The American singer and songwriter Irving Burgie , who composed with Harry Belafonte the famous song Day-O (The Banana Boat Song) and unveiled the calypso in the United States, died Friday at age 95.
His death was announced on Saturday by the Prime Minister of Barbados during the Independence Day ceremonies of this small Caribbean country, of which Burgie , also known as Lord Burgess, had composed the national anthem .
Born in the United States but heavily influenced by the music of the Caribbean, the composer proposed in 1956 Harry Belafonte to rework in Calypso, original music from Trinidad and Tobago, his song Day-O , published in 1952.
The new version is so successful that Belafonte ends up composing with Burgie an entire album with this music , titled "Calypso". This album will become the first album to exceed one million sales in the United States, according to US media.
Burgie thus contributes to the discovery of this two-stroke rhythm to the general public, which mixes African and European influences . One of the most famous examples of this style will be Rhum and Coca-Cola , played by the Andrews Sisters.
The song Day-O (The Banana Boat Song) is also part of the cinephile memory: it sounds in a mythical scene from Tim Burton's Beetlejuice (Bitelchus) movie .
According to the criteria of The Trust Project
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