Spyros Kalfopoulos was 16 when he heard Stelios Keromitis play and sing rebetiko at a family party in 1939. He was smitten by rebetiko and the sound of the bouzouki, and started saving his money for one. By the time the war broke out, he had bought a tzouras (a smaller-bodied version of the bouzouki), taken lessons and started to perform, with two others, in local taverns, literally playing for food.
(That, by the way, is not a bygone practice. Most often the amateur Greek band I play with is paid not with cash but with Greek food.)
From there, his abilities and reputation grew and he soon working with rebetiko and older Smyrneika musicians in Athens, and he began writing songs. He was also worked in the resistance against the Nazi occupiers, and then played a role in the brutal Greek civil war that followed WWII. He was briefly exiled from Athens.
He returned to Athens in 1947, an accomplished bouzouki player and budding composer. He recorded his first composition that same year, with his sister Soula singing. (She appeared on records but never on stage, apparently.)
Kalfopoulos continuing composing and playing up until his death in 2006. He recorded more than two dozen of his own songs, and played on dozens more 78s and then, after 1960, 45s.
Whoever loves is jealous (my terrible jealousy) was recorded by the wonderful Stella Haskil in 1947, with Manolis Hiotis on bouzouki. It was written by Kalfopoulos with lyrics by Charalambas Vasiliadis.
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