"Never on Sunday" was written by Manos Hatzidakis 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). Illya is a jolly woman who sings of her joyful life in her port town ofPiraeus ("If I search the world over/I'll find no other port/Which has the magic/Of my Port Piraeus"). Although she earns her money as a prostitute, she longs to meet a man someday who is just as full ofjoie de vivre as she is herself.
In 1960, the song won theAcademy 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]
In the United Kingdom, there were five versions in theUK 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 (actuallyGeoff Love), which peaked at number 29.[9]
Spanish (as "Los niños del Pireo") byDalida; there is also "Nunca en Domingo" byXiomara Alfaro.
German:Lale Andersen scored a number one hit in 1960 with a German-language version, "Ein Schiff wird kommen".[10] It was also covered byDalida,Caterina Valente,Lys Assia,Nana Mouskouri, Helmuth Brandenburg and Melina Mercouri. In 1982 theNeue Deutsche Welle band Der Moderne Man recorded agay themednew wave version named "Blaue Matrosen" with the same German lyrics of Lale Andersen's version, but sung by a man.[11]
Dutch (as "Nooit op zondag") byMieke Telkamp, based on the melody.
Mandarin (as "別在星期天") byTeresa 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") byUsha 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 වම්බටු", translates to "Let's eateggplants for dinner") by Chandu de Silva (a.k.a. Jolly Seeya).
Hebrew (as "ומה נשאר לי", translates to "And What Do I Have Left?") byGivatron.
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); there is also "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.[12]
