DESCRIPTION:
Greek Music TV Show in Cyprus: ''Σάββατο κι απόβραδο'' --- ''Savato ke apovrado''
The History of the Song:
''Misirlou'' is an old Greek rebetiko song...
Misirlou (Μισιρλού) is the feminine form of Misirlis (Μισιρλής) which comes from the Turkish word Mısırlı, which is formed by combining Mısır ("Egypt" in Turkish, borrowed from Arabic) with the Turkish -lı suffix, literally meaning "Egyptian".
The song was selected by the Athens 2004 Organizing Committee as one of the most influential Greek songs of all time, and was heard in venues and at the closing ceremony -- it was performed by Anna Vissi.

Initially, the song was first played by Michalis Patrinos and his rebetiko band in Athens in 1927. The Lyrics were written by Michalis Patrinos.
The earliest known recording of this song was by the rebetiko musician, Tetos Demetriades, in 1927, in New York.
The earliest known recording of this song by Michalis Patrinos and his rebetiko band was in 1930 in Athens, Greece, which was circulated in the United States by the Orthophonic label.
Another recording was made by Patrinos in New York in 1931.

In 1941, Nick Roubanis, a Greek-American music instructor, released a jazz instrumental arrangement of the song, crediting himself as the composer. Since his claim was never legally challenged, he is still officially credited as the composer today worldwide, except in Greece where credit is variably given to either Roubanis or Patrinos.
Subsequently Bob Russell, Fred Wise and Milton Leeds wrote English lyrics to the song.
Roubanis is also credited with fine-tuning the key and the melody, giving it the Oriental sound that it is associated with today. The song soon became an "exotica" standard among the light swing (lounge) bands of the day.

The song then gained popularity among Middle Eastern audiences through Arabic (belly dancing), Jewish (klezmer), Armenian and Turkish versions
The song's oriental melody has been so popular for so long that many people, from Morocco to Iraq, claim it to be a folk song from their own country. In fact, in the realm of Middle Eastern music, the song is a very simplistic one, since it is little more than going up and down the Hijaz Kar or double harmonic scale.

SOME OTHER VERSIONS OF THE GREEK SONG ''MISIRLOU'' . .

1) In 1943, Miriam Kressyn wrote Yiddish lyrics to the song.
2) In 1944, Lebanese musician Clovis el-Hajj performed this song and called it "Amal". This is the only known Arabic language version of the song to date.

3) The song eventually gained worldwide popularity through Dick Dale's 1962 American surf rock version, which was responsible for popularizing the song in Western popular culture.
During a performance, Dale was bet by a young fan that he could not play a song on only one string of his guitar. Dale's father and uncles were Lebanese-American musicians, and Dale remembered seeing his uncle play "Misirlou" on one string of the oud. He vastly increased the song's tempo to make it into rock and roll. It was Dale's surf rock version that introduced "Misirlou" to a wider audience in the United States

4) The Beach Boys recorded a Dale-inspired "Miserlou" for the 1963 album Surfin' U.S.A., solidifying "Miserlou" as a staple of American pop culture. A wealth of surf and rock bands soon recorded versions of the song, including the Ventures, Astronauts, Surfaris, and Bobby Fuller Four. Hundreds of recordings have been made to date, by artists as diverse as Agent Orange and Connie Francis (1965).

5) "Missirlù" was a 1967 Italian single, sung by Gino (Cudsi) and Dorine.

6) The song was sung by the Turkish singer Zeki Müren in 1971 as "Yaralı Gönül" with lyrics by Suat Sayın, a Turkish singer and composer. .

7) In 1972 Serbian singer Staniša Stošić recorded song Lela Vranjanka with different lyrics, it is most famous version of Misirlou in Serbia.

8) Phil Woods plays a clarinet on Misirlou on the album Into The Woods

9) In 1994, Dale's version of "Miserlou" was used on the soundtrack of the motion picture Pulp Fiction thanks to a suggestion to Quentin Tarantino from his friend Boyd Rice.
10) In March 2005, Q magazine placed Dale's version at number 89 in its list of the 100 Greatest Guitar Tracks.

11) The Russian dobro player Eugene Nemov recorded an instrumental version in Moscow 2006

12) Another version recorded in 2006 by The Black Eyed Peas - ''Pump It''