In 1955 he married his childhood love, Georgia Laveni, with whom they had four children: Angelos, Tasoula, Stelios and Diamantis.
From his first appearances in the 1950's, Dionysiou attracted the interest of some artists, who urged him to come down to Athens to make more important collaborations.
He appeared in Nikaia nightclub "Asteras" with well-established singer Kaity Grey and in 1958 recorded his first song, "Parages kai PalatIa" (Shacks and Palaces).
[4] Dionysiou signed a contract with recording company "Columbia" and started singing songs by Xristos Kolokotronis, Babis Bakalis, Kostas Virvos, and others with some success.
He also re-recorded old, pre-war and WW2-era rebetiko-gerne songs by Vassilis Tsitsanis, Yiannis Papaioannou, Giorgos Mitsakis and Manolis Chiotis.
Huge success, however, did not come until the late 1960s, when he turned several Akis Panou songs into hits: "Και τι δεν κάνω" (What don't I do), "Γιατί καλέ γειτόνισσα" (Why, my good neighbour?
During his time working at Columbia, he also sang remakes of Indian songs such as "Kardia mou kaimeni" (My poor heart), remake of the Indian song Duniya mein hum aaye hain, featured in the 1957 movie Mother India.
It's the same nightclub where Mimis Plessas heard him in 1969 and after two months he wrote the legendary zeibekiko "Vrehi fotia stin strata mou" (Fire is raining down my path) with lyrics by Lefteris Papadopoulos.
Then Dionysiou released the successful songs "O paliatzis", "Baglamades ki bouzoukia", "Enas aitos gremiste", "Agapi mou epikindini" and "Aphilotimi".
He was found innocect of gun possession in 1974, but in 1975, on April 9, the trial of the notorious drug-trafficking case began at the Criminal Court of Thessaloniki.
At this moment, his colleague and friend Tolis Voskopoulos, who in 1977 wrote and gave him the song "I fell asleep", especially supported him.
Stelios Kazantzidis was also recording in Minos at the time, and the coexistence of two big names in the same space might have created problems.
After pressure that Matsas received from Dionysiou, they finally signed a contract with discouraging conditions for the singer.
He disliked ELAS, due to them letting a Security Battalions commander named Papoulias escape after he bribed them.
Stratos Dionysiou's death left behind songs that are still heard today, but also a great void in Greek music.