Aa ab laut chalen [Film: Jis desh mein ganga behti hain]
<TC>
Inspired by the Italian number 'Ciao ciao bambina'. The version added
here is by Domenico Modungo which was released in 1959. The Hindi movie
came out in 1961.
Shankar
Jaikishen version that has a rather slow tempo and a more coherent
melody added to it, which makes a fantastic inspiration! Also see S D
Burman's version of the same - SDB page, 3rd item.
11
Suku suku [Film: Junglee (1961)]<TC>
Inspired by Nina and Frederik's 'Sucu sucu' (1961)!
The inspiration is pretty straight but SJ
have considerably changed the pace, tune and almost everything else
(wonder why they didn't change the words 'suku suku'...they could've
avoided an 'obvious' clue!) to suit Shammi Kapoor!
Trivia note on
the original's composers:From the late 1950s right through until the mid-1960s, the aristocratic duo Nina & Frederik entertained audiences across Europe and North America with their ‘Pop’ slanted Folk and Calypso singing. Frederik was Baron van
Pallandt, son of the Dutch ambassador to Denmark, Nina was Danish, they married in 1960.
They also had an extraordinary knack of making Christmas records, an all-year round listening!
IN Europe, they introduced a sanitized version of calypso (Frederick had studied at an agricultural college in Trinidad) to their fans.
Elvis's Wooden Heart was released as the soundtrack of the 1960 Elvis starrer by the same name. In the movie Elvis sings this number in English and German to at a puppet show while on a date with the film's leading lady, Juliet Prowse. The fact is that Elvis' number (Written by Fred Wise, Bert Kaempfert & Kay Twomey) is based on a German folk song which goes
'Muß i' denn zum Städtele hinaus...' or 'Muss i'den' as we can comfortably call it in English! This song was composed by Philipp Friedrich Silcher in 1827! But again, one online Silcher biography calls him as, "...a preeminent composer, poet, editor, music teacher, director, and preserver of German folk song and traditional choral music". So if he is merely a preserver he may not be the composer of muss i'den...I may be wrong here but I think I can safely attribute muss i'den to Silcher at this point! Listen to all the 3 versions to see the amount of work that has gone behind each of them! The Hindi version is in no way a direct lift and the similarity is probably restricted to the prominent humming which goes, 'Tu ru
ku'! Listen to
Muss i'den (This version is by Marlene Dietrich)
The original title of the song by Umm
Khalthoum is 'Ala Balad El Mahboub'. The meaning of this title happens to
be 'My beloved came home'.
The best site on Umm Khalthoum is 'al mashriq' and this page has one of the most authentic
discographies
even though the webmaster himself agrees that he's not sure about many songs' details, however...this is the best we could get, I presume.
In this discography, this song is mentioned a couple of times and one of the side notes along with this song includes SONO 150 that denotes the Sonodisc France CDs. When you do page search for 'ala
balad' in this page, the first result you get lists this track as part of 8 songs from a movie named
'Wedad' (also called 'Widad'). Now check the list of
Umm Khalthoum movies in the same
page....the first movie listed is 'Widad' and the release date is 1936! Its quite possible that in 1936 the songs were not released in LPs and were probably released later! But as far as we can deduce from the above, this song appeared first (on screen) in 1936, giving SJ 16 years to listen to it from some source!
16
Soch
Rahi Ki Kahoon Na Kahoon [Ek Phool Char Kaante (1960)]
<TC>
Inspired by the 1957 Italian track by name, 'Piccolissima Serenata'.
'Piccolissima Serenata' ('A tiny serenade' or 'smallest serenade'), composed by Gianni Ferrio & Antonio Amurri
was made popular by singers like Teddy Reno, Renato Carosone and Claudius Villa. The version included here is by Renato Carosone.
17
Aiga aiga [Boyfriend (1961)]
<TC>
Inspired by Connie Francis' 1958
swinging chartbuster, 'Stupid Cupid'.
Actually, the way I'll get you
starts has been modified by Shankar Jaikishen to add a more
Hindi film'ish (reminds me of OP Nayyar's 'Aayiye Meherbaan'
incidentally!) drawl but when the Beatles go 'Its easy 'cos
I know' in line 2, you sure get a smile on your lips when it
hits you how Shankar Jaikishen have played around with the
original!
21
Sayonara
[Love in Tokyo (1966)]
<TC>
Inspired by Albert Ketelby's
1920 orchestral piece, 'In a Persian Market'.
One would expect Shankar Jaikishen to lift from
something Japanese for this superhit track. But the duo
actually sought inspiration (at least for the 2 opening lines...the rest
has been adequately modified) from a track titled 'In a Persian Market'
and for obvious reasons, most of us Indians would think even the source
sounds Japanese, even though it was intended as Persian...maybe 'cos of
the sheer number of times we've seen the Hindi track with Asha Parekh's
Jap make-up! 'In a Persian Market' is an orchestral piece by Albert
Ketelbey, scored in 1920. The version of 'Persian Market' added here is
by a popular Japanese guitarist, Takeshi Terauchi, who interpreted
Ketelbey's original track in his own electric-guitar style and this
probably is the only Japanese connection with the Hindi track, even
though this was part of an album, 'Lets go classics' that came out in
1967, an year after Love in Tokyo was released!
I was convinced even the first time I heard
Jim's classic hit long ago, but something was stopping me. But, I'm
going with it now - there's definitely a similarity though the effort of
our composing duo shows up clearly...smoothening the corners here and
there, making the flow work better in a female version and generally
making it much more film-friendly. This one's for the records, as a
great example of a perfect Indian adaptation.
23
Panchi banoon
[Chori Chori (1956)]
<TC>
Inspired by the classic Scottish song, 'Coming through the
rye'
Robert Burns wrote the immortal Scottish song, 'Coming through
the rye' (It goes, 'If a body meet a body, coming through
the rye...'). One of the most popular musical versions of
this song is
Larry Groce's, which he composed as part of Disney's
Children's favorite songs collection. The tune for the first
two lines is perhaps the inspiration for Shankar
Jaikishan's Hindi version, though we remember it in its
entirety - beyond the first two lines - so very
affectionately.
24
Rasa Sayang
[Singapore (1959)]
<TC>
Lifted off an Indonesian folk song of the same name!
It seems the Malaysians and Indonesians have been on each
others' throat since October 2007. The reason? The Malaysians using an
Indonesian folk song to promote Malaysian tourism! The song in question?
Rasa Sayang Re. Malaysian tourism minister Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor
says that Indonesians could not claim ownership to this
song since it is a folk song from the Malay archipelago and does not
necessarily belong to any specific country. Indonesian Tourism and
Cultural Minister Jero Wacik on the other hand seems to be
investigating whether they could claim copyright to this
song and sue Malaysia for commercial use of an Indonesian song. While
these two gentleman fight it out, as Joi pointed out, our composing duo
Shankar Jaikishan have conveniently lifted this song to create a Hindi
avataar starting with the same words for the 1959 Shammi Kapoor starrer,
somewhat aptly titled, Singapore! In fact, M Veera Pandian has written a
fairly balanced and appropriate article titled, 'We've
lost that loving feeling' in The Star, on October 11, 2007 - and, he
mentions this Hindi lift too! The song has also been used in a pre-World
War II silent movie titled 'Insulinde', made by the Dutch East Indies
Government to showcase Indonesia. So, how many people would Indonesia go
about suing, on final count?
Shankar Jaikishan Indianize the popular tune in
their Hindi version with by rounding it off in the third line. Quite
obvious, when you listen to the Hindi version, but this
now-considered-as-a-jazz-standard was first sung under the title, Les
feuilles mortes (Dead Leaves) by French singer/actor Yves Montand in
1945, with lyrics by Jacques Prévert, in Marcel Carné's film Les Portes
de la Nuit. The song was composed by the Hungarian composer Joseph Cosma
(1905-69) and the lyrics were by the French poet Jacques Prévert
(1900-77). The English lyrics, (Autumn Leaves) were written in 1947 by
the American songwriter Johnny Mercer and the first official English
version was sung by....nay, not Cole, by one of France's greatest
singers, Édith Piaf! Cole's version, incidentally, was in 1956, over the
title sequence of the Joan Crawford starrer, Autumn Leaves!
26
April Fool Banaya
[April Fool (1964)]
Inspired by
an early 60s Egyptian song titled, 'Take me back to Cairo'
sung by Karim Shoukry.
Listen to April Fool Banaya:
Take Me Back To Cairo:
Remember the only song from Hindi films that can
be sung to commemorate April 1st? Yes, Shankar Jaikishan's title song from the 1964 film, April Fool! It
seems to have an uncanny resemblance with an early 60s Egyptian song titled,
'Take me back to Cairo' sung by Karim Shoukry. The first line is smoothened out
in the end to fit a naughty Hindi filmy situation, but the overall flow in that
line and the subsequent 3 lines act as a spoiler'ish giveaway. To the composers'
credit, usually, in such cases, Hindi composers use bits and pieces even in the
interludes, but Shankar Jaikishan haven't used any and carve it out into a
typical filmy number worthy of Biswajeet's tight trousers and springing dance
steps!
