Midnight Special (Harry Belafonte album)
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| The Midnight Special | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | 1962 | |||
| Genre | Vocal | |||
| Label | RCA Victor | |||
| Producer | Hugo Montenegro | |||
| Harry Belafonte chronology | ||||
| ||||
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic |   [1] |
| New Record Mirror | [2] |
The Midnight Special is a 1962 album by Jamaican-American singer, Harry Belafonte.
The album peaked at No. 8 on the Billboard Best Selling Monoraul LP's[3] during a twenty four-week run on the chart.[4]
Background
The album notably contains the first officially-released recording by Bob Dylan, who plays harmonica on the title track. For many years the Belafonte session was thought to have been Dylan’s first professional recording, simply because this RCA Victor album was released first. However, in 2001, documentation was found in the RCA Victor vaults along with the session tapes which definitively dates the session as having been recorded at Webster Hall, New York City, in February 1962. This places it later than Dylan's recording session with folksinger Carolyn Hester, which dates from September 1961, also in New York City, although her album was not released until later in 1962.
Track listing
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Midnight Special" | Traditional | 4:02 |
| 2. | "Crawdad Song" | Traditional | 3:39 |
| 3. | "Memphis, Tennessee" | Harry Belafonte | 5:00 |
| 4. | "Gotta Travel On" | Paul Clayton / Dave Lazar | 4:26 |
| 5. | "Did You Hear About Jerry" | Harry Belafonte / Irving Burgie | 2:57 |
| 6. | "On Top of Old Smokey" | Traditional | 6:01 |
| 7. | "Muleskinner" | Traditional | 3:34 |
| 8. | "Makes a Long Time Man Feel Bad" | Traditional | 5:47 |
| 9. | "Michael, Row the Boat Ashore" | Traditional | 3:55 |
Critical reception
Pig River Records[usurped] praised "The Midnight Special"[usurped] on its 50th anniversary giving it 8.1/10.
