On March 24, 1956, the legendary Harry Belafonte crowned Billboard‘s first weekly albums chart — then billed Best Selling Pop Albums in Billboard magazine’s pages — with his smash set Belafonte. The entertainer, producer and activist died on Tuesday (April 25) at 96 of congestive heart failure.
Decades later, the ranking now known as the Billboard 200 remains the chart of record for America’s most-popular albums each week, fueled by consumption tracked by Luminate.
As for Belafonte, aka the King of Calypso, 1956 was a busy year. He was already a Tony Award winner for his work in the 1953 musical revue John Murray Anderson’s Almanac and, after topping the albums chart with Belafonte, he notched a second No. 1 in September 1956 with Calypso.
Kept afloat in large part by its hit single “Day-O (The Banana Boat Song),” Calypso spent a staggering 31 weeks at No. 1. It’s tied with the soundtrack to South Pacific and Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours for the third-longest run on top in the chart’s history. The soundtrack to West Side Story is the all-time champ, with 54 weeks at the summit, and Michael Jackson’s career-defining Thriller is second with 37.
The Grammy and Emmy Award-winning Belafonte would continue to chart albums through 1970 and remain a cultural force, thanks, in part, to his social activism and philanthropy. Later generations would become familiar with Belafonte in striking ways: He helped organize (and sang on) the 1985 charity single “We Are the World,” a four-week Billboard Hot 100 No. 1, while “Day-O” was memorably mimed by the cast in the 1988 film Beetlejuice. In 2011, “Day-O” became a hit yet again, sampled in Lil Wayne’s top 10 Hot 100 hit “6 Foot 7 Foot.”
Belafonte told BET in 2011 that he appreciated the continued success of the iconic “Day-O”: “I’m just glad to see that the younger generations have picked it up and are carrying the song forward in their own way, just like I picked it up in my time.”
