Launched:- May 6, 2005

Promo Ads 1 to 8

Titles & Texts

01) Best of Singles - 1957
Caption: "Here's Belafonte at His Best ! Calypso & Folk Songs … 20 Single Records on 45 RPM."

02) RCA Record catalogue - 1957
Caption: "All of Belafonte … Exclusively on RCA Victor Records !"

03) Movie, Island in the Sun – 1957

04) LP, Belafonte Sings of the Caribbean – 1957
Source: RCA Popular Album News

05) LPs 5-Up - 1957
Feature Album: Belafonte Sings of the Caribbean
Caption: "Hear Belafonte Sing All His Great Songs Exclusively on RCA Victor Records !"

06) LP, Belafonte Sings The Blues – 1958
Source: RCA Popular Album News

07) LP, Love Is A Gentle Thing - 1958
Caption: "Gentle, Warm and Wonderful …"
Text: "Belafonte sings of love in its infinite moods – lullaby, lyrical ballad, spirited folksong, poignant lament. In this newly-recorded repertoire, the world’s foremost balladeer brings you a dozen of the world's most appealing songs, including Small One, Green grow the Lilacs, Bella Rosa, Delia's Gone, I Never Will Marry, Walkin' On The Green Grass and Go ‘Way from My Window. Gentle, warm and wonderful is the way that Belafonte sings of this thing called love."

08) LPs 8-Up - 1960
Caption: “Eight Great Belafonte Albums You Can Enjoy at Home”

Promo Ads 9 to 16

Titles & Texts

09) LPs 12-Up - 1961
Feature Albums: Jump Up Calypso and Returns to Carnegie Hall
Caption: "The Many Sides of Belafonte"

10) LP, Midnight Special - 1962
Caption: "The Night He Played to an Empty House …"
Text: "Outside on New York ’s East 11^th Street , a bitter rain had peppered the pavements since early evening. Inside mosque-like Webster Hall , the musicians' coats had long since dried, midnight had come and gone. Harry Belafonte and a group of hand-picked musicians were now completing the last of dozens of "takes," nine of which would comprise a special record album in concert form to be played and enjoyed in the home.
For hour upon hour, the empty hall – a barren marvel of acoustics – had echoed the compelling, heartbreaking ballads of lonesomeness, work, faith. Songs brushed with blues and jazz. Gotta Travel On, Michael Row the Boat Ashore, Muleskinner, Crawdad Song … reworked, even rewritten on the spot, until Belafonte's disciplined genius and unerring intuition were appeased. His On Top of Old Smokey is virtually a new song. It will become a classic.
When the session had reached its climactic end, the musicians, jubilant but exhausted, commented appreciatively to Mr Belafonte and filed out into the early morning mist. They had played to an empty house but they had peopled it to overflowing with the spirit of humanity and inspired musicianship. And it is now etched for all time, and for all mankind, in an album appropriately titled The Midnight Special."

11) LP, Many Moods – 1962
Caption: "Thunder in the Wings"
Text: "The musicians will tell their children and they, in turn, will pass it on. And it will become a legend.
It happened on a hot summer's eve. While brooding storm clouds gathered outside, Harry Belafonte pressed on with the last selections for a new album. The musical path he followed covered Broadway, Africa, Israel, The West Indies … the most extensive and forceful range of repertoire he has ever brought to one album.
Summertime Love, for example, is a glowing Frank Loesser love song. Lyla, Lyla is a haunting Hebrew lullaby. Tongue Tie Baby generates both heat and humor in the calypso idiom. Bamotsweri, sung with the remarkable Miriam Makeba, is a lilting South African duet but manages to project an electrifying storyline.
The storm broke during rehearsal of their last song, Dark as a Dungeon. Even in the soundproof recording studio hall, the harsh rumble of the elements could be heard in accompaniment to the bitter words of protest in the song. Before recording, they waited for dead silence … and began. As if on cue, there was the crackle of lightning followed by a tremendous thunderclap. But they continued, to repeated bursts of thunder and torrential rains. They finished, breathless from the eerily dramatic phenomenon.
You will hear all of this sound in the new Belafonte album. Exactly as it happened. And you may judge. Was it just another storm? Or was it symbolic comment on a brilliant finale … in which Nature herself chose to lend a hand? "

12) LPs 9-Up - 1962
Feature Album: The Midnight Special
Caption: "Hear the Many Sides of Belafonte"

13) At Royal Box - 1962
Caption: "Belafonte at the Royal Box, Opening Oct 9^th, 2 Shows Nightly, Dinner and Dancing to the Music of Lester Lanin"

14) LP, Streets I Have Walked - 1963
Caption: "An Oriental Virtuoso, a Professor of Portuguese, a Junior High-school Chorus and an Artist's Intense Dedication Join in Songs of People, Places and Traditions"
Text: "Belafonte has wanted to do this album for years. It reflects the deeply moving musical and people-to-people experiences he has encountered on the many streets he has walked around the world. "The title of this album means a great deal to me personally. In one sense, all of my albums, past and future, could bear the same title."
For Sakura Belafonte brought the blind, world-renowned Kotoist all the way from Japan . For Tunga, he spent hours with a linguist to perfect Portuguese phonetics. His extended search found the junior high-school chorus that provides a fresh, uninhibited setting for Sit Down and Come Away, Melinda. All together this mutually inspiring combination of brilliant talent creates an extraordinary album. An exciting tribute to the songs of people, places and traditions. Remarkable Belafonte !"

15) LPs 15-Up - 1963
Feature Album: Streets I Have Walked
Caption: "The Exciting World of Belafonte"

16) LP, Belafonte at the Greek Theatre – 1963
Source: Playboy
Caption: "Harry Had ’Em Singing in the Aisles"
Text: "All new album – recorded live at the Greek Theatre. His Carnegie Hall album was the first to capture Belafonte with a live audience. Now this great new 2-LP album takes you to the vast outdoor Greek Theatre in Los Angeles . The program ranges from calypso to Broadway … prison songs to teen beat … an African boot dance, to songs of social satire. Better get it quick."

Promo Ads 17 to 25

Titles & Texts

17) College Tour – 1964
Source: Billboard
Feature Album: Belafonte at the Greek Theatre
Caption: "Harry Belafonte, a Musical Institution"

18) LPs 4-Up - 1964
Caption: "Belafonte Encores"
Text: "Put together your own Belafonte concert any time with the stirring performances on these four albums"

19) LP, An Evening with Belafonte / Makeba -1965
Source: Cash Box
Caption: "The Beat of Belafonte, the Magic of Makeba, Together on One Great New Album"

20) Sad to Say - 1965
Caption: "Belafonte won't be back, not for many a day (sad to say)."
Text: But RCA Victor has captured his voice in all its different moods. Gentle, blues, and jump-up moods - on 17 famous albums. Yours to remember him by."

21) LP, An Evening with Belafonte / Mouskouri -1966
Caption: "The Songs Are Greek, The Album's Great!"
Text: "Harry Belafonte has repeatedly proven himself to be a man for all music with a unique affinity for music of other cultures. His interpretations of songs of Africa and Israel , for example, reflect a rare insight into the musical traditions of these peoples. Here in this new album, Belafonte and Greek artist Nana Mouskouri are heard in solos and duets in a program of Greek songs such as My Moon, The Train, The Town Crier and The Wide Sea. This is the music that won such enthusiastic applause from audiences on their recent concert tour. Listening to this exciting new album, it's easy to understand why. Hear it soon."

22) LP, Calypso in Brass – 1966
Source: Playboy
Feature Album: Caption: "Belafonte & Brass: Calypso Combination"
Cover Art: Ken Dallison
Text: "The bright, happy rhythms of calypso … the exciting voice of Harry Belafonte … the colorful backdrop of today's brass sound ….. it's a winning combination of man, music and beat ! In this great new album, you'll hear a fresh new dimension of Belafonte's celebrated calypso style as he sings such favorites as Mama Look A Boo-Boo, Hold ‘Em Joe, The Jack-Ass Song, and Man Smart, Woman Smarter. Other selections include Judy Drownded, Zombie Jamboree (Back to Back), Cocoanut Woman and five more songs sure to delight islanders from the Caribbean to Manhattan ."

23) LPs 6-Up - 1967
Feature Album: Belafonte On Campus
Caption: "Belafonte Required Listening"
Text: "Belafonte's new album musically represents thousands and thousands of listeners as it contains the most requested songs from his college concerts. In the last two years he has appeared on campuses from Seton Hall University in New Jersey to ULCA in Los Angeles before a total of over three-quarters of a million people. At UCLA's new Pauley stadium, he performed before 14,000 people alone in one night. But you don't have to be a college student to respond to these songs. If you are young in spirit, you'll feel the excitement grow with each rendition, as this dynamic artist performs such numbers as Roll On, Buddy, Sail Away Ladies, The Dog Song, The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face, Delia and other selections that have become overwhelming favorites with the campus crowd from Maine to Montgomery and points in between."

24) Video, Gazankulu - 1988
Kodak order form for the video, Paradise in Gazankulu.

25) Bear Family News - 2002
Feature Collection: Bear Family's comprehensive boxed set of CDs covering the first decade of Belafonte's recording career. It brings together 4 distinct record catalogues, introducing studio recordings never before released.