"Pump it" by Black Eyed Peas

Today I want to surprise you again with a Greek invention you maybe did not know was Greek.
To be exact I want to talk about a nice Greek song which is the origin for two American “hits”.
I think a lot of you know the song of the Black Eyed Peas “Pump it” created in the year 2006 and those who were interested in its origins might know as well that it is a cover of the nice surf rock song “Misirlou”.

This song was composed by Dick Dale in the year 1962 and was as well the theme song of the movie Pulp Fiction.
And for sure a lot of you would also say that both songs have a nice beat, I remember that my mother was always dancing with all her heart while hearing the “Misirlou” of Dick Dale.
But how many of you knew that both of them are covers of the original “Misirlou”, a Greek folk song?
Would you believe me if I told you that the origin of those two kind of fast songs is a slow song with an Asian rhythm?
The song is categorized in the genre of Rebetiko. The Rebetika were created by the Greek refugees from Turkey during the Greco-Turkish War (1919–22).
Rebetika briefly are the songs of the Greeks in the urban area from the late 19th century to the 1950s, but especially those of the poorest class.
Misirlou translates into something like Egyptian Muslim girl and the song shows of the love of its author for this woman.
The first performance of the song counts back to the year 1927 in Athens by Michali Patrino and his Rebetiko group.
They were not the authors of the song, as he is unknown, but the first ones who performed it. However, the origins are for sure in the Mediterranean region.
So what do you believe, did Dick Dale really cover a Greek song of 1927? Or maybe he invented it all on his own? Or maybe the roots are somewhere entirely else?




Solution:

Everything I told you was the truth but I forgot to tell you about the real roots of the song. The Greek Rebetiko song “Misirlou” is most likely a cover version of the Egyptian song titled “Bint Misr” (Egyptian Girl or Girl of Egypt) composed by Sayyed Darwish (1892-1923) and released on record in 1919 on the Mechian label. But it is true that the song was firstly performed by Michalis Patrinos Rebetiko band in Athens in 1927.

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