Yiannis Parios was born Ioannis Varthakouris (Ιωάννης Βαρθακούρης) on the island of Paros.

Under its new title "Tora pia", the song was a hit, on an unprecedented scale for the time, and it marked the beginning of a new age in which many Greek singers adapted "foreign" melodies to Greek lyrics.

[1] Yiannis Parios has worked with many of the leading Greek composers, including Manos Loizos, Giorgos Hatzinasios, Stavros Xarchakos, Stamatis Spanoudakis, Yorgos Katsaros, Marios Tokas, Yannis Spanos and Mikis Theodorakis.

One of his releases holds the record for Greek sales (one million and four hundred thousand units): this was the album "Nisiotika",[1] released in 1982 and consisting of a collection of songs of the Aegean islands which, as an islander himself, he may have learnt and first sang in childhood.

Yiannis Parios has performed of Greece, at Royal Albert Hall, Carnegie Hall and most of the major venues in Canada, Australia, the United States, Germany, Belgium, Switzerland, Turkey and Israel.