Spyros Zagoraios was one of the best-loved singers in Greece beginning in the 1950s, and while I’d classify much of his extensive recorded output as popular Greek music (laiko), he wrote and recorded some straight rebetiko, including deep zeibekiko cuts that clearly drew on the influence the classic era.
Zagoraios was born in 1928 and, during WWII at age 13, lost his arm while playing with a grenade (he claims to have mistaken it for an inkwell.) He grew up in a family of amateur musicians and developed his love of singing early. As a teenager, he frequented a musicians’ bar, where he heard Markos Vamvakaris, Vasilis Tsitsanis and others, and began his own performing career.
Zagoraios was introduced to Tsitsanis, who soon had him in the studio. In 1952, he recorded his first song. His rich, expressive, inimitable voice became a favourite of listener and many of the young composers of the time, and his career soared, both on record (Discogs lists a discography of 236 releases) and in performance throughout Greece and among the Greek diaspora.
Although he suffered from various ailments, he was performing almost up until his death in 2014. YouTube videos from various Greek TV music shows feature him singing zeibekiko songs that he had written and performed during his career.
He wrote and recorded God, why did you make us? – I’m wondering if you can write a better rebetiko lament title – in the early 1960s, at the height of his career and at a time when rebetiko was enjoying a brief revival.
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