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The song Miserlou or Misirlou is among the most well known songs of the Greek American community. Whatever its ultimate origins - whether Arabic, Turkish or Greek - it became one of the most beloved songs and dances of second and third generation Greek Americans from which it spread to the rest of the country and then the world, being one of the most internationally recorded popular tunes of the 20th century. First recorded in 1928 by Mikes Patrinos in Athens the first American version was attributed to the Greek immigrant from Egypt, Nick Roubanis. Part of a genre of songs called "Oriental" or "Anatolitiko" they were musically a synthesis of an orientalist "fantasy" of Near East music with often Latin & Hollywood influences. Miserlou is one of the first of this genre which became very popular in Greece in the 1950s with songs such as Zaira, Mandoubala, Serah, Zehra,etc. Here I present both vocal and instrumental versions as recorded in the USA by Greek (& other) Americans.
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