One of the greatest Israeli singers, Arik Einstein was also an innovative and leading composer who greatly influenced Israeli culture.
It is not for nothing that Yoav Kutner wrote about him: "Arik Einstein is more than the greatest Israeli singer. Einstein is the real country of Israel."
So let's have some facts about Arik Einstein:
(Photo: Menahem Saks)
1. He was born on January 3, 1939, in Tel Aviv as Arie Leib Einstein.
2. Arik was the only son of Deborah and Jacob Einstein - a theater actor.
3. In his youth, Arik was an outstanding athlete and, among other things, was the Israeli youth champion in an iron ball and high jump, he held the Israeli record for youth in the high jump for about 10 years. In 1956 he also won the Israeli Senior Championships in the high jump and was also a basketball player in the youth team of Hapoel Tel Aviv.
4. Due to his love of sports, Arik planned to be a sports instructor in the army, but due to the fact that he was short-sighted, he finally auditioned with the encouragement of his father to the Nahal Chorus and passed successfully.
5. In the Nahal Chorus, Arik sang songs such as "Ya Yerach", "Ruach Stav" and "Dina Barzilai" which he sings, among others, alongside Yehoram Gaon, who was also a member of the Chorus at the time.
6. In 1959 he was discharged from the army and joined the "Sambation Theater".
7. In 1960 he released his first mini solo album which included four songs, including "White City" written about Tel Aviv.
8. That same year he joined the "Green Onion" band, which included members such as Uri Zohar, Haim Topol, and others.
9. From that year Arik began to simultaneously develop his acting career, playing in several plays and even in one film alongside his father.
10. In 1962, Einstein formed the "Matches" duo with singer Ilana Rubina. That same year he also starred in the play "Irma La Dos" in one of the lead roles.
11. In 1963 he participated in the filming of the iconic film "Salah Shabati" which was released in 1964. He played the character of Ziggy who fell in love with Salah's daughter. One of the exciting moments in the film includes the song "Me and You" he sings.
12. At the end of 1963, together with Yehoram Gaon and Benny Amdursky they formed the "Yarkon Bridge Trio". The band's debut album was released in 1965 and included a large number of hits such as: "Do not go alone", "Night at Achziv Beach", "Ayelet Ahavim", "Love of the Construction Workers", "What a Beautiful Day" and more.
13. In early 1964 he began to participate in the Singing and Choral Festival when he won first place in 1965 with the song "Ayelet Chen" and in 1966 with the song "Autumn Night".
14. In 1966 he released his first full-length solo album "Sing for You".
15. In 1966, together with Shmulik Krauss and Josie Katz, he formed the band "The High Windows". The band released in 1967 their only album that became an asset of Israeli music and included immortal songs such as: "You Can't", "Soft Singer", "The Golden Doll", "Ezekiel", "Chocolate Soldier", "All Week to You" and "So what", the last two were written by Arik Einstein.
(Photo: Claude Levy, Aharon Yoslevitz)
16. Later in 1967, Arik met Shalom Hanoch and was very impressed with his abilities. The two released a mini-album that year, featuring four songs composed by Shalom Hanoch.
17. Arik's first full album "Capricorn" was released in 1968 and included the songs: "Banana Bender", "Wind Spirit" and "The Long Sad Days" written by Einstein in London during the "High Windows" tour when he was out of his longing for home.
18. In 1969, Einstein released the album "Pozy" which included a collaboration with the band "The Churchills" and Shalom Hanoch. It was one of the first rock albums in Israel that included the songs "Prague", "When you cry you are not beautiful", "How hot" and more. By the way, for the song "When you cry you are not beautiful" a clip was made starring him which is considered the first Israeli music video.
19. In the same year, a "Lool" group led by Einstein, Uri Zohar, and Zvi Shissel began to form. The group's important projects were the movie "Shablool" and the TV sketch series "Lool".
(Photo: Ilan Shaul)
20. Songs created and composed for the film "Shablool" were incorporated into the joint album of Arik and Shalom Hanoch "Shablool" which was released in 1970 and is considered one of the rock albums that influence Israeli music. The album included masterpieces such as: "Avshalom", "What do you do when you get up in the morning" and "Take a woman".
21. In December 1970, Einstein released another masterpiece album together with Shalom Hanoch "Plasticine", which included the songs "What about me", "My mother", "Write about him in the newspaper" and more.
22. After Shalom Hanoch left for England in 1971, Einstein joined guitarist Rob Huxley, whom he knew from the Churchills, and in 1971 released the children's song album "Children's Songs".
23. One of the songs on the album "I Understand" was composed by Miki Gavrielov, also from the band "The Churchills". It was the first bud of the fruitful collaboration between Einstein and Gavrielov, which began with the album "In the Grass with Avigdor" which was released in 1971 and included songs such as: "Me and You", "Turkish Coffee", "I See Her on the Way to Gymnasium" and more.
24. In November 1972, Einstein released the album "Jasmine" which included a collaboration with several artists. The album produced hits such as: "How Good You Came Home," "Don Quixote," "A Post-War Song" and "Mother Earth."
25. In the same year, the cult film "Metzitzim" was released, in which Einstein starred alongside Uri Zohar.
26. In 1974, Arik participated in the film "Big Eyes", also directed and starring Uri Zohar.
27. Later in the 1970s and 1980s, Arik released a series of five albums called "The Good Old Country of Israel", which included innovations to Hebrew songs from the Israeli classics. It is common to consider his album "Songs" from 1975 as the sixth album in the series, although it does not bear the title "The Good Old Country of Israel", since most of it included songs of Israeli classics.
(Photo: Alona Einstein/Sima Eliyahu)
28. At the same time, Einstein continued to collaborate with Miki Gavrielov on masterful albums such as "Drive Slow" from 1974 and "Armed with Glasses" from 1980.
29. In 1976, Arik collaborated with keyboardist and musician Yoni Rechter on the excellent album "Love Has Many Faces".
30. In between, Arik released two more children's albums. "Children" with Shem Tov Levy from 1976 and "Yeladodes" from 1978.
31. In 1981 Arik Einstein made his last public appearance since he simply "loved being home".
32. In 1982, Arik began his collaboration with guitarist Yitzhak Klepter on the two albums "Sitting on the Fence" from 1982 and "Fragile" from 1983.
33. In the late 1980s and 1990s, Einstein collaborated with Shem Tov Levy on the albums "Time Out" (1984), "Made in Israel" (1985), "I Have Love" (1995), "A Little Take Back" (1996), and " Where did the butterflies bloom "(1997).
34. At the same time he also collaborated with Miki Gavrielov on the albums "Loves to Be at Home" (1986) and "On the Border of Light" (1987), and with Yoni Rechter on the albums "Songs of Avraham Halafi" (1988), "I was once a child" (1989 ) and "The lion, the dove, and the blue hen" (1993).
35. By the way, the album "Time Out" included the song "He Repented" which he also wrote about the repentance of his good friend Uri Zohar. Arik's two daughters also repented and married Uri Zohar's two sons.
36. In 1991, Arik Einstein released the videotape for children "Like Adults", two years later he released the sequel "Like Adults 2".
37. In 1992 he participated in the iconic film "Cables" alongside Zvi Shissel and Moni Moshonov.
38. In 1999, thirty years after his first collaboration with him, Arik reunited with Shalom Hanoch on the album "Muscat", which included the hit "Guitar and Violin".
(Photo: Vardi Kahanah)
39. Arik also knew how to collaborate with the younger generationד like Peter Roth with whom he made the album "Moments" from 2006, "Guy Bucati" with whom he released his latest studio album "All the best in the world" in 2007, Micha Shitrit, Arkady Duchin, Aviv Geffen In the song "Journey Diary" and more.
40. Arik also released songs related to various events, such as "My Red" from 2000 in honor of Hapoel Tel Aviv winning the championship, "Now When You Are Here" in memory of Yigal Shalit's return from captivity, "Special Child" in honor of a children's fundraising evening, and more.
41. When he was offered the Israel Prize, Arik replied, "Thank you, but do not embarrass me." However, in 2013 the then Minister of Culture and Sports Limor Livnat initiated a prize called the Arik Einstein Prize.
42. In 2012, Arik collaborated with Shlomo Artzi on the song "Returning Home" from his album "Osher Express".
43. In November 2013, it was announced that Einstein would begin writing a new column in the Maariv newspaper. He finished writing the first column a few hours before his death, and it was published in a special edition that came out in his memory.
44. Two days before he died, Arik recorded a song called "A Few Years Left" to the words of Avraham Halafi.
45. Arik Einstein died on November 26, 2013, at Ichilov Hospital in Tel Aviv, due to an aortic aneurysm, which led to heavy internal bleeding.