If you'd ever heard Euro-pop singer and former Aphrodite's Child vocalist, Demis Roussos sing, you'd know his beautiful voice WAS aural sunlight; it figures then, I learned of his death during yesterday's unrepentant, dead of winter sunshine. Most folks, if they knew him, prolly recognize him as a bearded crooner who sang the very '70s and very easy UK Top 10, "Forever and Ever." Me, however, as a graying long-hair fan of Aphrodite's Child, never followed up on Roussos's pop recordings; a sin of sike snobbery on my part, because his voice was undeniably beautiful, no matter what he sang. Seriously, even his disco jams kill!

Born in Egypt, Roussos became interested in playing beat music after his family moved to Athens. Eventually, he hooked up with Evangelos Papathanassiou (soon known as Vangelis), Anargyros Koulouris and drummer Loukas Sideras, and they formed Aphrodite's Child. The group had no success in the US, but they hit big in Europe. In all, they made a handful of great 45s and three albums: End Of the World, It's Five O'Clock, and 666.

Their final album, 666, was a concept piece - an expansive, lysergic-acid-laced progressive book of "hymns" based on the text from the Apocalypse of John 13-18. 666 is an affecting work, and tho' perhaps more of a Vangelis album, as the band was splitting while the recordings were happening, without Roussos's voice the power of this album would have been diminished. Of course, without his voice, a perfect meeting of Yes' breathy Jon Anderson with the soulful strength of Terry Reid, all their recordings would'a been diminished! Sadly, the album was released a couple years after it was recorded, and after the group had split; I can only dream it was played live at least once. After Aphodite's Child broke up, Roussos went on to several decades of solo success.