Who wrote the 1956 Christmas song "Mary's Boy Child"?

Jester Hairston wrote the 1956 Christmas song “Mary’s Boy Child.”

The song is most closely associated with Harry Belafonte, who recorded it in 1956 and released it as a single that December. Belafonte’s performance helped turn Hairston’s composition into an international Christmas standard, but the singer was not the writer.

Hairston originally developed the melody and rhythm for a birthday-party song called “He Pone and Chocolate Tea,” using a calypso style suited to an audience that would mainly be West Indian. Walter Schumann later asked him to create a Christmas song for the Schumann Hollywood Choir, so Hairston retained the rhythmic idea and wrote new Nativity lyrics.

Belafonte’s longer recording became especially successful in the United Kingdom, reaching number one in 1957. The song was later recorded by artists including Andy Williams and Boney M., whose 1978 disco adaptation, “Mary’s Boy Child—Oh My Lord,” introduced it to another generation. “Mary’s Boy Child” is therefore often mistaken for a Belafonte composition.