Greek singer and songwriter Christos Dantis has revealed that his hit song "Palio mou palto" was originally written for singer Vasilis Karras, who turned it down before Dantis recorded it himself and made it a success.
Dantis shared the story in a conversation with Rospy and Stelios Droumalias on the vidcast "Stage Stories," discussing songs, collaborations and moments that shaped different periods of his musical career.
He said "Palio mou palto" was written by Lakis Papadopoulos and Sunny Baltzi and was intended for Karras, who declined it and suggested the songwriters find someone else suited to the kind of lyrics he preferred to sing.
How Dantis found the song
Dantis said he learned of the song through Katerina Papadopoulou, the wife of songwriter Lakis Papadopoulos, who urged him to track down her husband and listen to it. According to Dantis, Papadopoulos had written the song years earlier, kept it on a cassette and left it aside, saying he did not know what to do with it. Dantis said he had to search through Papadopoulos's cassettes to find it.
Once he heard it, Dantis decided to record it as a demo, changing the arrangement before sending his version to Papadopoulos. The response was not what he expected: Papadopoulos said he liked how Dantis sang it but did not want to release the song, offering instead two other tracks Dantis had liked.
Dantis said he did not give up, calling Papadopoulos again two days later and claiming, jokingly, that he was in hospital with stomach pain caused by his distress over not being able to sing the song. He said Papadopoulos, moved by the story, finally agreed to let him release it.
A test album the label disliked
Dantis also described the origins of his album "Daktylika Apotypomata," released in July 1990, which he said was originally meant as a test project so the record label would not drop him. He worked on it with Giannis Karalis, while Giannis Doulamis oversaw production. The pair wrote ten songs for the album, but Dantis said the label did not like it at all.
According to Dantis, the label's opinion changed after release, as the title track spread quickly and became one of the songs of that summer. He said the label later admitted it had misjudged the record, noting that within twenty days nothing else was heard that summer except that song. Dantis added that he would be lying if he did not mention that singer Bigalis's "Rina Katerina" was also popular that same summer, and that the two songs dominated the season together, calling it a stroke of luck that helped him.
A song rejected by ten singers
Dantis explained that he usually writes songs with a specific voice in mind, even if that performer ultimately does not record it. He cited "Kouventa stin kouventa" as an example, a song he had written for another singer that was rejected by ten different performers before he offered it to Paola. He said that once the proposal for a collaboration with Paola came up, he realized her voice suited what he had written.
The collaboration with Paschalis Terzis that never happened
Dantis also spoke about a collaboration he never managed to complete with singer Paschalis Terzis, despite writing several songs for him, including "Echei ena feggari apopse," "Dikaioma mou," "Kane samata," "Anifora" and "Ta matia kleino." He said Terzis inspired him greatly because his voice was close to that of Stelios Kazantzidis, whom Dantis described as his great love and weakness, and reminiscent of what he called the classic architects of Greek music.
Dantis said he believes a singer who writes songs should not keep them for himself, describing success as a gift. He said giving songs to other performers shows generosity and a lack of fear that they might surpass you, calling it the mark of an open-hearted person rather than a stingy one.
