Though not actually a calypso, one of the most popular songs to come out of the 1956-57 American calypso craze was "Yellow Bird." Its melody was derived from a nineteenth-century Haitian song called "Choucoune." During the 1950s, vocal director Norman Luboff adapted the melody and songwriters Alan and Marilyn Keith Bergman wrote new lyrics for the song."Yellow Bird" was featured on the Norman Luboff Choir's Calypso Holiday album (1957), with liner notes describing it as a "serenade of a lonesome lover to an equally lonesome bird." It quickly became an easy listening standard throughout the United States, recorded on dozens of singles and as the title cut to albums by the Mills Brothers, Roger Williams and Lawrence Welk.
"Yellow Bird" also became an all-time favorite with tourists on Caribbean cruises and in hotels. Steelbands extensively performed and recorded the gentle ballad. Vacationers to the Caribbean and Florida continue to request the song from steelbands to this day.
