Loving That Yellow Fruit

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The yellow fruit I’m referring to is the banana. It has even been sung about, and if at all it’s possible to believe, I discovered ten songs sung about this fruit, but the list didn’t include one of my favorites, a song from 1923, “Yes, We Have No Bananas,” sung by Al Jolson. On with the facts: • Archaeologists have discovered evidence that banana cultivation goes back as far as 8000 B.C. in New Guinea. • Bet you didn’t know this because I too thought bananas grew on trees. Well, they don’t; the banana plant is classified as a tree-like perennial herb. Hold on tight when reading this fact—the banana is considered to be a berry. • A bunch of bananas is referred to as a hand; a single banana as a finger. • Nearly all of the bananas you buy in stores come from the Cavendish banana plant, originally native to Southeast Asia. • The song I mentioned, “Yes, We Have No Bananas!,” sold close to a thousand copies a day. • Another popular “banana song” was the “Banana Boat Song” by Harry Belafonte, which was released on his first album, Calypso, and the album sold more than a million copies. I added here Harry Belafonte’s “Banana Boat Song.” This is a really fun song, and there might be those of you who remember that this song was included in the movie starring Michael Keaton, “Beetlejuice.”