Poll (band)

Poll was a Greek pop band founded in 1971 by Kostas Tournas, Robert Williams, Stavros Logaridis and Kostas Papaioannou. It is considered a historic Greek group of the 1970s with pioneering lyrics, that resonated with the Greek youth of the '70s. The band's songs are described as "some of the best songs, which have remained in the history of Greek music". Poll is the most commercially successful Greek band of all time.

Kostas Tournas and Robert Williams were childhood friends who started their musical cooperation in 1964 when they formed the group Teenagers. As a group, the two recorded their first song "You don’t love me".

In 1967, they changed the name of the group to "Dinos and the X-Rays" but they separated soon after since Tournas had to go to the army and Williams went to Rhodesia where he stayed for two years.

They eventually reunited and along with Stavros Logaridis, they formed another group which at first was not intended to be a professional group. Ultimately, they named their band "Poll", after first considering the names "Paul" (after Paul McCartney) and "Omega Limited". Poll, along with Nostradamos, was one of the first pop groups of Greece.

The motto of Poll was Poll is love and their logo was the stylised outline of a dove. Their first concert was at the Pedion tou Areos in Athens. Poll also started appearing at the popular Athens music club Kyttaro presenting folk rock songs influenced from the hippie culture which soon became very popular among the youth. They also appeared at Elatirio presenting music influenced by Crosby, Stills, Nash And Young and featuring two new members, vocalist Nasia Sandi, and drummer Kostas Papaionannou. At Elatirio, they were also joined by vocalist Despina Glezou who later left the group to pursue a "more personalised role".

The group started recitals at a home which was owned by the grandmother of Kostas Charalambides, who was a salesman for the Greek record company Elladisk, a subsidiary of Dutch multinational Philips. Charalambides provided a demo of the band to Christos Fasolas, who was working for Elladisk in the area of copyright law, and they eventually got a record contract.

In April 1971, they released their first single which became a huge hit. On one side was the song "Anthrope Agapa"(Άνθρωπε Αγάπα, Mankind Love Each Other) and on the B-side was "Ela Ilie Mou" (Έλα Ήλιε μου, Come My Sun). The record was under the Polydor record label. Following a suggestion by Fasolas, Stavros Logaridis took part in the recording of the song, after which he decided to join the group.

In September 1971, their first album Anthrope... (Άνθρωπε..., Humankind...) was released, which (since the 1990s reissues) included the song "Anthrope Agapa", becoming a huge hit, selling 200,000 copies, a number unsurpassed before or since by any Greek group. The album was full of musical breakthroughs, and was packaged in a trendy gunny sack.