“The Fox” by Harry Belafonte

Who would serve in WW2, then take acting classes with Marlon Brando, Sidney Poitier, and Bea Arthur while singing to pay for those classes at night with Charlie Parker, Max Roach, and Miles Davis as his back up band?  Who would help organize the Freedom March in DC and explain to his good friend Martin Luther King Jr. the importance of using the media to help influence the cause?  Who would help organize “We are the World,” the multi-artist effort to raise funds for Africa famine relief, while also criticizing both Democrats and Republicans for their lack of real efforts to help the poor and marginalized citizens of our country? Harry Belafonte, that’s who.

“The Fox” was released in 1954 on Belafonte’s first album Mark Twain and Other Folk Favorites. It’s a playful, traditional English folk song and one that helped put Belafonte on the map.
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We lost Belafonte this week, but his legacy cannot be ignored. He was not only one of the first crossover talents to move from the nightclubs to Broadway, and then onto the silver screen, but he did it while breaking racial barriers, standing up for humanity, and winning every award imaginable.