Aphrodite's Child

a look at the music of Vangelis Papathanassiou

Introduction
Apart from the regular albums "End of the world", "It's five o'clock" and "666" there are many other interesting issues related to Aphrodite's Child. This page provides a selection of the most interesting of these issues, ranging from compilation albums to a poster and video clips...

Compilation albums

LP
Worldwide an impressive number of compilation albums have been released on vinyl. Several are interesting as they usually contain unique photographs of the group, but there's just too many to list here. But there is one that is pretty essential though, from Italy comes a special LP with booklet containing many unique photos:

Aphrodite's Child - Superstar  Armando Curcio Editore SU-1032 Italy

CD
The best and most complete compilation album on CD is a double-cd set released by BR Music 2, obvious but misleadingly titled "The complete collection". But don't be fooled by the name, although it features all the music from the first two albums and the non-album singles, it still lacks parts of the last album, "666". So get this one and a copy of "666", and you're almost done!

1996 The complete collection Mercury 534 073-2 Germany

Another essential compilation album was released in 2002, this one exploring the lesser known songs of the group, including several B-sides. And as a bonus includes an until then unreleased track titled "Chackachack" (or is it "Chakachak"?), an early instrumental improvisation by Vangelis.

2002 Babylon The Great  Mercury 586 870-2 Europe

 

Singles
Aphrodite's Child first single contains their first two songs together, which were also used as a demo for Philips:

1968 Plastics nevermore / The other people Philips 40536 USA

In-between albums Aphrodite's Child released a couple of singles, mostly to keep a steady flow of hits while they worked on the next album and toured Europe.

1969 Lontano dagli occhi / Quando l'amore diventa poesia  Mercury 133 250 MCF Italy/Turkey/Lebanon
1969 Lontano dagli occhi / Quando l'amore diventa poesia  Mercury 4126 Greece

1969 I want to live / Magic Mirror  Mercury 132 505 MCF France/Belgium/Holland/West-Germany/Spain/Italy/Canada/Norway/Turkey/Lebanon
1969 I want to live / Magic Mirror  Mercury 4128 Greece
1969 I want to live / Magic Mirror  Philips SFL-1243 Japan
1969 I want to live / Magic Mirror  Polydor 56769 United Kingdom
1969 I want to live / The grass is no green / Magic Mirror Mercury 26010 Portugal (EP)

1970 Spring, summer, winter and fall / Air  Mercury 6033003 West-Germany/France/Portugal/Angola/Greece/Turkey/Italy/Spain/Lebanon/Brazil
1970 Spring, summer, winter and fall / Air  Mercury 9004 Venezuela
1972 Spring, summer, winter and fall / It's five o'clock / End of the world  Mercury 6234004 Portugal (EP)
1972 Rain and Tears / Spring, summer, winter and fall / Such a funny night / Marie Jolie  Mercury 6234003 Brazil (EP)

Single-reissues

1978 It's five o'clock / I want to live Philips 6060320 Belgium (Golden Oldies)

1978 Rain and tears / Spring, summer, winter and fall  Philips 6060321 Belgium (Golden Oldies)
1978 Rain and tears / Spring, summer, winter and fall  Philips 811 053-7 West-Germany (Legendary Oldies)
1978 Rain and tears / I want to live  Mercury 6173691 France
1978 Rain and tears / Don't try to catch a river  Mercury 6033013 France/Ireland (Original Hits)

Annabella / Spring, Summer, Winter and Fall Dimension Records DI-5001 Turkey

 

CD-single

1994 Rain and tears  Philips 1885 France (promotional)

 

Poster

Rain and tears

 

Video clips
Thanks to Demis Roussos' fan and collector Bert van Breda and his production company BR Music, most of the Aphrodite's Child video clips have now been released on DVD!

In 2000 a special DVD about Demis Roussos was released, The Phenomenon, which also includes the following four video clips by Aphrodite's Child:

bulletRain and tears (promo film May 1968)
bulletI want to live (TV-show SMET May 1969)
bulletIt's five o'clock (Sacha Distel show October 1969)
bulletSpring, summer, winter and fall (promo film June 1970)

From 2002 BR Music released a series of DVD's with early video clips titled "Remember the 60's" and "Remember the 70's". Several of the issued DVD's contain more of Aphrodite's Child video clips, each one different from any of the clips included on the Demis Roussos Phenomenon DVD. 

Remember the 60's vol.1

bulletMarie Jolie

Remember the 60's vol.2

bulletRain and tears
bulletI want to live

Remember the 60's vol.4

bulletEnd of the world

Remember the 70's vol.2

bulletIt's five o'clock

  More recently BR Music also released a Demis Roussos book "The Singles", as well as a Demis Roussos "Greatest Hits" DVD. Both contain previously unreleased material of Aphrodite's Child

Home
Movements