Ahmed Sami | Aziz W Younis (Sono Cairo)

 

Born in Cairo in 1929, Ahmed Sami started a career as an electrical engineer before landing a gig singing for Egyptian radio after a performance on Amateur Corner. Although very popular in his time, having recorded some 350 records, he does not seem to have successfully transitioned into the cassette or CD eras. In fact, Discogs includes entries for only six singles and one LP. 

Protest if you must, dear reader, but this LP is this today's Arabic Singles Going Steady entry. We do, in fact, have a number of his actual 7" records, but we are sharing this one instead. Why?

We're justifying our violation of this blog's title (yet again) for a couple of reasons, most significantly that this long-playing record is just one song and is only about 10 minutes per side -- roughly the length of an EP. Secondly, it was never published with a proper, record-specific cover. The cover it came in is a larger version of one of Sono Cairo's many "generic" picture sleeves -- we've got a number of 45s with this same Nile scene in our collection.

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, this is a unique recording. Although it employs at least a small orchestra, including a saxophone, it's a relatively stripped-down recording, unusual for something of this length from Egypt. It appears, too, to be some kind of epic, on the order of Layla and Majnun, but we are not able to find anything about Aziz and Younis. Were they mythical star-crossed lovers? A reference to a real-life couple? Or something else? If you know, reader, or if you're familiar with Samir Yousef Ahmed, who wrote the lyrics for this remarkable song, let all of the rest of us know.

It's an incredible record. Take a listen for yourself.

(Listen to "Aziz W Younis")