Many music lovers of the world know that “Day-O” or the “Banana Boat Song” was popularized by Harry Belafonte, practically his signature tune, but had no idea who the composer was. Nor would they have known of the other songs Irving Burgie composed for Belafonte, including “Jamaica Farewell,” “Island in the Sun” and “I Do Adore Her.” Burgie was also co-writer of eight of the songs on Belafonte’s breakout album “Calypso.”
Burgie died on Friday, Nov. 29. He was 95. His death was announced the following day by Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley of Barbados at the nation’s Independence Day Parade; she called for a moment of silence in his honor. His son, Andrew, said his father died of complications of heart failure.
He was born Irving Louis Burgie Jr. in Brooklyn on July 28, 1924. His father was a native of Virginia and worked in a slaughterhouse and his mother, Viola, was a seamstress from Barbados. Burgie’s musical background began when he was a member of the drum and bugle corps. But it was not until he returned from the Army that he really began a serious study of music. While serving in Burma during World War II, he had begun playing the saxophone, singing in the choir and learning to play the church organ.
He used the GI Bill to study at Juilliard School of Music and later used the funds for voice classes at the University of Arizona and the University of Southern California. A friendship with folklorist Louise Bennett-Coverley improved his knowledge of Caribbean folklore, particularly its music. Soon, he was performing on guitar and singing as Lord Burgess with a backup group called the Serenaders.
A mutual friend, writer William Attaway, convinced Harry Belafonte to listen to a few of Burgie’s songs and a relationship was formed that materialized by 1955 into a joint collaboration of “Calypso,” the first album to sell a million copies and make Belafonte a musical legend. Belafonte was on the charts and calypso music was all the rage.
In his autobiography “My Song,” Belafonte recounted those moments when the three of them were working intensely on the songs for the album. “One of the first songs we worked up for the album ‘Calypso’ was ‘Jamaica Farewell,’ a Lord Burgess retread of a traditional island song called ‘Ironbar.’ It would become one of my best-known, most loved songs. Another island favorite we picked up on was ‘Hill and Gulley Rider,’ better known as the ‘Banana Boat Song.’” Of course, as Belafonte explained, this song would morph into “Day-O.” He mentions Lord Burgess only once more in the book, citing their collaboration on “Island in the Sun,” the theme song for the movie, which Belafonte said outlasted the film.
Composing and collaborating with Belafonte was but one of Burgie’s musical endeavors. He wrote music and lyrics for Broadway shows and even composed the words for the national anthem of Barbados.
During an interview on NPR, Burgie said, “A lot of my work is based on songs and ditties that I’ve heard in the Caribbean.” He noted that by the time he was in his early 30s, he had gotten enough money from the more than 30 songs that he wrote for Belafonte that he was a wealthy man. “I was able to live on royalties,” he said. “I made about $20 million over 50 years.” And a good sum of that money was donated to the Civil Rights Movement and activists.
In 1960, he funded a magazine based in Harlem called The Urbanite. Byron Lewis, who worked at The Urbanite before going on to found one of the nation’s first Black-owned advertising agencies, says that at the time, Burgie “happened to be the only Black person in Harlem who really had any money. Burgie is an unsung hero,” Lewis added. “Part and parcel is because he never sought attention. I feel that his life really should be memorialized because he represents what you can accomplish, particularly if you’re a person of color.”
Among his recordings are “Island in the Sun” (1996) and “The Father of Modern Calypso” (2003). He was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame the same year he brought out his autobiography, “Day-O!!!” He was also author of “The West Indian Song Book” (1972) and “Caribbean Carnival: Songs of the West Indies” (1993).
In 1956, Burgie married his first wife, Page Turner; she died in 2003. His second wife, Vivia Heron, died in 2007. He is survived by two sons, Andrew and Irving Jr., as well as a grandchild and a great-grandchild.
