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User Name Thread Name Subject Posted
GUEST,Phil d'Conch Origins: My Donkey Want Water (70* d) RE: Origins: My Donkey Want Water 29 Jun 17

"Belafonte barely wrote anything."

As regards the Belafonte take, it was first published in 1954; words and music credited to Harry Thomas (the duo of Harry Belafonte & Millard Thomas).

It was Act 2, Scene 7 of the Broadway musical review John Murray Anderson's Almanac (10 Dec 1953 – 26 June 1954.) 250+ performances which pretty much sealed Belafonte's type casting as an actor playing a folk singer.

RCA released a slightly more upbeat single the same year, and reissued it in 1957 (RCA 47-5617) and a 10" album in the UK (The Versatile Mr. Belafonte, His Master's Voice, DLP-1147, 1957)

HB recorded his first full RCA album that same year ("Mark Twain" And Other Folk Favorites, RCA, LPM-1022, 1954.)

It should be noted however Belafonte was using the material in his live ballroom act as early as 1952 in the Jump & Bray Medley a much later version of which can be heard on Calypso in Brass (RCA LSP/LPM-3658, 1966)

Harry Thomas lyrics are here:
thread.cfm?threadid=34020#3863519

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