Jacky Elkayam was one of the special singers in the 70s: with a hippie look (beard and long hair) and a voice similar to the Greek singer Demis Roussos, Jacky, born in Morocco, was one of the first to combine Moroccan music with pop and rock’n’roll in his songs, mainly in foreign
After being a member of several katsav bands, he went independent in 1971, when he was signed by the promoter Yitzhak Gizri, and began working on his debut album arranged and musically produced by Shlomo Gronich (with some help from Mati Caspi), which included songs most of which were written and composed by Elkayim, but some of the lyrics They were written by one girl, Samdar Shir.
Elkayam’s songs, headed by “Angelique”, “I’ve Got To Love Again”, “Dolores”, “You” and “About Strange Things” starred at the top of the foreign song charts and made Alkayam a star, but nevertheless he encountered in a glass ceiling that didn’t really allow him to enter the Israeli mainstream.
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When did it happen? In 1976 when he recorded the CD with the two songs – “Maccabi our Maccabi Tel Aviv” (in winter, summer, autumn and spring) one side was dedicated to Maccabi Tel Aviv’s victory in soccer in the State Cup and the other side was a kind of encouragement and a prophecy for Maccabi Tel Aviv’s participation in basketball in the European Cup , a trophy the team eventually won in 1977 – and the song became an anthem.
Elkayam tried to record a number of songs in Hebrew in those years, such as “Abshalom”, “Clouds” and “Noivah” but the songs did not catch on so much and alongside the process of his repentance he began to stay away from the spotlight, he stayed away from performances in front of mixed audiences and media interviews and recorded albums with a religious touch.
Since his conversion, Jacky, who lives in Kiryat Gat, has continued to create for others as well, such as the well-known song “Mama” which he composed to the words of Haim Oliel and performed by the Shefatim band. He continues to create to this day.
In the current episode of “Words and Melody”, music researcher Dodi Fatimer returned to the story and songs of Elkayim from the 70’s, some of them released on record and some of them rare, and told the story of someone who is considered a pioneer in his field.