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| The Charms were one of the top acts in Greece in the mid-1960s. The Popular release is one of their first 45s, if not the very first, featuring two instrumentals, "Charming Hully Gully" and the phenomenal "Shake with Charm", which has a fast, stripped-down rhythm that reminds me of the Monks!
The Charms - Charming Hully Gully Like other bands of the era, by 1966 they stepped away from instrumentals and started singing, but the music still has a jerky instrumental flavor to them on the early Music Box releases. All their early vocals are in English. Their first Music Box 45 has the great garage sound of "See You on Sunday" on the B-side, with Animals-influenced organ chording. The Charms - Mr Goose Their next 45 on Music Box may be even better. "I'm Coming Back (to Stay)" has a repetitive horn riff and a good performance from the group. "The Count Game" is my personal favorite by this band, with a rhythm something like ska led by the organ, a great vocal and nice bluesy guitar fills. The Charms - I'm Coming Back (to Stay) After these releases the band lineup changed and their later output is more pop, and more often sung in Greek, and I've heard very little of it. Their cover of the Animals' "It's My Life" which isn't bad, but definitely lacks the fire of the others. Known as a great live band, they were featured in several movies at the time, but I haven't seen any clips of them performing yet. The Popular 45 has no song writing or production credits. Song writing credits go to Nick Mastorakis and the Charms on Music Box 586, and to Nick Mastorakis, P. Polatos, M. Rozakis on Music Box 606. I assume Nick Mastorakis is the producer. The following list of band members is adapted from an autotranslation of a good list of 60's bands in Greece. Kostas Karydas: Vocals (-1965) Κώστας Καρύδας: Τραγούδι (-1965) |
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The Charms
Submitted by Chas Kit on January 5, 2007 - 3:23pm.
Charms | Greece | Music-Box | Popular
Charms - Mike Rozakis
Submitted by Chas Kit on July 24, 2007 - 6:52pm.
Hi Bart,
Thanks for the info about Mike Rozakis, I can see why that would change the band's direction. I actually haven't heard any of those later Charms records. I've been told they weren't very good - but maybe that's from a garage perspective. I wish there was an English translation of "Get That Beat"!
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The Charms
One reason that the Charms switched to "terrible pop" as you say, after 1966-67, might be that lead singer Mike Rozakis had a tonsillectomy operation around that time* and, as a result, his voice lost that wonderful hoarse quality.
(*) according to the book (in Greek) by Dinos Dimatatis, "Get that beat: Greek rock, 1960s-1970s"