"It it widely acknowledged in Greece by serious music journalists and researchers of the rebetiko that Apostolos Nikolaidis (Απόστολος Νικολαΐδης) (1938-1999) was the artist who first brought back to light the forgotten and outlawed rebetika and sparked new interest in this genre.

Specifically, Nikolaidis was the first singer to re-interpret the illegal rebetika songs in their original lyrics and the first artist to pay homage to the overlooked rebetika composers of the 20s and 30s. He did this chiefly through the release of the album "Otan Kapnizi O Loulas" in early 1973. Nikolaidis recorded and initially released the album in the United States because of the dictatorship's ban of the rebetika and the general ill-feeling towards the genre at the time. This release has sold over three million copies to date and is considered a classic rebetika album in Greece and in Greek-speaking communities around the world. It was smuggled illegally into the Greece until the junta was overthrown in 1974. In fact, George Dalaras came to the U.S. in 1973, met up with Nikolaidis, and bought the first copy of that album from a New York City record shop on the day of its release. Dalaras was one of the many artists to release a rebetika record after Nikolaidis. "

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