The Jamboree music was composed by Greek Academy Award-winning composer Manos Hatzidakis. The lyrics to the original song, in Greek language, were by another famous Greek lyricist Nikos Gatsos. The Greek song, with vocals sung by the Royal Palace Children’s Choir, circulated as an 45 RPM Jamboree record back in 1963, under the Columbia label (code SCDG 3315). This song was heard every morning at reveille; 14 thousand scouts used to wake up daily to this music. The greek record featured the song "I Fotia" (greek for The Fire), on side B.
There were at least two official international versions of the song, one in English and one in Italian language; it is however unknown which of the two Italian Scout Associations which participated in the Jamboree, ASCI or CNGFI, introduced the song, or whether it was common for both. Also, to our knowledge, the English version has not been officially recorded and is not documented to date.
Apart from the Greek record there was also a Dutch-cut 45RPM record, again by Columbia, with a much more elaborate cover featuring the Marathon Courier on yellow background (code CH 3038).
The french lyrics were made by François Lebouteux, executive of the French National Education, graduate of the École Normale Supérieure and National Leader of the Scouts de France from 1956 to 1964. He was at the epicenter of a profound reform of the french scout movement in the 1960s where, as an academy inspector, he helped assert the place of national education in scout training. At the same time, he led important missions in terms of international cooperation and solidarity development.
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