Following the pattern of his album duet with
Lena Horne on songs from
Porgy and Bess,
Harry Belafonte teamed up this time with Greek chanteuse
Nana Mouskouri.
Belafonte first performed with
Mouskouri in Burlington, VT in 1964 during his first college tour. As with
Lena Horne,
Belafonte sings only two duets with
Mouskouri; the remaining tunes may as well have been featured on solo albums, because the two singers didn't even share instrumentalists --
Belafonte used his usual stable of musicians, including guitarist
Ernie Calabria, bassist
John Cartwright, and percussionist
Ralph MacDonald, while
Mouskouri was accompanied by bouzouki player
George Petsilas. The songs are sung in Greek with
Mouskouri's naturally coming off as more authentic. Most of the tunes were written by the prolific Greek songwriter
Manos Hadjidakis, writer of "Never on Sunday."