Irving Burgie, a singer, composer and lyricist whose songs were immortalized by Harry Belafonte during the calypso craze of the 1950s, died on Friday in Brooklyn. 1 on the Billboard chart for 31 weeks and helped propel Mr. Belafonte to stardom and make calypso music known internationally. Mr. Burgie and William Attaway wrote the lyrics for the version sung by Mr. Belafonte, which he originally performed on television on “The Colgate Comedy Hour” in 1955. It became Mr. Belafonte’s signature song. Calypso “revolutionized music” by introducing Afro-Caribbean rhythms to the pop mainstream, Mr. Burgie told the journal American Music in 2016.

Source: New York Times December 01, 2019 16:18 UTC