Error report
Day O written by Jacques Larue
Submitted by
On October 26, 2017
work
Written by Jacques Larue
Error description
History
I find these discussions always quite confusing: all these versions after 1956 are related to Belafonte's huge world hit Banana Boat (Day-O) So I would say, that Day O is just the French version of the Belafonte work.
I had the same discussion about Those Were the Days , a huge hit for Mary Hopkins in 1968, and obviously an adaptation of the half a century older Russian song Дорогой длинною {Dorogoi dlinnoyu} All those foreign language covers in the months and years following 1968, were they covers of the Hopkins tune (and that is how they have been treated by SHS over the years) or should there just be one root work: the Russian original?
Bastien has recently cleard the mess around Paul Simon's El cóndor pasa and decided that there was only one rootwork: the 1933 El cóndor pasa and all later versions/covers are derived from that one, including Simon and Garfunkel's copies in other languages.
It is a difficult discussion and in this case I suggest to leave it as it is...........
What do you think?
Thom
Last updated by CarlDennis on 2017-11-01 14:30:13 UTC - Show original message
It is indeed difficult...
In this particular case, Banana Boat (Day-O) probably deserves to be an adaptation, because the song is quite different from the original, both musically and lyrically. It's not a just "translation", but a whole other song partially based on an earlier one. I would even make it a case of "partial adaptation", once we implement them.
As for The Banana Boat Song, I'm not so sure...
One thing is for certain: Day O is NOT the French version of the Belafonte work. The fact that Belafonte's version was a worldwide hit doesn't mean much, especially in this case: the "other version" wasn't really obscure (see the number of covers from 1956-1957) - when I added the two Japanese adaptations, I read that Michiko Hamamura was given Belafonte's Day O, whereas Chiemi Eri was given (or chose?) the other one. Which means that people in the business knew there were at least two versions/arrangements/adaptations.
So, is Day O the French version of Day Dah Light (Banana Loaders' Song)? Or of The Banana Boat Song? If we follow the "there's only one root work" path, it's an adaptation of Day Dah Light. Otherwise, it's an adaptation of The Banana Boat Song. I'm asking around...
What I did, Piergiorgio, is listen to all the French performance of Jacques Larue French version. One can find all of them on Spotify and you are absolutely right: this is NOT the French version of the Belafonte work.
It is the French version of The Banana Boat Song by Alan Arkin, Erik Darling and Bob Carey.....
So I changed it accordingly. Thanks for your patience with me.
Do you agree?
Thom