At the beginning of the 20th century, the networks that are created and which evolve funnel both people and their products, tangible and intangible. It is within this multi-layered world that sound recording and sound reproduction is invented. Early record labels send mobile crews literally all over the world to record local musicians. The range of the repertoire is endless. Cosmopolitanism in large urban centers favors polystylisms and polymorphisms. Colonialism, revolutions, conflicts, refugee flows; the theater, cinema, radio, photography, orchestras’ tours, but also circulations in all kinds of commercial channels in a world that evolves dynamically and anisotropically, form a complex network of “centers” and “peripheries” in alternating roles setting musical idioms in motion, both literally and figuratively. The network in which the Greek-speaking urban popular song participates, constantly conversing with its co-tenants, is magnificent. Discography has already provided important tools in understanding the relationships that developed between “national” repertoires. The result of this ongoing research is “Cosmopolitanism in Greek Historical Discography”.

Tango is one of the main musical elements of the national identity of modern Argentina. It is born in the marginalized environment of the port of Buenos Aires, but soon conquers Europe and the USA, where it is carried by traveling Argentine musicians and dancers during the first decade of the 20th century. Its acceptance by the upper and middle classes was due to its transformation from a multicultural musical expression of the underworld to a dance-music one for whites, as well as to its thematic cleansing of its overtly sensual origins. Primarily marginal types and their provocative liminality are replaced by quaint figures who are possessed by unquenchable, but stylized love passions. This is how a “tamed” musical genre emerges that recalls a more romantic Argentina. Tango takes Parisian cabarets by storm, and its initially targeted popularity soon develops into widespread appeal. Record companies, composers and orchestras manage it as an integral part of their business. At the end of the 1920s and the beginning of the 1930s, Greece succumbs too to this “tangomania”. During the interwar period, tango has a central place in the repertoire of elafro (light music) and enriches discography’s catalogs with hundreds of original compositions which complement the systematic arrangements of popular pieces, mainly of European origin, “dressed” with Greek lyrics.

This recording is an adaptation with Greek lyrics of the tango-chanson "Madre", set to music by the Argentinian composer and pianist Francisco Pracánico and lyrics by the also Argentinian Verminio Servetto.

The song was recorded several times mostly in Spanish-speaking 78 rpm discography. For example:

- Carlos Gardel, Argentina, 1922 (Disco National Odeon MX 913 - 18057)
- Ignacio Corsini, Buenos Aires, 1930 (Odeon e 5779 - 55473 B)
- Bernard Etté, Berlin, December 15, 1923 (Vox 2015 B - 1513)
- Bahiano, Rio de Janeiro, 1924 (Odeon R 122724)
- Juan Pulido, New York, March 19, 1925 (Victor B-32230  - 78011)
- Luig Patrung and Varaldi tango band, London, October 5, 1925 (Gramophone Bb 6852 - B2137)
- The International Five, Berlin, October 30, 1925 (Odeon Be 4868 - 84590)
- Francisco Spaventa, Barcelona, November 9, 1925 (Gramophone BS 2083-1 - 262459)
- Chola Luna - Orquesta Miguel Caló, Buenos Aires, April 6, 1956 (Odeon 20892 - 51921)

According to the data collected so far in Greek historical discography, the song was recorded by Giorgos Vidalis - Giorgos Savaris (this recording), Giorgos Paschalis and Pοl [Leopoldos] Gad.

Research and text: Leonardos Kounadis, George Evangelou and Nikos Ordoulidis