as quaint and amateurish were in for a shock at Carnival time, since "there's a big band with a horn section. All the charts are written out, and have been since the ‘60s," Funk explained. "Many calypsonians will write their song, work out an arrangement in their head, sing it into a tape recorder and take it to one of the arrangers and they'll do the band charts. It's arranged big band music. Before that in the ‘50s it was head arrangements, and before that it was just the singer with guitar.
