Harry Belafonte - Mary's Boy Child (1957)

UK Christmas No.1 1957 – Official Chart (7 weeks) Asked to write a song for a birthday party, at which most attendees would be West Indians, songwriter Jester Hairston wrote He Pone and Chocolate Tea to a calypso rhythm. Pone is a type of corn bread, and unfortunately the song was never recorded in its original version. A few years later, Hairston was asked to write a new Christmas song, so he rewrote the lyrics, kept the calypso rhythm, and Mary’s Boy Child was born. Although not, in songwriting terms, on Christmas Day! Video: album cover http://www.christmasno1.co.uk