Are you a friend of Barb’s? If you know her at all, you know that the entertainer closest to her heart is Neil Diamond. And if you know her a little better you may also know she has “things” for Bradley Cooper (yes, that is why our dog is named Cooper,) and Kevin Costner (thank God for five seasons of Yellowstone.) But you have to really know Barb well to know that her first show biz love was the late Harry Belafonte.

Mr. Belafonte died today from congestive heart failure at the age of 96. He was renowned as a singer, actor, and activist. And for Barb, he was the guy who brought her Hava Nagila.

Barb’s first memories of Belafonte are from around the age of 5. That would have precisely coincided with the release of Belafonte at Carnegie Hall, the live album that spent three years on the charts. The list of songs on the double LP is phenomenal, including Belafonte classics The Banana Boat Song, Matilda, Jamaica Farwell, and Man Smart (Woman Smarter).

But when 5-year-old Barb’s parents turned on the Hifi, the song that had her dancing around their Skokie living room was Hava Nagila. She would do a solo Hora, dreaming about her future wedding and the party it would be. It was fun and she felt fabulous.

As Barb grew older and Belafonte became more involved in civil rights, Barb lost track of him. But in the early 1980’s we saw that he would be appearing at the Golf Mill Theater in Niles and we grabbed a pair of tickets. I am sure he put on a great show, though sadly the thing I remember best was his bitter complaints about a recent review in the Chicago Tribune. I guess even EGOT winners have a touchy side.

Belafonte didn’t serenade us with Hava Nagila when Barb and I got married but we did request that the band play the Live at Carnegie Hall recording at our daughter’s wedding. As the music filled the banquet hall, all our guests danced a celebratory Hora. This time Barb wasn’t dancing alone.

And I hope many of Belafonte’s millions of fans are with him now, dancing somewhere high up above us.

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