Misirlou

"Miserlou"
Single by Dick Dale
from the album Surfers' Choice
B-side	"Eight Till Midnight"
Released	April, 1962
Format	7"
Genre	Instrumental rock, surf rock
Length	2:15
Label	Deltone Records
Writer(s)	Nick Roubanis, Fred Wise, Milton Leeds, Bob Russell

"Misirlou" (Greek: Μισιρλού< Turkish: Mısırlı 'Egyptian' < Arabic: مصر‎‎ Miṣr 'Egypt') is a traditional song from the Eastern Mediterranean region. The earliest known recording of the song is a 1927 Greek rebetiko composition influenced by Middle-Eastern music. Some people incorrectly believe that the earliest was a song by the legendary Egyptian composer Sayyed Darwish titled "Bint Misr" and sometimes written as "El-Masreya" (both of which mean "Egyptian girl" in Arabic); however, the Darwish song sounds nothing like the song "Misirlou". There are also traditional Arabic (belly dancing), Jewish (klezmer), Armenian, Persian and Turkish versions of the song.

The song was a hit in 1946 for Jan August, an American pianist and xylophonist nicknamed "the one man piano duet." It gained worldwide popularity through Dick Dale's 1962 American surf rock version, originally titled "Miserlou", which popularized the song in Western popular culture. Various versions have since been recorded, including other surf and rock versions by bands such as The Beach Boys, The Ventures, and Consider the Source as well as international orchestral easy listening (exotica) versions by musicians such as Martin Denny and Arthur Lyman. Dale's surf rock version later gained renewed popularity through its use in the 1994 Quentin Tarantino film Pulp Fiction and again through its sampling in The Black Eyed Peas song "Pump It" (2006) and Mad Men: "The Jet Set" (2008). A cover of Dale's surf rock version was included on the Guitar Hero II video game released in 2006.

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Wikipedia