Πάμε στο τεκέ μου

Apostolos Nikolaidis, born near Thessaloniki in 1938, was one of the laiko stars of the 1960s, recording works by Tsitsanis, Kaldaras and others, and appearing at leading music venues in Athens. His major contribution to rebetiko came later.

In 1968, he travelled to Canada and the U.S. for a series of performances, and then wound up living and performing throughout in the U.S for the next quarter century. In 1973, he did what wouldn’t have been possible in Greece: he recorded an LP of old rebetiko, with their original lyrics, works that were banned by the ruling junta in Greece.

The combination of the old songs and slicker, more modern arrangements, made the album a commercial and popular success. Copies were smuggled into Greece and the album became instrumental in the rediscovery of rebetiko.

I’m a Mangas is a video from 1982, recorded at Nikolaidis’s home, with Michalis Genitsaris, who wrote the song, (on tzoura, right) and Giannis Moraitis on bouzouki.