French guitarist Claude Ciari (previously profiled in a post in April 2013) recorded this intriguing blend of Western easy listening and Arabic melodies in 1974. It's dedicated to the songs of Fairuz (Arabic for Turquoise), a Lebanese singer who has fans throughout the Arab world.
There were numerous releases of this album in various countries and there are several variations in the spelling of the singer's name and of the song titles because of their translations from Arabic. There were slight changes in the album title as well, depending on where the LP was released.
The LP cover pictured above was the one used in France and Greece, and perhaps other countries as well. Listen to a sample track.
Dakkeyt
There have been at least three CD reissues of this album, all from EMI. They have the covers below and the contents are identical.
The third version (gold cover) is probably the easiest to obtain. It's available at a low price from Amazon in the U.K. Prices of the other two are astronomical (in the $100 range on eBay and Amazon). Why, I have no idea. They're relatively recent releases, so go figure.
After a cursory search, the album does not seem to be available as a legal download, at least from the usual sources (iTunes, Amazon, etc.).
From YouTube here's Claude Ciari playing Homage a Fairuz, his personal tribute to the Lebanese performer. Note the variation in the album cover.
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