Giorgos Rovertakis was born in Smyrna in 1911 and arrived in Greece in 1922. Three years later, age 14, he was playing piano for silent films at a Piraeus cinema.
Through the 1930s, he put his considerable musical skills to work, composing rebetiko music of his own and working with other musicians on their songs. He continued composing for and playing (accordion and piano) with late rebetiko and then laiko ensembles, all the way into the 1970s. (Along the way, he came a member of Greece’s National Conservatory.)
The Pickpocket was originally recorded in 1935 by Maritsa Pantra. This version was recorded earlier this year by Manos Chamarakis, a talented Greek musician and singer, who has a YouTube channel with a couple of hundred lovingly-covered songs, mostly rebetiko. The Pickpocket:
Manos Chamarakis’s channel:
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