Haralambos Vasileiadis wrote "Before Dawn," the "Crazy Gypsy," and "Tonight You Abandoned Me," along with two thousand other songs.

Our collective memory has immortalized him with the colloquial and poorly Greek nickname: "o Tsjantas." You see, he always kept in his pocket a leather briefcase filled with written and unwritten pages.

He was the first professional lyricist. He often gifted his lyrics and generously promoted new talents of folk performers and composers, such as Bithikotsis, Zampeta, Kazantzidis, Gavalas, Dionysios, and Voskopoulos.

He died forgotten by most of those he benefitted, in May 1970. His sister Niki was the first wife of Georgios Papadopoulos. Which means that during the post-dictatorship period, although his songs contributed to the revival of rebetiko, no one wanted to know that their creator was a relative by marriage of a dictator. And so, such a great lyricist was left in the oblivion of history.

This biography, written by journalist, lyricist, and scholar of our popular culture Giorgos Xepapadakis, seeks to lift this unjust exclusion.