#3: Round The Bay Of Mexico by Harry Belafonte
City: Hull, QC
Radio Station: CKCH
Peak Month: October 1959
Peak Position in Hull ~ #1
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
Peak Position Dutch Singles Chart ~ #11
YouTube: “Round the Bay Of Mexico”
Lyrics: “Round The Bay Of Mexico”
Harold “Harry” George Bellanfanti Jr. was born in 1927 in New York City. He lived with one of his grandmothers in Jamaica from 1932 to 1940. In the 1940s, he worked as a janitor’s assistant, during which a tenant gave him, as a gratuity, two tickets to see the American Negro Theater. He fell in love with the art form and befriended Sidney Poitier, who was also financially struggling. At the end of the 1940s, Belafonte took classes in acting at the Dramatic Workshop of The New School in New York City. His classmates included Tony Curtis, Bea Arthur, Marlon Brando, Sidney Poitier, and Walter Matthau. He launched his recording career as a pop singer on the Roost label in 1949, but quickly developed a keen interest in folk music, learning material through the Library of Congress’ American folk songs archives. Along with guitarist and friend Millard Thomas, Belafonte soon made his debut at the legendary jazz club The Village Vanguard. In the 1949-50 season, Belafonte was a regular on the all-black variety show Sugar Hill Times on CBS.