Love Is a Gentle Thing is an album by Harry Belafonte, released by RCA Victor in 1959. It was recorded with arranger / conductors Alan Greene and Bob Corman. Billboard magazine chose Love Is a Gentle Thing as one of their "Spotlight Winners of the Week" in March 1959, and wrote that "Belafonte displays his usual tender, feelingful vocal style on a group of expressive folk themes with varying moods...Striking cover". Love Is a Gentle Thing is an album by Harry Belafonte, released by RCA Victor in 1959. It was recorded with arranger / conductors Alan Greene and Bob Corman. Billboard magazine chose Love Is a Gentle Thing as one of their "Spotlight Winners of the Week" in March 1959, and wrote that "Belafonte displays his usual tender, feelingful vocal style on a group of expressive folk themes with varying moods...Striking cover". false 2025-11-08 01:13:45 Love Is a Gentle Thing 2011 2011-01-01 2011-01-01 72 Latin Jazz;Pop;Easy Listening 120339 2404396 4e4bb5f2-61a5-4096-a0af-7a7d207ae491 49c48b7f-1ff1-4f02-a1aa-ca1254b46ef2 b05fc837-9004-4e5f-890d-b3903ba28946 /media/data/media5/Music/Harry Belafonte/Love Is a Gentle Thing (1959)/folder.jpg Harry Belafonte Harry Belafonte 1 1 Fifteen 02:51 1 2 I Never Will Marry 02:44 1 3 I'm Going Away 03:07 1 4 Small One 02:53 1 5 Bella Rosa 03:24 1 6 All My Trials 04:34 1 7 Green Grow the Lilacs 03:53 1 8 Times Are Gettin' Hard 03:34 1 9 Turn Around 02:22 1 10 Go 'way From My Window 03:08 1 11 Delia's Gone 04:32 1 12 Walkin' On the Green Grass 03:21 1 13 Eden Was Just Like This 03:00 1 14 Venezuela 02:58 1 15 Suzanne 03:20 1 16 Delia 03:01 1 17 Unchained Melody 03:21 1 18 Come Back Liza 03:06 1 19 Matilda, Matilda 03:13 1 20 I'm Just a Country Boy 03:04 1 21 Jamaica Farewell 03:04 1 22 Island in the Sun 03:23 Harry Belafonte ( BEL-ə-FON-tee; born Harold George Bellanfanti Jr.; March 1, 1927 – April 25, 2023) was an American singer, actor, and civil rights activist who popularized calypso music with international audiences in the 1950s and 1960s. Belafonte's career breakthrough album Calypso (1956) was the first million-selling LP by a single artist. Belafonte was best known for his recordings of "Day-O (The Banana Boat Song)", "Jump in the Line (Shake, Senora)", "Jamaica Farewell", and "Mary's Boy Child". He recorded and performed in many genres, including blues, folk, gospel, show tunes, and American standards. He also starred in films such as Carmen Jones (1954), Island in the Sun (1957), Odds Against Tomorrow (1959), Buck and the Preacher (1972), and Uptown Saturday Night (1974). He made his final feature film appearance in Spike Lee's BlacKkKlansman (2018). Belafonte considered the actor, singer, and activist Paul Robeson to be a mentor. Belafonte was also a close confidant of Martin Luther King Jr. during the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s and acted as the American Civil Liberties Union celebrity ambassador for juvenile justice issues. He was also a vocal critic of the policies of the George W. Bush and Donald Trump administrations. Belafonte won three Grammy Awards, including a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, an Emmy Award, and a Tony Award. In 1989, he received the Kennedy Center Honors. He was awarded the National Medal of Arts in 1994. In 2014, he received the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award at the academy's 6th Annual Governors Awards and in 2022 was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in the Early Influence category. He is one of the few performers to have received an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony (EGOT), although he won the Oscar in a non-competitive category.