| Song: Crossroads Album: The Cream of Clapton Type: Blues Artist: Cream Rating: 4.1 This is Eric Clapton’s live cover of an older song. Some amazing guitar solos. |
| Song: Maine Tere Liye Hi Saat Rang Album: Anand Type: Bollywood Singers: Mukesh Music Director: Salil Choudhary Lyricist: Gulzar Rating: 4.6 A simple and sweet composition. Lovely lyrics. “Choti choti baaton ki hain yaadein badi”. |
| Song: Lady Friend Album: 20 Essential Tracks Type: Rock Artist: The Byrds Rating: 3.5 Nice harmonies that are almost part of the instrumentals. Does Arcade Fire derive inspiration from this band? |
| Song: Walk of Life Album: Brothers in Arms Type: Rock Artist: Dire Straits Rating: 4.2 Very nice song to sing along. Killer keyboard riff. |
| Song: Akale Akale Neelakasham Album: Adyathe Kanmani Type: Mollywood Singers: Yesudas, S Janaki Music Director: M.S. Baburaj Lyricist: Sreekumaran Thampi Rating: 3.7 Angst-filled, classically influenced song. Doesn’t quite work. Some weird harmonies at the end of the song. |
| Song: Poomukha Vaathikal Album: Raakkuyilin Raagasadassil Type: Mollywood Singers: Yesudas Music Director: M.G. Radhakrishnan Lyricist: S Ramesan Nair Rating: 4.0 Nice melody. Very cool instrumentation with awesome veena. |
| Song: Sheesha Ho Ya Dil Ho Album: Aasha Type: Bollywood Singers: Lata Mangeshkar Music Director: Laxmikant-Pyarelal Lyricist: Anand Bakshi Rating: 3.5 Nice enough tune but except for some cool aalaaps, Lata’s voice does not quite work. The mood changing “sad music”, two-thirds its way into the song doesn’t make for a good listen. |
| Song: Kya Karte The Album: Lal Dupatta Malmal Ka Type: Bollywood Singers: Udit Narayan, Anuradha Paudval Music Director: Anand-Milind Lyricist: Majrooh Sultanpuri Rating: 3.7 A regulation song but one of the early 90s songs that marked the return of melody in Bollywood. The movie died without a trace but the songs were quite popular. |
| Song: Haal Kaisa Hai Janaab Ka Album: Chalti Ka Naam Gaadi Type: Bollywood Singers: Kishore Kumar, Asha Bhonsle Music Director: S.D. Burman Lyricist: Majrooh Sultanpuri Rating: 5.0 Delightfully playful and frothy. And yes, some cool yodelling by Kishore Kumar. |
| Song: Dum Dum Diga Diga Album: Chalia Type: Bollywood Singers: Mukesh Music Director: Kalyanji-Anandji Lyricist: Qamar Jalalabadi Rating: 3.6 Raj Kapoor deliberately cultivated a simpleton’s image (a la Chaplin) and he could not have found a better voice than Mukesh’s to go with that image. I like the rhythm but not much else. |