The song has been recorded in a number of languages since its release: • Greek (as "Τα Παιδιά του Πειραιά") by
Melina Mercouri,
Nana Mouskouri and
Pink Martini.
Andy Williams also sung the song in Greek (as "Never On Sunday from the Jules Dassin Picture") on his 1962 album
Moon River and Other Great Movie Themes. • English: An orchestral version recorded by
Don Costa reached number 19 on the
Billboard Hot 100 in 1960, then returned to the
Billboard Top 40 when reissued in 1961. His version also peaked at #13 in
Canada and #27 in the
UK Singles Chart. Following the success of the orchestral version as well as the Oscar win, an
English language version of the song was commissioned to be written especially to match the title of the film. The lyrics to the English version of the song were written by Billy Towne. A vocal of the song by
The Chordettes reached number 13 on the
Billboard Hot 100 and number 16 on the
Canadian charts in 1961, making it their final Top 40 hit in North America. It was also recorded by
Billy Eckstine,
Bing Crosby,
Lena Horne,
Doris Day,
Trini Lopez,
The 4 Seasons,
Connie Francis,
Julie London,
Eartha Kitt,
Petula Clark,
Lale Andersen,
Ann-Margret, and
the New Christy Minstrels, plus as an instrumental by
Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass and
James Last.
The Ventures released a version on their 1963
Dolton album
The Ventures Play Telstar and the Lonely Bull, as did
The Baskerville Hounds on their 1967
Dot Records album
The Baskerville Hounds – Featuring Space Rock, Part 2. • In the United Kingdom, there were five versions in the
UK 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 (actually
Geoff Love), which peaked at number 29. • Italian (as "Uno a te, uno a me") by
Dalida,
Milva,
Nilla Pizzi, and Isabella Fedeli. • French (as "
Les enfants du Pirée") by
Dalida,
Melina Mercouri and
Darío Moreno. Dalida's French version of this song topped the
French singles chart in 1960. • Spanish (as "Los niños del Pireo") by
Dalida; there is also "Nunca en Domingo" by
Xiomara Alfaro. • German:
Lale Andersen scored a number one hit in 1960 with a German-language version, "Ein Schiff wird kommen". It was also covered by
Dalida,
Caterina Valente,
Lys Assia,
Nana Mouskouri, Helmuth Brandenburg and Melina Mercouri. In 1982 the
Neue Deutsche Welle band Der Moderne Man recorded a
gay themed
new wave version named "Blaue Matrosen" with the same German lyrics of Lale Andersen's version, but sung by a man. • Dutch (as "Nooit op zondag") by
Mieke Telkamp, based on the melody. • Yiddish (as "Nisht oyf zintuk") by
The Barry Sisters. • Polish (as "Dzieci Pireusu") by Maria Koterbska and duo of actors
Hanna Śleszyńska & Jacek Wójcicki. • Czech (as "Děti z Pirea", 1962) by Milan Chladil & Yvetta Simonová. • Serbian (as "Деца Пиреја") by Lola Novaković and Ljiljana Petrović. • Croatian (as "Nikad nedjeljom") by Ksenia Prohaska. • Slovenian (as "Otroci Pireja") by Helena Blagne. • Cantonese (as "兩仔爺") by
Cheng Gwan-min (
鄭君綿),
Tang Kee-chan (
鄧寄塵) and Cheng Pik Ying (
鄭碧影) in 1962. Another cover version was sung by
Andy Lau (
劉德華),
Anita Mui (
梅艷芳),
Sandra Ng (
吳君如),
Ronald Cheng (
鄭中基),
Gordon Lam (
林家棟), Suzanne Chung (鍾依澄),
Cherrie Ying (
應采兒), and
Lam Chi-chung (
林子聰) in the 2001 film
Dance of a Dream (
愛君如夢). The song title roughly translates to "Father and Son". • Mandarin (as "別在星期天") by
Teresa 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") by
Usha 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 eat
eggplants for dinner") by Chandu de Silva (a.k.a. Jolly Seeya). • Hebrew (as "ומה נשאר לי", translates to "And What Do I Have Left?") by
Givatron. • 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.
Other appearances • 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. • The song was featured in the 2005 film
Munich. •
James Hill, a Canadian
ukulele player, recorded a version of the song on ukulele for his album
A Flying Leap. •
Nia Vardalos sang a snippet of the
Greek version in the 2009 film
My Life in Ruins. •
Los Umbrellos, a
Danish musical group, used it as a base for their 1998
signature song "
No Tengo Dinero". • The song was sung in an episode of
The Muppet Show by
Miss Piggy and Greek pig characters, complete with smashing plates. • Egyptian guitarist
Omar Khorshid recorded an instrumental version of the song. • Hartford Stage artistic director
Darko Tresnjak chose the song to open his production of
The Comedy of Errors by
William Shakespeare. • It appears in the film
Beautiful Girls; however it is not on the soundtrack. This version was performed by Bernie Wyte and his Orchestra. • The song also can be heard in the 1999
Kevin Smith film
Dogma during one scene (specifically, the version by
The Chordettes). • The version by
The Chordettes is also heard during the barbecue scene in
The Wonder Years episode "How I'm Spending My Summer Vacation". • Denise Keene covered the song in 1965. ==References==