Irving Burgie

It cannot be disputed that Irving Burgie is one of the most important figures in the history of popular music.  His 2007 induction in to the Songwriters Hall of Fame proves that.  His songs have sold over 100 million records throughout the world.  2006 celebrated the 50th Anniversary of his most successful song, “Day-O,” written for Harry Belafonte.  That song was also named the “Song of the Century” at the Annual Sunshine Awards.  Burgie wrote 8 of the 11 songs on Harry Belafonte’s “Calypso” album, including “Day-O”, which became the first LP in history to sell one million units (1956).  It was number one on the Billboard Charts for 32 weeks.  He also wrote “Island in the Sun,” for the film of the same name, produced by Darryl Zanuck; starring Harry Belafonte and Joan Fontaine.  His song “Jamaica Farewell (Had to leave a little girl in Kingston town) became Belafonte’s theme song. In Mr. Burgie’s long and historic career, he wrote some 34 songs for Harry Belafonte.

Irving Burgie was born in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn in 1924.  He joined the U.S. Army and fought in World War II in 1943.  After returning from the war, Burgie attended the Julliard School of Music, the University of Arizona, and the University of Southern California with the help of the GI Bill. 

Mr. Burgie’s firsts performing gig as a singer-guitarist was in 1953 at the “Blue Angel” in Chicago.  In 1954, he played the “Village Vanguard” in New York City. After he hooked up with Harry Belafonte in 1955, the rest was history.  Burgie wrote the lyrics and music for the 1963 off-Broadway show “Ballad for Bimshire,” starring Ossie Davis.  As Lord Burgess, he has performed in venues such as the Art Institute of Chicago, New York’s Town Hall and Carnegie Hall.  In 1966, he wrote the national anthem for Barbados (his mother’s birthplace).  In 1989, Burgie was awarded and honorary Doctorate of Letters Degree from the University of the West Indies. In May 2008, he received a Doctorate of Fine Arts Degree from St. John’s University in New York.

Mr. Burgie was also inscribed onto the Brooklyn Botanic Garden’s Celebrity Path in 2007.  He joins an impressive roster of “Brooklynites” that boasts the likes of George Gershwin, Jackie Gleason, Harry Houdini, and Walt Whitman.  In honor of the 50th Anniversary of “Day-O,” the ASCAP Foundation established the Irving Burgie Scholarship, which is presented annually to an African-American songwriter from New York City.  The scholarship alternates between the Berklee College of Music and the University of Southern California. 

Mr. Burgie’s life and career is now chronicled in his autobiography, “Day-O!!!”.  The book is set amid a wider social tapestry that depicts the plight, joys and foibles of one black family growing up in pre-war Brooklyn and the broader black struggle leading up to the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s. 

Mr. Burgie’s experience as a soldier in an all black battalion in the China-Burma India Theatre was where he developed an interest in music and studying in general.  After the war, he went to school on the GI Bill and a few years later he made a meteoric rise to the top echelons of the music business as the songwriter who composed over thirty-five songs for Harry Belafonte including, “Day-O,” “Jamaica Farewell,” “Island in the Sun,” and “Mary’s Boy Child.” He also composed “The Seine” and “El Matador” for the Kingston Trio. 

The story of his growing up in Brooklyn, his army career, and his involvement in the Civil Rights Movement, his marriage and family and the black struggle to achieve equality is graphically depicted.  Irving Burgie’s memoir is an inspiring and novel account of one of the most significant eras in American history.