Various Artists | DANCE (Greece, 1969)

Listen to Popi Asteriadi's "In Filopappou"

Listen to Nelly Manou's "Crazy Girl"

Listen to Bodega Pop Live's three-hour Greek pop program, Highway to Hellas! 

Get the 14-track album here

I found this lavishly compelling late-sixties Greek garage-pop album a couple of weeks ago in the $3 bin at the Greek Music and Video Superstore (23-33 31st Street, Astoria). I'd gone from my apartment on the LIC-Astoria border up into Astoria proper to meet my cousin Takashi (technically my cousin Rebecca's son) for lunch at BZ Grill before he headed out for a gig in Iceland.

We'd scheduled lunch on the late side, which allowed me to more than simply "pop in" to the Superstore. Honestly? I gave myself a full hour to scrape my way through the store's numerous cheapo bins (because, God forbid I miss anything, right?). When I saw the cover of today's offering, I fell in love.

"What can you tell me about this CD?" I asked the woman behind the counter. (I held back the urge to blurt out, "BECAUSE IT'S GREEK TO ME." Good going, me!) She took it from my hands, turning it over once or twice, squinting at it. I was expecting, given the Aubrey Beardsleyesque cover, that it might be Greek showtunes or something along those lines. "It's kind of ... popular music ... sixties."

"Real sixties?" I asked, having no clue what I meant by that.

"Yes," she affirmed. 

It turns out, she was right.