Songfacts®:

• "Island In The Sun" was the title song for a controversial 1957 film about race relations and interracial romance. Harry "King of Calypso" Belafonte starred in the film (with Joan Fontaine) and wrote and performed the song. The island is a fictional Caribbean one named Santa Marta.
  
  The lyrics detail simple life on a Caribbean island, with hopes that this lifestyle will endure. In the film, the song is played over a montage of scenes of island life. The film, and the Belafonte album in which the song appears, were both released in 1957.
• Chris Blackwell and his partners named their record label Island Records after this song. Based in Jamaica, the label was founded in 1959.
• At least 40 artists have covered this song, including The Righteous Brothers, The Merrymen, and José Carreras. The Paragons, a ska group out of Kingston, Jamaica, turned the song into a Jamaican anthem with their 1967 cover of the song on their debut album On the Beach.
• Belafonte released an updated version of the song in 2017 in When Colors Come Together. Belafonte's son David wrote the new lyrics, and his grandchildren sang backing vocals with a children's choir.