Another Halloween song that’s not really a Halloween song! It’s just Carribbean! David Buck from Tedium wrote a whole article about the history of this track that you should read here so I don’t have to repeat the same stuff. What I love about Harry Belafonte’s version is his riff on the lyrics, which departs from zombies for a verse to get real and beg the listener to oppose nuclear war:

Now, they beat war drums in the Congo
And the beat makes a beat in the bongo
So it’s up to us, you and me
To put an end to this catastrophe
We must appeal to their goodness of heart
To pitch in and all do their part
’Cause if this atomic war begin
They won’t even have a part to pitch in

Now, originally, this song was actually called Jumbie Jamboree, a jumbie being a kind of malevolent spirit in several Carribbean cultures. It was first performed by calypsonian Lord Intruder in 1953. The switch to “zombie” occurred before the song left Trinidad, so that wasn’t some kind of Yankee corruption. I couldn’t find an original Lord Intruder recording but I did find this 1954 version by The Charmer. The next year, The Charmer would leave his calypso career, find religion, and change his last name to Farrakhan. Yes, this version of Zombie Jamboree is apparently performed by a young Louis Farrakhan, the presently 93-year-old leader of the Nation of Islam. So… that’s crazy.