Freaky Friday Playlist Sep-09-2011

Song: Katra Katra
Album: Ijaazat
Type: Bollywood
Singer: Asha Bhosle
Music Director: R.D. Burman
Lyricist: Gulzar
Rating: 5.0
An Asha song to commemorate her birthday yesterday. It does not get better than this. While the complexity of Pancham's music and Gulzar's lyrics endears the song to music buffs, Asha's deceptively relaxed singing style makes it accessible to a many more people. She did have some help from technology - the fact that Pancham mixed two separate vocal tracks is obvious in the harmony sections (Rehne Do...). This song is said to have been inspired by Horsell Common and the Heat Ray but the similarity is really faint.

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Song: The Logical Song
Album: Breakfast in America
Type: Pop
Artist: Supertramp
Rating: 4.5
I love almost all the songs in Breakfast In America but The Logical Song is perhaps the best. It's flippant, funny and has rich, rich instrumentals. I specially like the the sax and how the guitar kicks in at a point you don't expect it.

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Song: Poo Kunkumapoo
Album: Rasathanthram
Type: Mollywood
Singer: Chitra
Music Director: Ilaiyaraja
Lyricist: Girish Puthenchery
Rating: 4.1
A light, foot-tapping song.

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Song: Paadaanum
Album: Paranju Theeratha Visheshangal
Type: Mollywood
Singer: Sujatha
Music Director: M. Jayachandran
Lyricist: Girish Puthenchery
Rating: 5.0
One of my favorite Sujatha songs. A light, cool and upbeat stress-reliever of a song.

           
Song: Raja Rajaathi
Album: Agni Nakshatram
Type: Koliwood
Singer: Ilaiyaraja
Music Director: Ilaiyaraja
Lyricist: Vaali
Rating: 4.9
You have to turn the clock back 23 years to get an idea of how revolutionary this song was with it's killer harmonies, an inexplicable hip-hop feel and almost completely electronic instrumentals. And it stays fresh to this day.

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Song: Tere Bina Zindagi
Album: Aandhi
Type: Bollywood
Singer: Lata Mangeshkar, Kishore Kumar
Music Director: R.D. Burman
Lyricist: Gulzar
Rating: 5.0
There should be a score above 5 for songs like this. Since I feel terribly inadequate commenting about it, let me just mention just one of the many things I absolutely love of this song - the heart-stopping moment when Kishore enters the song with "Tere Bina".

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Song: Let's Call The Whole Thing Off
Album: The Best Of Ella Fitzerald and Louis Armstrong
Type: Classic Pop
Artist: Ella Fitzerald, Louis Armstrong
Rating: 4.0
A nice enough, funny, interesting song but I cherish more my memories associated with the song. Memory 1 - When Harry Met Sally (the song appears in the movie), Memory 2 - How my toddler son laughed the first time he heard the song.

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Song: Maahi Ve
Album: Kal Ho Na Ho
Type: Bollywood
Singer: Sadhna Sargam, Sujata Bhattacharya, Udit Narayan, Sonu Nigam
Music Director: Shankar - Ehsaan - Loy
Lyricist: Javed Akhtar
Rating: 4.2
A bhangra-pop song. One of the early songs that made this genre super-popular in Bollywood.

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Song: Sachchai Chup Nahin Sakti (Vaada Tera Vaada)
Album: Dushman
Type: Bollywood
Singer: Kishore Kumar
Music Director: Laxmikant - Pyarelal
Lyricist: Anand Bakshi
Rating: 3.6
Interesting but does not do it for me. Interesting because there aren't many qawwali songs by Kishore (and this one is pseudo qawwali really).

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Song: Keh Na Sakoon
Album: Guzaarish
Type: Bollywood
Singer: Shail Hada
Music Director: Sanjay Leela Bhansali
Lyricist: Vibhu Puri
Rating: 3.8
A sad, mellow song. With movies like Khamoshi, Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam and Devdas, Bhansali has proved beyond that he has an ear for music. With the score of Guzaarish, he takes it up a notch by composing music and the result is not bad at all. I was not impressed by Shail Hada in Sawariya but in this album he sounds really good.

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