1950's and 1960's Greek Music Videos

 Here's a nifty one.   The band takes off and Ms. Giannakopoulou stumbles onto the stage (see below) and  delivers a dazzling performance to a rapturous audience.   I am guessing (with only circumstantial evidence) that this was a scene from the 1965 movie Storm ( Kataigida ) which is, according to IMDB, about the relationship between a successful male composer and a singer whose career is going downhill and who is "battling with alcohol dependence".   The action takes place in what looks like a movie theater.  To top things off, the camera cuts away to an adjoining room where some contentious dialogue takes place, probably about her condition.  Final question -- Is the bouzouki player on the right the same person who did those hot licks at the beginning of the  Panos Gavalas and Ria Kourti video? Yota Agelastopoulou (from the comments, as translated by HRH Google*) puts it much better than I ever could.  She says  A unique and unrepeatable story of the people, she shock

 Another subtle but wonderful video!  Fine stage, great band, beautiful singer, good songs... Plus there's dancing, interesting things happening with the cheery crowd, cutaways to boats and much more.  All in all this is a fine use of your precious spare time, even if it does not hit the crazy highs and dismal lows of some of the other featured videos in this blog. Spyros Kalfopoulos was a composer, actor and musician (and that's about all I could find out).  I know even less about Kati Petrakis, except that she is totally awesome!   This seems to be from the 1959 movie I Want a Forceful Man , a title that definitely would not go over well these days.  Here's a description from IMDB Mina is married with Lakis who is too kind and soft,so she tries to make him react somehow, by flirting with another man. His friend Nionios who is a womanizer, advises him to flirt with other women too... Surprisingly, Lakis, who is as meek as a lamb, makes Mina, his wife, furious. And, as a re

It seems a while since we visited a prison, and the prisons in Greece (at least the movie-music-world-variety), what with their ever-present baglamas, are always worth visiting.  I'm not sure if there is another country on God's green earth that has an official-instrument-of-the-penal-system, but the world would be a better place if all countries followed Greece's lead and issued baglamas on arraignment.  See here and here for some other scenes of life in the pokey! This video, more than others, does justice to the baglama by letting it speak for itself - no overdubs here!  This scene from features an unbandaged  Petros Giannakkos as well as another mustachioed fellow trading off some fine picking and singing.  I am almost sure it is  Nikos Stavridis who remains, uncharacteristically, in profile the entire clip.  No idea whether this was from before or after the ill fated craps gam that produced the thrown furniture (to make sense of all this, see last week's post). T

This one came up in my feed just yesterday; it is pretty darn fantastic. Be forewarned, it is a long clip.  The first part seems to be a crap game that goes bad, ending in a brawl and a thrown stool that injures a man who will soon be doing some wonderful dancing.  If you have a plane to catch, if you are discretely watching this in your high school physics class, or if you have seen (or participated in) enough crap games gone bad, you can skip this part and start at 1:57 when the scene shifts to the taverna, or you could skip all the way to 2:45 when the band is featured. For fans of wild and inspired Zembetiko dancing, the fun starts at 4:08 when a sailor pays the band and does a fine job spinning and hoofing  (and doing a nice roll) before dusting himself off and nonchalantly sitting down with his friends.  The true highlight of the video is towards the end at 7:58  when our friend who was the recipient of the flying stool gets up and does his bit to upstage the sailor.  This dan

 Our friends at YouTube keep throwing interesting things my way. This one fooled me -- I figured it was an oddity from the 1960's but it is from a hit Greek sitcom "Dolce Vita" and from 1997!   For the obsessive, you can watch the full episode  here  -- I really have no idea how this clip fits in with the plot and with the modern aesthetics of the series.  Oddly enough there is a fine reenactment / parody (as if this needs a parody) that you can find here. According to commentator  kypreos1, t he real singers are Andreas Vasios and Ninta Kanaki.  

Nothing too offbeat or amusing here -- just a great song, a hot band, and wonderful singing... The video begins with some fine twin bouzouki playing.  Those guys know that they have something special going on and smile broadly after they pull off their riffs. This is from the 1963 movie "7 Days of Lies".  Here is the plot summary according to our friends at IMDB:  To keep the generous wedding gift by her affluent aunt, an imaginary wife enlists the help of a poor bookseller to pose as her loving husband for as long as she stays in Athens. Can he survive seven days of lying? And here are a portion of the lyrics, according to  Stojance Dezalekov (in the  comments below the video) as translated by  G oogle. You have given me bitter medicine Bitter very bitter Which if it was someone else he would have hated you But I love you, I love you   You don't hurt me, that's why you torture me You don't really love me You bully me and tear my heart apart You don't love me

The last few videos have been a bit of an emotional roller coaster, so it seems time for a beautiful and sensitive song without confetti or despairing zembekiko dancers. If you have the time and inclination, copy the notes under the video and put them through Google Translate; the story of this song, of Marinella, and of the composer and lyricist are compellingly and concisely related -- if only every Greek video came with such stories... Here's my quick distillation -- Marinella is at a turning point in her career, having broken up a successful partnership.  A more prominent artist turns down the song (rather rudely, I might add) and Marinella humbly asks if she can record it.  The result is a career defining hit and this cool video.   I should mention that, as happens in many of these videos, there seems to be little relationship between what the musicians seem to be doing and the studio recording that you hear.  On the other hand, Marinella, in a totally awesome feat that will a

 I have no actual knowledge of the realities of the 1960's taverna scene, but it seems, from viewing lots of videos, that for each joyless watering hole where tormented souls go to dance the zembekiko, there is a sister establishment where everyone is giddy and there are streamers, balloons, and a general air of joyfulness.  While this particular spot lacks balloons, it makes up for it in streamers, dancers and confetti. The chorus of the song, if Google is to be trusted, goes something like this -- I'm going to escape from prison, I'm going to go enjoy life a little.  The lyrics are all about domestic issues so I think it is relationship song, not a jail song. Vassilis Tsitsanis, who had a law degree, was one of the giants of rebetika and laika.  He composed, performed and recorded copiously and is still celebrated and revered. (7/31/24 -- Quick update -- the original for this disappeared along with a number of other videos.  This is the same video from another source)

Fouli Dimitriou is one of those singers who radiates joy!  If that club was in my neighborhood, I would be spending all my time there absorbing her magic... Meanwhile Michalis begins the video looking like a minor politician about to give an ag-policy speech to a rotary club in a provincial town, but livens up as he starts to sing.   Rather than obsess about his awesome haircut, the astute viewer should look to the upper left and admire the drummer.* This is from the movie Agapisa ke ponesa (I Loved and It Hurt).  Here's a plot summary via IMDB...   After a momentary lapse of judgment, an impecunious husband finds himself behind bars, losing both his freedom and his wife who's eloped with her ex-lover. Now, a desperate search for the missing mother commences. Will the family reunite? * Here is Googles translation of a comment from @lymperidisioannis:  The drummer is Vasiliadis' brother...can't remember name...excellent...!!! he was always doing havale and at some point

 Here's a cha-cha (or maybe a bolero?) from the great Manolis Chiotis and Mary Linda. While this is definitely not their best video (see this for swing, t his for awesome outfits and stagecraft, this for antics, and this for late night bliss), and while the editing is terrible (there is no relationship whatsoever between Manolis' magic fingers and the music on the soundtrack) and the band is not featured at all, it remains a sweet and lovely reminder of just how wonderful this duo was... Here's a quick translation of the lyrics, thanks to Frere Google: I never want you to come again, I confess never be in my way to see you You will remind me of the old days of our first nights you will also remind me of our first heartbeats   I don't want you to come again I don't want fire in my heart anymore I don't want to love you anymore I try to forget you   Since you left me, why are you asking to come back? Before you go, you should think about it I loved you and you

 This video starts with a delightful shot of the legs of a dancer -- as is often the case, I am jealous of this fellows shimmying skills as well as his awesome black and white shoes -- they simply don't seem to have shoes like this in my neighborhood shoe shop. We met Yiannis (or Giannis) Poulopoulos a few posts ago in a taverna that may have been the most joyless space in all of Greece.  Here we get to see him in a happier mode and singing with the delightful Elena Kladis.  As in so many of these videos, there is a bit of drama going on -- this time it is a drunken and loathsome character who joins the boogying and ends up doing some plate-smashing (although, for all I know, he is the likable hero of the film who is on a spree).   From the 1966 Movie "The Four Legged Man".  Here is a Google translated plot summary from greek-movies.com: A provincial cafe owner (Kostas Hatzichristos) hopes to conquer one of the village girls. After some strange turn of events, he starts t