There was a push-pull relationship between Greece and the United States when it comes to rebetiko – early recordings in the U.S helped fuel a market for Athenian-produced recordings and then the works of the Greek composers drove recordings in the U.S.
Angeliki Palagoudi was a fine example of the push part of the process. With her singing partner Thodoros Kavourakis, she recorded Greek rebetiko and laiko songs for the New York-based label Kalos Diskos (Good Records) in the 1950s.
Palagoudi was born in Pennsylvania in the U.S. in 1926, and moved with her family to New York in the ’40s. She was singing in church when Kavourakis, a mainstay of the Kalos Diskos stable, heard her and recruited her to sing with him on label releases. Between 1953 and ’55, she recorded steadily and performed with Kavourakis at Zappeion Pavilion in Astoria, Long Island. She did a handful of recordings with other artists, and released at least one solo song, before she married in the mid-’50s and left the music scene. She reportedly sang occasionally, at weddings, baptisms, and parties in later years, but did not return to recording. She died in 1995.
(I am indebted to Canary Records for the biographical information. Canary Records is an outstanding publisher of reissues – and repackaged – old recordings, including several fine collections of Greek-American recordings.)
Wherever You Are, Don’t Forget was recorded in 1953. It was written by Athens-based composer Stelios Chrysinis.
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