Day-O!!! The Autobiography of Irving Burgie

Irving Burgie's autobiography 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 1940s. This pre-war time was followed by his army experiences as a soldier in an all-black battalion in the China-Burma-India Theatre in World War II, where he first developed a serious interest in music, and studying in general. After the war, Burgie went to school under 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 the songs "Day-O," "Jamaica Farewell," "Island in the Sun," and "Mary's Boy Child" and some thirty-five songs for Harry Belafonte, and "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. It makes you feel proud to be an American.