After Connie Francis died last week, one of the songs that kept getting mentioned is Never on Sunday, thanks to the number of replays it received for decades on All India Radio through programmes like Musical Bandbox.
But that’s not the original. Greek composer Manos Hadjidakis won an Academy Award for Best Original Song in 1960 for his lively music in the title track of the film Never on Sunday. Self-taught, he drew heavily on Greece’s folk music for popular songs.
The film attracted the ire of critics. The comic romance involves an American tourist (Jules Dassin) who sets out to reform the free-spirited prostitute Ilya (Melina Mercouri). The New York Times called the film “droll and robust spoof”.
The song, known as Children of Piraeus (Ta Pedia tou Pirea), became an instant hit. It is remembered for Mercouri’s raspy voice, and in the film, her candour and magnetic presence couldn’t be ignored. She plays an independent woman who lives in her own apartment.
Hadjidakis also scored the film America, America by Elia Kazan and another Dassin film, Topkapi. He was also the director of Greece’s state radio channel from 1975 to 1982.
