Customer Reviews

Island In The Sun

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I bought this box set because there were no CDs of my favorite albums, "Belafonte," "Mark Twain," "An Evening with Belafonte" "Calypso" & "Harry Belafonte Sings of the Caribbean." I wasn't disappointed. It contains the gorgeous ballads, fun dittys, moving gospel & "jump up" Calypso I remembered with such fondness. The set also includes songs recorded earlier & later than my favorites, serving as bookends of enjoyment. The book focuses on Belafonte's personal life up to and including the making of "Island in the Sun." The only flaws I could find was that the book contains no lyrics and little about the music itself or the artists that helped Belafonte sound so great. It would be wonderful to know something about the soprano who did the lovely duet with Harry on "Mo Mary" or which guitarist accompanies Harry on "Merci Bon Dieu." That said, this box set comes highly recommended for any Belafonte fan.

It is almost silly to say that this is the best collection of Belafonte's early material. It's not really the best. It's EVERYTHING!

There is one exception, though. This box DOES NOT feature the original Mark Twain album version of Man Piaba. How this mistake was made, I do not know. But the version on this box has the lines of the last verse all jumbled up so the story makes less sense. The real original released version is featured on Gretest Hits Volume 3.

The reason Harry would've recorded a version like the one on this box is quite a mystery. Whoever rearranged the lyrics for the album version was a smart guy. On the album the story comes to a natural end with complete sense. Maybe the take featured here is from an import version of Mark Twain... UK or Europe, perhaps?