Also, non of these was a commercial success. Interestingly, all those LPs were released in periods when he was "written off" the show biz - in 1971 his label wasn't convinced that he would be able to make a solo career and to repeat the success of Aphrodite's Child, so only gave him a chance because they didn't have an AC album ready for release that year in 1982 he was already pretty much a "has been" and just fulfilled contractual obligations and by 2009 he was completely out of the game, with his last recording made 10 years prior and performing nostalgia shows mainly in Russia and Middle East. There are maybe only 3 albums (the German ones from the 70’s) where he appeared simply as a singer, and everything else was done under the control of the producer/song writer Leo Leandros.Īccording to interviews, he was most proud (artistically) about the following albums: his first (“On the Greek side of my mind” from 1971), “Attitudes” from 1982, and his last studio LP “Demis” from 2009. Of course only die hard fan could enjoy all the songs and albums in this set, but I think that anyone who's interested in pop/rock music will not regret having this box - there's a lot brilliant and very interesting and unusual stuff, and it's also a piece of history.Ĭlick to expand.The man was definitely an omnivore, and not only in musical termsįrom what I know, in general he was very active and engaged with his studio recordings (he produced all his biggest selling albums from the 70’s), he was very involved with the arrangements and overall sound production, and was always present even during the mixing and mastering stage. Another interesting fact is that on many of the albums he worked with Vangelis and other Aphrodite's Child members, and also collaborated with other excellent musicians and producers.
His voice is also very different in each style and period - in some recordings he even sounds a bit like Rod Stewart or Joe Cocker. The material is extremely diverse - psychedelic and prog-rock, ethno-pop, French chansons, German schlagers, real 70's American disco, 80's euro-disco and euro-pop, funk, reggae, latin music, classic adult contemporary pop, new age/world music, operatic arias, techno and synth-pop, krautrock, Christmas carols, country, vintage soul rock.
For most of the people Demis Roussos is just fat bearded caftan wearing king of 70's kitsch, singing "Forever and ever"in female voice, but this image and style covers just about 5 years of his nearly 50 years international career, and you will find in this box some real gems. There are 31 original albums included plus many bonus tracks (some 400 songs). This box contains (almost) all his solo output, but have in mind that there are not any Aphrodite's Child recordings in it.
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