Panagiotis Kounadis mentions the following about the recording "To parapono tou magka" (2011: 66):

"This recording includes an excerpt from an unidentified revue of 1933. It captures the unexpected encounter, interaction, and coexistence of two, theoretically, different worlds—the world of revue and operetta with that of rebetiko.

Key figures of the genre, both as creators and performers, were Petros Kyriakos and Giorgos Kambysis, while even individuals 'beyond all suspicion' took part, such as Minos Matsas, who touches here on 'timelessly current' themes like the crisis and social injustice that prevailed in the 1930s but still persist today. Notable are the references to the persecution of street vendors, who today are immigrants, and to the great social and economic inequalities.

Many songs and skits of similar content followed, and we are reminded of To teleftaio tram (with music by Michalis Souyioul), which was heard in the revue Anthropoi, Anthropoi by Alekos Sakellarios and Christos Giannakopoulos (who were also the lyricists of the song), staged at the Metropolitan Theater about 15 years later, in 1948, and still sung today:

We used to go by tram, and others with fancy taxis
for us, the low rolls and doubles, and for others, the sixes."

The recording begins with the opening part of the chorus (0′ 01″ – 0′ 10″) from the song "To Gelekaki", with music by Spyros Ollandezos and lyrics by Giannis Theodoridis.

According to the data collected so far, the song was recorded nine times in Greek historical discography, a number that undoubtedly reflects its popularity:

– “To gelekaki”, Nitsa Moretti – Petros Kyriakos, Athens, 1932 (Columbia W.G. 383 – D.G. 236 and re-released by Columbia Turkey W.G. 383 – DT 42, this recording)
– “To gelekaki”, Dimitris Filippopoulos – Dimitris Efstratiou, Athens, 1932 (Columbia W.G. 384 – D.G. 237)
– “To gelekaki”, Marika Nezer – Kostas Kontopoulos, Athens, 1932 (Parlophon 101256 – B.21643-I)
– “To gelekaki”, Marika Nezer – M. Zafeiridis, Athens, 1933 (Odeon Go 1801 – GA 1618 και GA 1638)
– “To gelekaki”, Artemis Manesi – Alkis Pagonis, Athens, 1933 (Odeon Go 1836 – GA 1617)
– “To gelekaki”, Tetos Dimitriadis – Christos Dimitrakopoulos, New York, February 22, 1933 (Orthophonic CS 75235-3 – S-627-A)
– “To gelekaki”, Kostas Doussas, Chicago, November 1934 (Columbia W 206627 – 56346-F)
– “To gelekaki”, Angeliki Karagianni – Giannis Degaitas, USA, 1947 (Liberty L 30A)
– “Gelekaki”, George Burlotos and The Georgettes, New York, September 29, 1953 (RCA Victor E3FB-1816 – 26-8331)

Alberto Nar presents two Sephardic variations, based on the song "Gelekaki", also quoting the lyrics in Ladino, that is, the Spanish-Jewish dialect of the Sephardic Jews (Narr, 1997b). He expresses the view that the variations "do not present elements in common with the verses of the Greek original". Furthermore, he mentions two recordings of the first variation, by “Italian Jew Liliana Treves Alcalay and the group 'Los pasharos sephardis' (The sephardic birds) from Constantinople”.

In vain, you shed tears and swear that you want me
Υou say you love me so much and that you'd die for me

Stop, my pretty one, deceiving me any longer
and setting me ablaze with your smile

You know that I love you and that I'd die for you
that you are my life and my dream

For the second variation, he mentions two cases where it appears: his own finding/transcription (Nar, 1985), as well as the "a capella performance by Mr Moses Eskenazis from Thessaloniki".

They admire you with your curly hair and enviable part
But your money’s mine. You didn't have a penny.

Go on, leave, I don’t want you. You drained me of both blood and marrow.
Be on your way, the time has passed when I used to say: “I'd die for you.”

Rivka Havassy, ​​in her forthcoming article (Emery, forthcoming), cites the recording entitled “Mostrame gracioza”, made between June-July 1948 by Jack Mayesh in New York (Me-Re Balkan 6003 B). Based on the data so far, this is the first appearance of the song in Ladino discography, with the lyrics of Nar's first version. The song “Onde que tope una que es plaziente”, which is a similar adoption of “Pou na vro gynaika na sou moiazei”, is on the other side of the same record. Jack Mayesh was born in 1899, in Kuşadası, Ottoman Empire. In 1920, he married Flora Salmoni, a resident of the island of Rhodes, born in 1903 in the city of Pordenore, in north-eastern Italy. More information about both Mayesh as well as the Sephardic repertoire in historical discography in general is provided on Joel Bresler's extremely informative webpage www.sephardicmusic.org.

Regarding the second Ladino version cited by Nar, Havassy states that the initial phrase of the lyrics comes from a longer text entitled “El falsador”. It comes from the book Los kantes populares de Sadik I Gazoz, published in 1933. The text in question states that this particular verse is "sung to the melody of the pleasant Greek tango 'To gelekaki pou foreis'". Havassy argues that there is a certain connection between the lyrical themes, as both the Ladino and Greek versions feature a girl who addresses a young man for whom she has prepared an outfit [a vest ("gelekaki") in Greek, pants in Ladino).

Furthermore, Havassy makes another interesting observation: she mentions that part of the tune from the song "To gelekaki pou foreis" was also used in another Ladino song, specifically in "La bivdika i el hashishli", which can be translated as "the widow and the hashish smoker". The verses were published on January 27, 1933, in the weekly satirical newspaper of the Israeli community of Thessaloniki La Gata, and published in Hebrew. Havassy, ​​through this connection, correctly also links "To gelekaki pou foreis" to the song [i chira kai] "I ntamira". The latter uses phrases from "To gelekaki pou foreis", and is in turn linked to various variations and recordings, with the oldest probably in America around 1920: "Chasisi", "De mou lete to chasisi pou poulietai", "Barmpagiannis" and others (see here).

Syncretism, which is observed in the musical actualizations of the areas where Greeks lived and recorded, mainly in the area of folk-popular traditions, is monumental. It only takes one to listen to historical discography, which begins in New York, Smyrna (Izmir), Constantinople (Istanbul), Athens and Thessaloniki since 1900. An essential part of this syncretism concerns the Jews, who constitute one of the main conduits in the uniquely diverse cultural heritage of the Greek-speaking world. They borrow and lend, but they also carry more distant traditions from the places where they have previously lived and the places they have traveled to. They are the central interlocutors in the Greek and Ottoman ecumene, and compose a rich musical mosaic which consists of heterogeneous but co-existent palimpsests: a great musical melting-pot.

Research and text: Leonardos Kounadis and Nikos Ordoulidis