On March 1, 2022, Harry Belafonte turned 95 years old.  Though the actor, singer, and humanitarian largely retired from performing in the early years of the twenty-first century, he's remained active with the causes near and dear to his heart.  On November 5, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame will honor this American legend with its Early Influence Award, a recognition previously bestowed on such musical heroes as Louis Armstrong, Nat "King" Cole, Woody Guthrie, Mahalia Jackson, and Hank Williams.  To mark the occasion, Sony Music has teamed with Acoustic Sounds' Analogue Productions to reissue two of Belafonte's classic RCA Victor albums.

Acoustic Sounds has recently re-pressed its reissues of Belafonte Sings the Blues (1958) and Belafonte at Carnegie Hall (1959), the latter in its complete iteration.  Both titles were mastered by Ryan K. Smith at Sterling Sound.  Belafonte Sings the Blues is available on 200-gram 33-1/3 RPM vinyl and on hybrid stereo SACD.  Belafonte at Carnegie Hall will be released as a 180-gram 33-1/3 RPM double-LP set and also as a 200-gram 45-RPM five-LP boxed set and on hybrid stereo SACD/CD.  (The hybrid SACD, playable on all CD players, has the complete program on the SACD layer and the first twelve tracks on the standard CD layer.  The CD has the rest of the program.) All vinyl for both titles was pressed at Quality Record Pressings.  These albums represent two landmarks in a career filled with them.

A New York native, Belafonte spent many of his formative years in Jamaica, and the rich music he encountered as a boy there would have a profound effect on his future life.  When he returned to New York, he attended George Washington High School and later served a stint in the United States Navy.  After World War II, Belafonte took the first steps in building his career as both an actor and a singer.    RCA Victor signed the young talent in 1952, and he picked up both Tony and Theatre World Awards for his Broadway debut in the 1953 revue John Murray Anderson's Almanac.  He was soon starring in such major motion pictures as Carmen Jones (1954) and Island in the Sun (1957).

1956's Calypso, Belafonte's third long-player, introduced many Americans to the genre, and became the first solo LP to surpass the one-million sales mark.  It introduced his signature song "Day-O (The Banana Boat Song)."  Belafonte went from one high point to another in his long tenure at RCA Victor, including his seventh LP, Sings the Blues.  He recorded the album with various orchestras in New York and Los Angeles; it was notably his first to be issued in stereo as part of RCA's Living Stereo line.  He displayed his enormous versatility on a range of compositions from a trio of Ray Charles compositions to reinterpretations of Billie Holiday and Arthur Herzog's "God Bless the Child" and Johnny Mercer and Harold Arlen's "One for My Baby (And One More for the Road)."

RCA would also record Belafonte's successful 1959 and 1960 stands at New York's Carnegie Hall.  The double-album Belafonte at Carnegie Hall, preserving his concerts of April 19 and 20, 1959 with a 47-piece orchestra, was Grammy-nominated for Album of the Year, and reached No. 3 on the Billboard Top LPs and Tapes chart.  On the Carnegie stage, Belafonte transformed such folk classics as "Cotton Fields," "Shenandoah," and "John Henry" alongside "Jamaica Farewell," "Man Smart, Woman Smarter," and "Day-O" - all in his warm, resonant, and commanding style.

Belafonte was always unafraid of controversy.  Island in the Sun caused a stir as he was romanced by Caucasian star Joan Fontaine.  Two more groundbreaking moments in his distinguished career came more than a decade later, in 1968.  He accepted NBC's invitation to fill in for Johnny Carson for an entire week of The Tonight Show, and welcomed such diverse guests as Robert F. Kennedy, Lena Horne, The Smothers Brothers, and his friend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.  The same year, Belafonte guest-starred on a television special starring Petula Clark.  During the duet performance of Clark's composition "On the Path of Glory," she gently touched her co-star's arm.    Doyle Lott, representing sponsor Chrysler, objected to the physical contact, but Clark and her husband/producer Claude Wolff refused to reshoot.  Lott later apologized to Belafonte, claiming his words had been relayed inaccurately; Belafonte later recalled responding, "Mr. Lott, I think you're being disingenuous with me.  It was you who said those words.  And your apology comes a hundred years too late."  The moment stayed in the special, and television history was made.

Over the ensuing decades, Belafonte continued to stand up for civil rights and social justice both in his music and in his activism.  He has commented upon his Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction, "Thank you, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, for honoring me with this induction. It's always a thrill to know the music I presented to the world so many years ago still resonates to this day."

The new repressings of Belafonte Sings the Blues and Belafonte at Carnegie Hall are available now from Acoustic Sounds at the links below.

Harry Belafonte, Belafonte Sings the Blues (RCA Victor LSP-1972, 1958 - reissued Analogue Productions, 2022)

200-Gram LP / Hybrid Stereo SACD

1. A Fool For You
2. Losing Hand
3. One For My Baby
4. In The Evenin' Mama
5. Hallelujah I Love Her So
6. The Way That I Feel
7. Cotton Fields
8. God Bless The Child
9. Mary Ann
10. Sinner's Prayer
11. Fare Thee Well

Harry Belafonte, Belafonte at Carnegie Hall: The Complete Concert (RCA Victor LSO-6006, 1960 - reissued Analogue Productions, 2022)

SACD/CD: Acoustic Sounds
200-Gram 5LP 45RPM Vinyl Box Set: Acoustic Sounds
180-Gram LP: Acoustic Sounds

Disc 1: Hybrid SACD

1. Introduction
2. Darlin' Cora
3. Sylvie
4. Cotton Fields
5. John Henry
6. Take My Mother Home
7. The Marching Saints
8. Day O
9. Jamaica Farewell
10. Man Piaba
11. All My Trials
12. Mama Look A Boo Boo
13. Come Back Liza
14. Man Smart (Woman Smarter)
15. Hava Nageela
16. Danny Boy
17. Merci Bon Dieu
18. Cu Cu Ru Cu Cu Paloma
19. Shenandoah
20. Matilda
21. Harry Belafonte (Spoken Intro) (Bonus Track)
22. Scarlet Ribbons (Bonus Track)
23. Overture Medley (Instrumental) (Bonus Track)

Disc 2: CD

24. Mama Look A Boo Boo
25. Come Back Liza
26. Man Smart (Woman Smarter)
27. Hava Nageela
28. Danny Boy
29. Merci Bon Dieu
30. Cu Cu Ru Cu Cu Paloma
31. Shenendoah
32. Matilda
33. Harry Belafonte (Spoken Intro) (Bonus Track)
34. Scarlet Ribbons (Bonus Track)
35. Overture Medley (Instrumental) (Bonus Track)