In October of the same year, the band released their first album End of the World. It sold over one million copies, and was awarded a gold disc. With this song the band became an overnight sensation in France and several other European countries in which the single charted well, despite the song being sung in English. In Paris the band signed to Mercury Records and were christened "Aphrodite's Child" by Lou Reizner, releasing their second single " Rain and Tears", a reworking of Pachelbel's Canon in D major. Koulouris had to stay in Greece to fulfill his military service, while the band, on their way to London, got stuck in Paris partly because they did not have the correct work permits and partly because of the strikes associated with the May 1968 events. This decision, however, was not problem-free. It was probably Vangelis's idea that the still-anonymous band should be relocated to London, which would be a more suitable environment for their music, as their country had entered a right-wing dictatorship in 1967. In the same year, they recorded a two-song demo and submitted it to Philips Records.
Their first recording as a band was for George Romanos' album In Concert and in Studio where they played on four songs and were credited as "Vangelis and his Orchestra". Their band's name was derived from the title of a track from another Mercury act, Dick Campbell, from his Sings Where It's At album. Papathanassiou and Roussos had already been successful in Greece (playing in the bands The Forminx and Idols respectively) when they got together with Sideras and Koulouris (born 26 January 1947, Piraeus, Greece) to form a new band. 1.3 Recording in London and second album.
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