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EP record "Les Enfants du Pirée and Other Tunes" — Karel Vlach and His Orchestra (Supraphon SUL 33 200)

Audio Recording

A 7-inch, 45 rpm extended-play vinyl record in its illustrated paper picture sleeve, issued by Supraphon, the Czechoslovak state record label. The disc carries four instrumental dance-band arrangements by the Czech bandleader Karel Vlach and his orchestra, all cast as foxtrots: "Dancing in the Dark" (Arthur Schwartz), "I Got It Bad" (Duke Ellington), "Les Enfants du Pirée" (Manos Hadjidakis, a slow foxtrot), and "Rockin' Chair" (Hoagy Carmichael). The front sleeve pairs a tinted photo of a young woman with a stylized blue rendering of a harbor and moored caïque boats — a visual nod to Piraeus, the Greek port named in the title track. The back lists the program and cross-promotes three other Supraphon releases (Gery Scott with the Brázda/Brom orchestras, SUK 33385; Karel Krautgartner, SUED 1040-M; Karel Vlach, SUH 23291), and is marked "Made in Czechoslovakia" with a copyright caution citing the Czechoslovak Copyright Act of 1953. The disc label shown (B-side, matrix 45/1142) bears the Supraphon lyre-and-lion device, "EP 45," and the BIEM mark. Sleeve toned and edge-worn; disc appears intact.

2025.1.281

Supraphon was the channel through which a great deal of "Western" popular repertoire remained legally available inside the bloc: here, American Songbook standards by Ellington and Carmichael, plus a French-titled Greek film hit, all rendered as ballroom-dance arrangements by a local orchestra and pressed domestically. The title track, "Les Enfants du Pirée," is the French name for the song from the 1960 Greek film Never on Sunday (Pote tin Kyriaki), composed by Manos Hadjidakis, which won an Oscar for its music; it became a major international hit in 1960, which is what brought it into Vlach's program. Karel Vlach (1911–1986) was one of the central figures of Czech dance and jazz music, who recorded prolifically with Supraphon, with output spanning light-orchestral, jazz, and pop big-band arrangements.

33 RPM Record

The Cabrera Arús family collection

Leopoldo Arús Gálvez collection

2025.1

Karel Klach and His Orchestra

Orchestration

Supraphon Music Publishing

circa 1962

Prague

Czechoslovakia

Eastern Europe

Europe

The front cover depicts the face of a young woman standing in front of an illustrated boat. The background is bright blue and the woman has dark brown hair and eyes. The back of the album sleeve lists the four songs on the record above a listing of other Supraphon recordings.

Dancing in the dark

Arthur Schwartz

Composer

I got it bad

Duke Ellington

Composer

Les enfants du pirée

Manos Hadjidakis

Composer

Rockin' chair

Hoagy Carmichael

Composer

18 cm

18 cm

Vinyl, sleeve case

Case

Good

Leopoldo Arús Gálvez

owner

Supraphon Music Publishing

publisher

Karel Vlach

Havana

Cuba

Caribbean

Central America

use

Prague

Czechoslovakia

Eastern Europe

Europe

production

Dating: 45cat records no release date. The song's international success dates to mid-1960, and Supraphon's own recording of Vlach's "Děti z Pirea" carries a ℗ 1962 marking, so the EP is best dated to the early 1960s (c. 1960–1962). Neighboring catalog numbers in Vlach's Supraphon run (SUL 33184, SUL 33451) bracket it consistently with that window.