At the age of twelve, in the false belief that he was wanted by the police, Vamvakaris fled Syros for the port of Piraeus.

Vamvakaris recorded his first rebetiko disc, Na'rchósouna re magka mou (Να 'ρχόσουνα ρε μάγκα μου) in 1932.

After the liberation of Greece from the occupation of Nazi Germany, difficult times persisted, but his kind of music was no longer fashionable.

The slump in his fortunes lasted until the early 1960s when, after initiatives by Vassilis Tsitsanis, many of his old songs were revived and sung by singers including Grigoris Bithikotsis, and Stratos Dionysiou.

Markos' composing style was utterly simple: minimal orchestration, melodic lines stripped of any embellishment, and lyrics as devoid of ornamentation as possible.

All other Greek composers, of his time and afterwards, revere him as their master teacher, and Mikis Theodorakis remarked: "We all, we are but branches of a tree.