Guitarist Claudiu Rotaru, vocalist Florin "Moni" Bordeianu and drummer Ioan "Pilu" Ștefanovici completed the early lineup.

After gaining popularity in Romania during the so-called British invasion in the mid-60s, the group changed its style to integrate Romanian folklore elements after vocalist Florin "Moni" Bordeianu emigrated to the United States.

[1] Phoenix was launched in the cosmopolitan city of Timișoara in 1962 by a pair of schoolboys: Nicu Covaci and Béla Kamocsa, under the name of Sfinții (The Saints).

In their first years, together with Florin "Moni" Bordeianu (born 1948), they performed in school contests and at local clubs, covering Western music hits from The Rolling Stones, The Beatles, The Who, etc., and they quickly became very popular among the youth.

The same year also marked the beginning of their collaboration with Victor Suvagau, who went on to write many of their most famous songs, such as "Vremuri" ("Old Times"), "Și totuși ca voi sunt" ("And Yet I Am Like You"), "Nebunul cu ochii închiși" ("The Fool with Eyes Closed"), "Floarea stîncilor" ("Mountain Flower") and "Canarul" ("Canary").

A second EP would follow one year later, named Floarea stîncilor (The Flower of the Rocks), with all four songs being original compositions.

They then started working on a rock theater play "Omul 36/80" (The Man 36/80) which won several prizes for originality.

Phoenix was born again the next year, with Covaci, Josef Kappl, Mircea Baniciu, Costin Petrescu (replaced in 1974 by Ovidiu Lipan, nicknamed "Țăndărică") and Valeriu Sepi.

On Monday, 19 November 1973, Phoenix held a concert in Bucharest, presenting their new hits "Andrii Popa", "Pavel Cneazul", "Mica Țiganiadă" and "Strunga" which composed the new disc "Mugur de fluier".

The show began by "calling" all mythic animals and continued by dedicating a song to each of them, finishing with the Phoenix, the band's symbol.

After two grandiose concerts in Constanța and Tulcea, Covaci left the country again, this time with all the band members (except Baniciu) hidden inside their Marshall speakers: at the time it was extremely difficult to obtain approval to travel abroad and illegal border crossing was punished by imprisonment.

Kappl and a few other members (i.e. Erlend Krauser and Ovidiu Lipan) formed a new band called Madhouse and released a less successful album entitled From The East.

Although they were expected to sing their first song in their hometown Timișoara, the city that sparked the Romanian Revolution of 1989 that eventually led to the downfall of the Communist regime, their first post-1989 concert took place in Bucharest,[4] the capital of Romania.