"Never on Sunday", also known by its original Greek title "Ta Pediá tou Pireá" ("Τα Παιδιά του Πειραιά", The Children of Piraeus), is a popular song written by
Manos Hatzidakis[1] and first sung by
Melina Mercouri in the film of the
same name, directed by
Jules Dassin and starring Mercouri.[1] The song won the
Academy Award for Best Original Song in 1960, a first for a foreign-language picture.[3] The
film score was first released on 1 October 1960 by
United Artists Records.[2] The song has since been recorded by numerous artists, and has gained various degrees of success throughout the world. The opening of the song bears some resemblance to that of
Poinciana.[citation needed]
Background
"Never on Sunday" was written by Manos Hadjidakis as "Ta Pedia tou Pirea" (The Children of Piraeus). His original Greek lyrics, along with the foreign translations in German, French, Italian and Spanish do not mention "Never on Sunday" (as found in the English lyrics), but rather tell the story of the main female character of the film, Illya (Mercouri).[citation needed] Illya is a jolly woman who sings of her joyful life in her port town of
Piraeus ("If I search the world over/I'll find no other port/Which has the magic/Of my Port Piraeus").[citation needed] Although she earns her money as a prostitute, she longs to meet a man someday who is just as full of joie de vivre as she is herself.[citation needed]
In 1960, the song won the
Academy Award for Best Original Song, a first for a foreign-language picture since the Academy began to recognize achievements in this category in 1934.[3]
Recordings
The song has been recorded in a number of languages since its release:
In the United Kingdom, there were five versions in the
UK Singles Chart. They were Don Costa, reached number 27;
Chaquito (actually Johnny Gregory), reached number 50;
Lynn Cornell with the only vocal version in the UK chart, reached number 30; Makadopulos and his Greek Serenaders, reached number 36; and Manuel and his Music of The Mountains (actually
Geoff Love), which peaked at number 29.[7]
German:
Lale Andersen scored a number one hit in 1960 with the German-language version of the song titled "Ein Schiff wird kommen".[8] It was also covered by
Dalida,
Caterina Valente,
Lys Assia,
Nana Mouskouri, Helmuth Brandenburg and Melina Mercouri. In 1982 the
Neue Deutsche Welle band Der Moderne Man recorded a
gay themed
new wave version named "Blaue Matrosen" with the same German lyrics of Lale Andersen's version, but sung by a man.[9]
Dutch (as "Nooit op zondag") by
Mieke Telkamp, based on the melody.
Mandarin (as "別在星期天") by
Teresa Teng (
鄧麗君). The title translates as "Never on Sunday". It was additionally covered by Rebecca Pan (潘迪華) in 1961 and Ouyang Fei Fei (歐陽菲菲) in 1968.
Portuguese (as "As crianças do Pireu") by Paula Ribas.
Hindi (as "जाने न जाने") by
Usha Uthup on the album "Dekha Dekhi"
Finnish (as "Ei koskaan sunnuntaisin") by Four Cats, Vieno Kekkonen and Kaarina Heikkinen among others.
Sinhala (as "රෑට කමු අපි වම්බොටු") by Chandu de Silva (a.k.a. Jolly Seeya).
Hebrew (as "ומה נשאר לי", that is, "And What Do I Have Left?") by the Givatron.
Swedish (as "Aldrig på en söndag") by Ann-Louise Hanson and Siw Malmkvist.
Danish (as "Aldrig Om Søndagen") by Grethe Ingmann.
Catalan (as "Els minyons del Pireu") by José Guardiola (1960), and (as "Els nens del Pireu") by Ara va de bo.
In 1962,
Chubby Checker released an uptempo version of the song with slightly altered English lyrics ("You can twist it" rather than "You can kiss me" and "You can shake it on a Friday ..." instead of "A Thursday, a Friday ..."). Checker's recording also included a single verse in Greek.[10]