INCHING TOWARDS his 92nd birthday, Irving Burgie, the man who wrote the words to Barbados’ National Anthem, was relaxing at his New York City home on Christmas morning.
The composer, lyricist and music Hall of Famer, whose career in the world of entertainment is punctuated by several accolades, including three honorary degrees (from the University of the West Indies, St John’s University and York College of the City University of New York) and a Barbados national honour, reflected on his role in the global acceptance of a Christmas standard – Mary’s Boy Child.
It’s played at Christmas time on radio and television stations around the world, sung by concert vocalists and otherwise enjoyed by families homes in about 100 United Nations member-states.
The song is a composition that has captured and maintained universal acceptance long after it was first sung in the 1950s by Harry Belafonte, the world-famous award winning movie, stage and television actor, who made Caribbean music recordings, and per-formed at concerts and starring roles in several movies, including, Island In The Sun.
“It’s a delight to hear it played or sung. We don’t hear it on radio as much as decades ago but it is still there. But then in a place like New York Christmas carols and standards aren’t played in the same way as they do in Barbados,” said Burgie.
It has an interesting history.
“Mary’s Boy Child was a new song written by someone else and Belafonte had been invited to appear on the BBC in London and I was asked to write a new chorus for the song,” Burgie recalled. “That’s what I did and the newer version with the chorus is the one that’s gained international acclaim.”
In his autobiography, Day-O, Burgie, whose mother was a Barbadian who lived, worked and raised a family in New York, told the story of his part in transforming Mary’s Boy Child from a musical also-ran into immortality.
“It had a happy jump calypso rhythm,” he said. Belafonte wanted to include the song in a Christmas programme for the BBC. Harry, Will Lorin, his musical director, and I met in the studio apartment of Harry’s guitarist, Millar Thomas. They told me they wanted the song to sound like a slow Christmas ballad. Millar’s studio was rather small and they locked me in the bathroom and told me to work on the song while they were working on something else. After about an hour, I emerged from the bathroom with the words and new chorus for Mary’s Boy Child.
They were very happy with it, and when it was presented on Belafonte’s BBC Christmas special in England, it was a huge hit. It was also a big Christmas song in the US and abroad, and since then has been heard round the world as a standard during the Christmas season.”
Burgie’s addition, the new chorus:
Hark now hear the angels sing,
New King born today,
And man will live forever more
Because of Christmas Day
Trumpets sound and angels sing,
Listen what they say:
That man will live forever more
Because of Christmas day.”
All told, the song has sold almost about two million copies as a single but has also sold millions more in albums by Andy Williams, the Brothers Four, the Merrymen of Barbados, Jim Reeves, Roger Whittaker, Tom Jones and the Lettermen, among others. Belafonte has written about his collaboration with Burgie in the 1950s and beyond that catapulted West Indian calypso music into the global orbit.
In addition to Mary’s Boy Child, Jamaica Farewell and Day-O, Burgie’s music has sold more than 100 million copies worldwide.
“Barbados is an important chapter in my family’s history,” he said. “Mary’s Boy Child is part of that history.”
Tony Best is the NATION’s North American correspondent. Email Bestra@aol.com
