Aphrodite's Child
Encyclopedia
Aphrodite's Child was a Greek
progressive rock
band formed in 1967, by Vangelis Papathanassiou (keyboards), Demis Roussos
(bass guitar and vocals), Loukas Sideras
(drums and vocals), and Anargyros "Silver" Koulouris (guitar). Their band's name was derived from the title of a track from another Mercury
act, Dick Campbell, from his Sings Where It's At album
. Papathanassiou and Roussos had already been successful in Greece
(playing in the bands Formynx and Idols respectively) while they got together with Sideras and Koulouris to form a new band. Their first recording
as a band was for George Romanos' album In Concert and in Studio where they played on four songs and were credited as 'Vangelis and his Orchestra'. In the same year they recorded a two song demo
and submitted it to Philips Records
.
which would be a more suitable environment for their music. This decision, however, was not problem-free. Koulouris had to stay in Greece to fulfill his military service while the band, on their way to London, got stuck in Paris
partially because they did not have the correct work permits and partially because of the strikes associated with the May 1968 events.
In Paris they signed to Mercury Records
, christened "Aphrodite's Child" and released their first single "Rain and Tears", a reworking of Pachelbel's Canon in D major. With this song the band became an overnight sensation in France and several other European countries in which the single charted well, despite the song being sung in English
and not French
. It sold over one million copies, and was awarded a gold disc
. In October of the same year, the band released their first album End of the World
. The album contained an equal amount of psychedelic pop
songs and ballads in the vein of Procol Harum
or The Moody Blues
.
The band began touring around Europe, and in January 1969 they recorded a single in Italian
for the Sanremo Festival, in which they did not participate. Their next hit single
was "I Want to Live", an arrangement
of the song "Plaisir d'amour
". For their second album, the band travelled to London to record at the Trident Studios
. The first single from the album, "Let Me Love, Let Me Live" was released in November, while the album It's Five O'Clock
came out in January 1970. It featured more successful ballads (like the title song), but also songs that crossed many musical genres including country rock
.
After their second album, the band begun touring again, this time without Vangelis who preferred to stay in Paris and record the music for Henry Chapier's soft porn film
, Sex Power. Vangelis was replaced on stage with Harris Chalkitis. The year 1970 went by with the band promoting their latest album and Vangelis working on his first film project. To keep the steady flow of hits, the band released another single in August 1970, "Spring, Summer, Winter and Fall".
The band began to record their next outpouring late in 1970: a musical adaptation of the biblical
Book of Revelation
, entitled 666. Koulouris, having finished his Greek army duty rejoined the band. However, relations between all the band members were not good at the time, and continued to worsen during the album's creation.
Essentially, 666 was Vangelis' concept, created with an outside lyricist, Costas Ferris. The music that Vangelis was creating for 666 was much more psychedelic
and progressive rock
oriented than anything the band had done before. This did not sit well with the other band members, who wished to continue in the pop direction that had brought them success. Furthermore, Roussos was being groomed for a solo career, and recorded his first solo single We Shall Dance (with Sideras on drums), and his first solo album On the Greek Side of My Mind, whereas Vangelis recorded the score for L'Apocalypse des animaux
and worked on a single with his girlfriend Vilma Ladopoulou, performing with Koulouris using the pseudonym 'Alpha Beta'.
By the time the double album
666 finally was released in June 1972, and having sold over 20 million albums, the band had already split. Both Vangelis and Roussos pursued successful solo careers, Roussos as a pop singer and Vangelis first in electronic music, then in movie soundtracks
, which made him a successful film score composer of the 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s, having penned such titles as 1982's Ridley Scott
's Blade Runner
and 2004's Oliver Stone
's Alexander
among many others. Koulouris worked with both on occasion. Sideras pursued a less successful solo career, releasing an album and the single Rising Sun after the break-up then disappearing into obscurity.
Greece
Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....
progressive rock
Progressive rock
Progressive rock is a subgenre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s as part of a "mostly British attempt to elevate rock music to new levels of artistic credibility." John Covach, in Contemporary Music Review, says that many thought it would not just "succeed the pop of...
band formed in 1967, by Vangelis Papathanassiou (keyboards), Demis Roussos
Demis Roussos
Artemios Ventouris Roussos is a Greek singer and performer, best known for being the main musical partner of movie soundtrack composer Vangelis and a string of international hit records as a solo performer in the 1960s and 1970s...
(bass guitar and vocals), Loukas Sideras
Loukas Sideras
Lucas Sideras, born in Athens , is the former drummer of the Greek progressive rock band Aphrodite's Child.-Aphrodite's Child:...
(drums and vocals), and Anargyros "Silver" Koulouris (guitar). Their band's name was derived from the title of a track from another Mercury
Mercury Records
Mercury Records is a record label operating as a standalone company in the UK and as part of the Island Def Jam Motown Music Group in the US; both are subsidiaries of Universal Music Group. There is also a Mercury Records in Australia, which is a local artist and repertoire division of Universal...
act, Dick Campbell, from his Sings Where It's At album
Album
An album is a collection of recordings, released as a single package on gramophone record, cassette, compact disc, or via digital distribution. The word derives from the Latin word for list .Vinyl LP records have two sides, each comprising one half of the album...
. Papathanassiou and Roussos had already been successful in Greece
Greece
Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....
(playing in the bands Formynx and Idols respectively) while they got together with Sideras and Koulouris to form a new band. Their first recording
Sound recording and reproduction
Sound recording and reproduction is an electrical or mechanical inscription and re-creation of sound waves, such as spoken voice, singing, instrumental music, or sound effects. The two main classes of sound recording technology are analog recording and digital recording...
as a band was for George Romanos' album In Concert and in Studio where they played on four songs and were credited as 'Vangelis and his Orchestra'. In the same year they recorded a two song demo
Demo (music)
A demo version or demo of a song is one recorded for reference rather than for release. A demo is a way for a musician to approximate their ideas on tape or disc, and provide an example of those ideas to record labels, producers or other artists...
and submitted it to Philips Records
Philips Records
Philips Records is a record label that was founded by Dutch electronics company Philips. It was started by "Philips Phonographische Industrie" in 1950. Recordings were made with popular artists of various nationalities and also with classical artists from Germany, France and Holland. Philips also...
.
History
It was probably Vangelis' idea that the still-anonymous band should be relocated in LondonLondon
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
which would be a more suitable environment for their music. This decision, however, was not problem-free. Koulouris had to stay in Greece to fulfill his military service while the band, on their way to London, got stuck in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
partially because they did not have the correct work permits and partially because of the strikes associated with the May 1968 events.
In Paris they signed to Mercury Records
Mercury Records
Mercury Records is a record label operating as a standalone company in the UK and as part of the Island Def Jam Motown Music Group in the US; both are subsidiaries of Universal Music Group. There is also a Mercury Records in Australia, which is a local artist and repertoire division of Universal...
, christened "Aphrodite's Child" and released their first single "Rain and Tears", a reworking of Pachelbel's Canon in D major. With this song the band became an overnight sensation in France and several other European countries in which the single charted well, despite the song being sung in English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
and not French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
. It sold over one million copies, and was awarded a gold disc
Music recording sales certification
Music recording sales certification is a system of certifying that a music recording has shipped or sold a certain number of copies, where the threshold quantity varies by type and by nation or territory .Almost all countries follow variations of the RIAA certification categories,...
. In October of the same year, the band released their first album End of the World
End of the World (album)
End of the World is a 1968 album by Greek Progressive rock band Aphrodite's Child.-Track listing:#"End of the World" – 3:11#"Don't Try to Catch a River" – 3:37...
. The album contained an equal amount of psychedelic pop
Psychedelic pop
Psychedelic pop is a psychedelic musical style inspired by the sounds of psychedelic folk and psychedelic rock, but applied to a pop music setting...
songs and ballads in the vein of Procol Harum
Procol Harum
Procol Harum are a British rock band, formed in 1967, which contributed to the development of progressive rock, and by extension, symphonic rock. Their best-known recording is their 1967 single "A Whiter Shade of Pale"...
or The Moody Blues
The Moody Blues
The Moody Blues are an English rock band. Among their innovations was a fusion with classical music, most notably in their 1967 album Days of Future Passed....
.
The band began touring around Europe, and in January 1969 they recorded a single in Italian
Italian language
Italian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...
for the Sanremo Festival, in which they did not participate. Their next hit single
Hit single
A hit single is a recorded song or instrumental released as a single that has become very popular. Although it is sometimes used to describe any widely-played or big-selling song, the term "hit" is usually reserved for a single that has appeared in an official music chart through repeated radio...
was "I Want to Live", an arrangement
Arrangement
The American Federation of Musicians defines arranging as "the art of preparing and adapting an already written composition for presentation in other than its original form. An arrangement may include reharmonization, paraphrasing, and/or development of a composition, so that it fully represents...
of the song "Plaisir d'amour
Plaisir d'Amour
"Plaisir d'amour" is a classical French love song written in 1780 by Jean Paul Égide Martini . Hector Berlioz arranged it for orchestra...
". For their second album, the band travelled to London to record at the Trident Studios
Trident Studios
Trident Studios was a British recording facility, originally located at 17 St. Anne's Court in London's Soho district. It was constructed in 1967 by Norman Sheffield a drummer of former 1960's group The Hunters and his Brother Barry....
. The first single from the album, "Let Me Love, Let Me Live" was released in November, while the album It's Five O'Clock
It's Five O'Clock
It's Five O'Clock is a 1969 album by Greek Progressive rock band Aphrodite's Child.-Track listing:#It's Five O'Clock - 3:31 #Wake Up - 4:04...
came out in January 1970. It featured more successful ballads (like the title song), but also songs that crossed many musical genres including country rock
Country rock
Country rock is sub-genre of popular music, formed from the fusion of rock with country. The term is generally used to refer to the wave of rock musicians who began to record country-flavored records in the late 1960s and early 1970s, beginning with Bob Dylan and The Byrds; reaching its greatest...
.
After their second album, the band begun touring again, this time without Vangelis who preferred to stay in Paris and record the music for Henry Chapier's soft porn film
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
, Sex Power. Vangelis was replaced on stage with Harris Chalkitis. The year 1970 went by with the band promoting their latest album and Vangelis working on his first film project. To keep the steady flow of hits, the band released another single in August 1970, "Spring, Summer, Winter and Fall".
666
Main article 666The band began to record their next outpouring late in 1970: a musical adaptation of the biblical
Bible
The Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...
Book of Revelation
Book of Revelation
The Book of Revelation is the final book of the New Testament. The title came into usage from the first word of the book in Koine Greek: apokalupsis, meaning "unveiling" or "revelation"...
, entitled 666. Koulouris, having finished his Greek army duty rejoined the band. However, relations between all the band members were not good at the time, and continued to worsen during the album's creation.
Essentially, 666 was Vangelis' concept, created with an outside lyricist, Costas Ferris. The music that Vangelis was creating for 666 was much more psychedelic
Psychedelic
The term psychedelic is derived from the Greek words ψυχή and δηλοῦν , translating to "soul-manifesting". A psychedelic experience is characterized by the striking perception of aspects of one's mind previously unknown, or by the creative exuberance of the mind liberated from its ostensibly...
and progressive rock
Progressive rock
Progressive rock is a subgenre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s as part of a "mostly British attempt to elevate rock music to new levels of artistic credibility." John Covach, in Contemporary Music Review, says that many thought it would not just "succeed the pop of...
oriented than anything the band had done before. This did not sit well with the other band members, who wished to continue in the pop direction that had brought them success. Furthermore, Roussos was being groomed for a solo career, and recorded his first solo single We Shall Dance (with Sideras on drums), and his first solo album On the Greek Side of My Mind, whereas Vangelis recorded the score for L'Apocalypse des animaux
L'Apocalypse des Animaux (album)
L'Apocalypse des animaux is a soundtrack album by Greek composer Vangelis. The album's music accompanied a documentary series about the animal kingdom directed by Frédéric Rossif that was first broadcasted on French TV in 1970.-Track listing:...
and worked on a single with his girlfriend Vilma Ladopoulou, performing with Koulouris using the pseudonym 'Alpha Beta'.
By the time the double album
Double album
A double album is an audio album which spans two units of the primary medium in which it is sold, typically records and compact discs....
666 finally was released in June 1972, and having sold over 20 million albums, the band had already split. Both Vangelis and Roussos pursued successful solo careers, Roussos as a pop singer and Vangelis first in electronic music, then in movie soundtracks
Film score
A film score is original music written specifically to accompany a film, forming part of the film's soundtrack, which also usually includes dialogue and sound effects...
, which made him a successful film score composer of the 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s, having penned such titles as 1982's Ridley Scott
Ridley Scott
Sir Ridley Scott is an English film director and producer. His most famous films include The Duellists , Alien , Blade Runner , Legend , Thelma & Louise , G. I...
's Blade Runner
Blade Runner
Blade Runner is a 1982 American science fiction film directed by Ridley Scott and starring Harrison Ford, Rutger Hauer, and Sean Young. The screenplay, written by Hampton Fancher and David Peoples, is loosely based on the novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K...
and 2004's Oliver Stone
Oliver Stone
William Oliver Stone is an American film director, producer and screenwriter. Stone became well known in the late 1980s and the early 1990s for directing a series of films about the Vietnam War, for which he had previously participated as an infantry soldier. His work frequently focuses on...
's Alexander
Alexander
Alexander is a common male first name, and less common surname. The most famous is Alexander the Great, the King of Macedon who created one of the largest empires in ancient history.- Origin :...
among many others. Koulouris worked with both on occasion. Sideras pursued a less successful solo career, releasing an album and the single Rising Sun after the break-up then disappearing into obscurity.
Albums
- End of the WorldEnd of the World (album)End of the World is a 1968 album by Greek Progressive rock band Aphrodite's Child.-Track listing:#"End of the World" – 3:11#"Don't Try to Catch a River" – 3:37...
(February 1968) - It's Five O'ClockIt's Five O'ClockIt's Five O'Clock is a 1969 album by Greek Progressive rock band Aphrodite's Child.-Track listing:#It's Five O'Clock - 3:31 #Wake Up - 4:04...
(December 1969) - 666 (June 1972)
Singles
- "Plastics Nevermore" / "The Other People" (1968)
- "Rain and Tears" / "Don't Try to Catch a River" (1968) (ITItalyItaly , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
#1, UKUK Singles ChartThe UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record-industry. The full chart contains the top selling 200 singles in the United Kingdom based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 ...
#29) - "End of the World" / "You Always Stand in My Way" (1969) (IT #8)
- "Valley of Sadness" / "Mister Thomas" (1969)
- "Lontano dagli occhi" / "Quando l'amore diventa poesia" (1969)
- "I Want to Live" / "Magic Mirror" (1969) (IT #5)
- "Let Me Love, Let Me Live" / "Marie Jolie" (1969) (IT #20)
- "It's Five O'clock" / "Wake Up" (1970) (IT #1)
- "Spring, Summer, Winter and Fall" / "Air" (1970) (IT #1)
- "Such a Funny Night" / "Annabella" (1970)
- "Break" / "Babylon" (1972)
Compilation albums
- Best of Aphrodite's Child (1980)
- Aphrodite's Child's Greatest Hits (1995)
- The Singles (1995)
- The Complete Collection (Aphrodite's Child) (1996)
- Babylon the Great (2002)
- The Singles+ (2003)