Manos Hadjidakis (Greek: Μάνος Χατζιδάκις) (October 23, 1925 – June 15, 1994) was an Academy Award-winning Greek composer. He was born in Xanthi, Greece. In 1960 he received an Academy Award for Best Original Song for his Song Never on Sunday from the film of the same name. He is widely popular among Greeks and can be credited with the introduction of bouzouki music into mainstream culture.
His very first work was the tune for the song Paper Moon (ΧάÏτινο το ΦεγγαÏάκι), from Tennessee Williams' A Streetcar Named Desire staged by Karolos Koun's Art Theatre of Athens, a collaboration which continued for 15 years. His first piano piece, "For a Small White Seashell" (Για μια ΜικÏή Λευκή Αχιβάδα) came out in 1947 and in 1948 he shook the musical establishment by delivering his legendary lecture on rembetika, the urban folk songs that flourished in Greek cities, mainly Piraeus, after the Asia Minor refugee influx in 1922 and until then had heavy underworld and cannabis use.