DeHaske Music Box Series for variable wind quartet (woodwinds and brass) plus percussion (ad lib) - Grade 3 The Banana Boat Song (Day-O) is based on a Jamaican folksong. At the end of the 1950s, Harry Belafonte had a major hit with it and it has since become a true classic. Roland Kernen has produced this swinging arrangement in an instrumentation that is suitable for many combinations of wind or brass instruments with ad-lib percussion.