HARRY BELAFONTE - KING OF CALYPSO

 

Harry Belafonte, singer, actor and Civil Rights activist, passed away earlier this week after reaching 96 on 1 March. A legend in his lifetime, he was given the title ‘King of Calypso’ back in mid-50s and also regarded as a ‘folk hero’.

Of Jamaican-American descent, he was born and brought up in Harlem, New York City. In the early ‘50s’, he found his mojo in singing songs with Caribbean flavour and soon became famous and enormously popular. I was in the NDA when many of us got hooked on to his songs and in the ‘50s and ‘60s, no party would be complete without all of us singing his top hits like ‘Banana Boat Song (Day-O) and ‘Jamaican Farewell’.

A versatile artiste, Belafonte was one of very few performers who have won Emmy, Oscar, Tony and Grammy awards including Lifetime Achievement from the last named. He was also inducted in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. 

His friend, Sidney Poitier, and he were the pioneer successful black actors in Hollywood film industry. While he acted in many films, the one I liked the most was one of his earliest, ‘Island in the Sun’, in which he sings the title song with deep emotion with touching lines like ‘Oh, Island in the Sun, willed to me by my father’s hands, all my days I will sing in praise of your forest, waters and shining sands.’

First and foremost, Harry Belafonte was a singer who gave a huge popular dimension to calypso music. Although the first documented recording of Calypso dates back to 1912 and I fondly remember the Andrews Sisters catchy “Rum and Coca-Cola” in early ‘50s, it was Belafonte who topped the charts with his album, “Calypso”, which in 1954 became the first ever to cross a million sales. That album included the number “Banana Boat Song” which was an adaptation of a Jamaican folk song. The song is also known as 'Day-O', a word repeated many times over and its distinguishing feature. It became one of Belafonte’s signature songs. Some lines-

"Work all night on a drink of rum

(Daylight come and me wan' go home)

Stack banana 'til the morning come

(Daylight come and me wan' go home)

Come mister tally man, tally me banana

(Daylight come and me wan' go home)....

Lift six foot, seven foot, eight foot bunch

(Daylight come and me wan' go home)....

Day, me say day, me say day, me say day, me say day, me say day-o

(Daylight come and me wan' go home)"

Hits followed one after the other. There was “Coconut Woman” which has the singer extolling the goodness of coconut water. In “Come Back Liza” the singer laments the separation from his loved one wanting her to come back and ‘wipe the tear from me eye’. “Brown Skin Girl” was a protest song against exploitation of the black Caribbean woman by the American where the latter sails away leaving the woman literally holding the baby-

“Brown skin girl, stay home and mind baby,

Brown skin girl, stay home and mind baby,

I’m gonna sail in a sailing boat’

And if I don’t come back, stay home and mind baby.”

Belafonte had a great sense of humour and a number of songs are a testimony to this. In “Man Piaba” he began by dedicating the song ‘to all the parents whose children have reached the age of curiosity.’ Then he went on-

“When I was a lad of three-foot-three, certain questions occurred to me

So I asked my father quite seriously to tell me the story ‘bout the bird and bee,

He stammered and he stuttered pathetically, and this is what he said to me,

He said, ‘The woman piaba and the man piaba,

And the Ton Ton call baka lemon grass,

The lily root, gully root, belly root, ugh, 

And the famous grandy scratch-scratch.

It was clear as mud but it covered the ground, 

And the confusion made the brain go ‘round.”

So to further explore, he goes to Albert Einstein and Sigmund Freud who add to his confusion with their technical theories. So he finally concludes,

Well, I travelled far and I travelled wide,

And I don’t even have meself a bride,

All the great men upon this earth,

Have confused me since my birth.”

In “Man Smarter Woman Smarter”, he plainly avers that ‘the people they say that the man are leading the woman astray. But I say, that the woman of today, smarter than the man in every way…. You meet a girl at a pretty dance, thinkin’ that you would stand a chance. Take her home thinkin’ she’s alone, open the door, you find her husband home.’

One of the funniest is “Mama Look A Boo Boo”. In it he sings,

"I wonder why nobody don’t like me

Or is it the fact that I'm ugly?....

My children….Mama, look a boo boo they shout,

Their mother tell them shut up your mout’

That is your daddy, oh, no,

My daddy can’t be ugly so.

Shut your mout’, go away,

Mama look a boo boo dey."

A classic children’s song,“There’s A Hole In The Bucket”, was a duet he sang with Odetta. It begins with a simple request from ‘Liza’ to ‘dear Henry’ to go fetch some water. Henry replies, “There’s a hole in the bucket, dear Liza, dear Liza, there’s a hole in the bucket, dear Liza, a hole.” Liza asks Henry to fix it and there’s a long exchange between the two with Henry asking with what he should fix it and Liza giving him directions. For each direction, Henry states something else is required. Liza is progressively losing her cool and eventually they come full circle requiring water again. Henry asks with what he should fetch the water and Liza says exasperatingly, ‘With a bucket, DEAR HENRY, DEAR HENRY, WITH A BUCKET, DEAR HENRY, A BUCKET' only for Henry to reply, 'There’s a hole in the bucket, dear Liza, a hole, THERE’S A HOLE!”

In April 1959, Belafonte performed live in Carnegie Hall. His rendition of “Matilda” there is outstanding and unmatched. He showed what a splendid performer he was when he had the audience rollicking and spellbound exhorting them to sing just one simple line “Matilda, Matilda, Matilda, she take me money and run Venezuela” for about 12 minutes in many different ways – ‘Once again now…Sing a little louder…Sing a little softer…Goin’‘round the corner…Sing out the chorus…Everybody’ and so on. Listening to the recording is mesmerizing; exceptionally lucky were the ones who attended the show in person.

On a serious note, in 1984 with most of Africa reeling from a famine, Harry Belafonte thought of making a single disc for raising a relief fund. Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie were approached to write the song and the world’s top singers invited to participate. Thus was born “We Are The World”, a historic song sung by Jackson, Richie, Ray Charles, Billy Joel, Diana Ross, Cyndi Lauper, Bruce Springsteen, Tina Turner and many more. The song won 4 Grammys, numerous other awards the world over and raised $63 million ($156m in today’s value) for the fund. At 20 million sales, it is the 8th bestselling single of all time.

I have saved for the last another of his signature songs, “Jamaican Farewell”. A few glasses of rum and one would break into the delightful number. Some lyrics have to be recalled:-

"Down the way where the nights are gay,

And the sun shines daily on the mountaintop,

I took a trip on a sailing ship

And when I reached Jamaica I made a stop….

Down at the market you can hear

Ladies cry out while on their heads they bear,

Ackee, rice, saltfish are nice

And the rum is fine any time of the year

But I'm sad to say, I'm on my way,

Won't be back for many a day

My heart is down my head is turning around

I had to leave a little girl in Kingston town.'

Sad to say, Harry Belafonte won't be back on any day.

SUGAR IS SWEET....BUT NOT AS SWEET AS...

 

Say what you will, one thing is for sure: Sugar is Sweet. And I love all things sweet.

Was I born with a sweet tooth or did I develop it in childhood? Growing up in grandpas’ house, no meal was complete without a laddoo, peda or barfi to round up with. On special occasions, it would be a Rasgulla or Kulfi in summer and Gajar Ka Halwa, Rewadi and Ghazak in winter. Festivals were marked by their own sweets; Ghevar with sugar coating on top on Gangaur, Gujia or ‘Prakiri’, as we call it at home, on Holi, Mataji’s signature ‘Maun Thaal’, a sweet made from ‘besan’ exquisitely flavoured with saffron and camphor, on Diwali, and so on. Pitaji would send someone to get hot Jalebis on holidays and on our Alwar trips, there was a Halwai just outside my granduncle’s house to readily provide Imartis and the famous Alwar Milk Cake. 

Over to NDA and the ‘sweet’ journey continued with puddings and desserts like Caramel Custard and Tipsy. Near our squadron, there was a barber shop which we had to visit at least once a week if not twice. Next to it, temptingly located, there was a bakery with cakes and pastries and the popular Cream Roll with dollops of the sweet gooeystuff inside. Haircut was invariably followed by overindulgence in the bakery.

Navy too provided sweets after meals and the practice continues at home. 

Till the ‘60s, I didn’t hear a bad word about sugar. It was in great demand and rationed in many places during and after WW II. People lovingly named their daughters ‘Cheeni’. As a kid, I recall a gathering of women of our caste in which someone complained, “Cheeni ‘raand’ to millay hi na hai”. The cuss word is hard to translate, so suffice it to say that what was said was, ‘Wicked sugar is just not available’. The throng included a woman named ‘Cheeni’ who created a ruckus before storming out in protest as she felt that she was being deliberately abused and insulted.

Numerous hit songs compared the sweetness of sugar with that of the singer’s loved one and vice versa. Sugar was a pure sweetheart, so what malformed it into a wicked vamp?  

The main accusation against it is that of diabetes. However, it is not sugar that causes the disease but the failure of pancreas to produce enough insulin because of a combination of genetic and environmental factors. Obesity that could lead to diabetes is also not directly due to sugar but excess of it combined with an inactive lifestyle and unhealthy diet. 

The sugar that we ingest includes natural sugar in fruits and vegetables and is full of nutrients, vitamins and minerals. It is not only harmless but an essential part of our diet. It is the ‘added’ sugar such as the ‘white’ refined table sugar and that in soft drinks, fruit juices, sauces, sweets and desserts, etc. This is only for taste and has no health benefits. The World Health Organisation (WHO) recommends limiting a person’s daily consumption of added sugar to 6 teaspoons. This much added sugar is unlikely to cause any harm and can be consumed safely by a normal, healthy and active person. Even for diabetics, upto two teaspoons a day is permissible.

The anti-sugar campaign was started by the Americans who are the world’s biggest per capita consumers of added sugar at over 25 teaspoons per day, more than four times the maximum recommended by WHO. After giving sugar a bad name but to satisfy their excessive craving, they started researching for artificial sweeteners which over time have proved to be more harmful than added sugar.

So what is the answer? The answer, my friend, is blowing in the wind- the answer is ‘moderation’. Enjoy the sweetness of sugar but exercise self-control.

And enjoy some songs I love of sugar and sweethearts. Who better to begin with than a living legend, Tony Bennett, now 96, who brought out his second album with Lady Gaga in 2021, breaking the Guinness World Record for the oldest person to release an album of new material at the age of 95 years and 60 days. In 1954, he sang “Shoo-gah (My Pretty Shoo-Gah)” which was a super hit and I love it no end. He even expressed his happiness at sugar making his loved one fat so that he had more of her! Listen to the wonderful lyrics-

“Shoo-Gah, my pretty sugar,

 Every pound that makes you round I idolize….

Shoo-Gah girl, Shoo-Gah girl, it’s a sin, it’s a sin,

My heart breaks when you take Saccharin, Saccharin,

Sugar lump, makes you plump, what of that, what of that,

There’s much more to adore when you’re fat….

Shoo-Gah, my pretty Shoo-Gah,

Put the sugar back and love back in my eyes.”

15 years later, a Rock Band took the name “Archies” from the still loved comic character and sang its best hit, “Sugar, Sugar.” Some sweet words-

“Honey, oh sugar, sugar,

You are my candy girl, and you got me wanting you….

Pour a little sugar on it, honey,

Pour a little sugar on it, baby,

I’m gonna make your life so sweet….”

Kitty Wells in 1959 and The McGuire Sisters thirty years later, expressed the desire to have their ‘sugar’ throughout the day-

“Sugar in the mornin’, sugar in the evenin’, sugar at suppertime,

Be my little sugar, and love me all the time….

Now sugartime (sugartime)

Is anytime that you’re near (that you’re near)….

Just be my honeycomb (honeycomb, honeycomb)

And live in a heaven of love….”

A nursery rhyme first published in 1784 has been used for a hit song by various artistes and I love the version by Jim Reeves. In this song, sugar is sweet, but not as much as ‘my love’-

“Roses are red, my love,

Violets are blue,

Sugar is sweet, my love

But not as sweet as you.”

Finally, Julie Andrews as Mary Poppins found a unique use for sugar for little kids-

“A spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down, 

The medicine go down-wown, 

The medicine go down,

Just a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down,

In a most delightful way.”

A spoonful, yes, not 25.

RUBAIYAT OF OMAR KHAYYAM

I came across this quote yesterday attributed to Omar Khayyam, “Be happy for this moment. This moment is your life.”

Around 70 years ago, I saw a movie, “Pandora and the Flying Dutchman.” The movie is an all-time great and is based on the legend of a Dutch sailor who has been cursed by the Devil to sail the seas for eternity until he meets a woman willing to die for him. After years of sailing, he meets Pandora who falls for him. Ava Gardner as Pandora and James Mason as the Flying Dutchman are outstanding in their roles in this unforgettable movie.

The reason I bring this up is that the movie begins with a flash of probably the most popular quote from ‘Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam”:

“The Moving Finger writes: and, having writ, 

Moves on: nor all thy Piety nor Wit,

Shall lure it back to cancel half a line,

Nor all thy tears, wash out a word of it.”

The lines fascinated me and I procured the book and read it again and again. It is by far the best set of poems I have come across and has been lodged in my mind ever since. 

I am sure most of us are aware of the Rubaiyat, have read it and quote from it. To refresh briefly, Omar Khayyam was born in Khorassan, Persia, and lived in late 11th and early 12th century. Khayyam means ‘tentmaker’ which might have been his family’s vocation. He himself was an astronomer-mathematician philosopher financed by the Sultan to pursue his scientific and literary interests. His poetic profile only emerged many years after his death. In fact, some historians doubt the authenticity of many of the poems attributed to him.

The poems gained global recognition in late 19th century after a Britisher, Edward Fitzgerald, received some manuscripts from a friend and put the poems together titling them  “Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam.” Rubaiyat is Persian for ‘quatrain’ or four-line stanzas which is the format of Khayyam’s poems. Fitzgerald’s first edition was published in 1859 and did not gain much traction for a few years but became hugely popular thereafter. Fitzgerald followed up with four more editions and over the years, numerous other translators brought out their own versions in various languages but Fitzgerald’s first edition remains the most popular one to this day. In fact, many scholars consider it to be Fitzgerald’s original poetry loosely based on Khayyam’s quatrains. Indeed, Fitzgerald himself admits that he has taken a lot of liberty in his translation.

The mystery about Khayyam abounds. Scholars in the Fitzgerald mould consider Khayyam to be a hedonist and an atheist interested in earthly pleasures such as drinking wine, and assess the Rubaiyat to be simply a love poem. The opposing school of thought disagrees and regards Khayyam to be a deeply religious, Sufi mystic. They interpret a spiritual meaning in his lines and consider that he was, in fact, expressing devotion to his god in the guise of wine. This claim is strengthened by the fact that, in his time, he was respected as a sage.

To say the least, Fitzgerald’s work is superb poetry and enormously alluring. It makes for easy reading and has a musical cadence to it.

I am no scholar and simply enjoy the Rubaiyat without worrying too much about the two opposite schools of thought although I do feel that many of his lines cannot be explained unless they had a deeper meaning rather than purely literal. 

Let me now quote the quatrains that I love.

The Rubaiyat begins with a spectacular depiction of dawn, the awakening of Man: 

“Awake! For morning in the bowl of night,

Has flung the stone that puts the stars to flight:

And lo, the hunter of the East,

Has caught the Sultan’s turret in a noose of light.”

“Dreaming when Dawn’s left hand was in the sky,

I heard a voice within the Tavern cry:

‘Awake, my little ones, and fill the cup,

Before Life’s Liquor in the Cup be dry’.”

If we take this literally, is a barman in the pub exhorting petty-minded humans to wake up and indulge in drinking liquor early in the morning? Or is the Tavern an inner sanctum and the ‘voice’ a deep desire to seek spiritual consciousness and divine joy in life?

This is followed by:

“And as the cock crew, those who stood before

The Tavern shouted-‘Open then the door,

You know how little while we have to stay,

And, once departed, may return no more.’ ”

A theme often reiterated in the Rubaiyat is the transient nature of human life and the futility of ego:

“Think, in this caravanserai,

Whose doorways are alternate Night and Day,

How Sultan after Sultan with his Pomp

Abode his Hour or two, and went his way.”

“The worldly hope men set their hearts upon,

Turns ashes-or it prospers, and anon,

Like snow upon desert’s dusty face,

Lighting a little hour or two, is gone.”

“Oh, come with old Khayyam, and leave the Wise

To talk; one thing is certain, that Life flies,

One thing is certain and the rest is Lies,

The Flower that once has blown, for ever dies.”

Many verses are devoted to the inevitability and irreversibility of Fate; invoking the sun and the moon, stars and planets won’t help. Let’s repeat the one used in “Pandora….”:

“The Moving Finger writes and, having writ,

Moves on: nor all thy Piety nor Wit,

Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line,

Nor all thy Tears wash out a Word of it.”

“And that inverted Bowl we call The Sky,

Whereunder crawling coop’t we live and die,

Lift not thy hands to it for help – for it

Rolls impotently on as Thou or I.”

So make the Present happy and be content. Past has already happened and Future is yet to come:

“Ah! Fill the Cup – what boots it to repeat

How Time is slipping underneath our Feet;

Unborn TOMORROW, and dead YESTERDAY,

Why fret about them if TODAY be sweet.”

“Ah, my Beloved, fill the Cup that clears

TODAY of past Regrets and future Fears –

TOMORROW? Why TOMORROW I may be 

Myself with YESTERDAY’s Sev’n THOUSAND YEARS.”

“Ah, make the most of what we yet may spend,

Before we too into the Dust descend;

Dust into Dust, and under Dust to lie,

Sans Wine, sans Song, sans Singer, and – sans End?”

So how do we find inner peace, comfort and happiness? -

“Here with a Loaf of Bread beneath the Bough,

A Flask of Wine, a Book of Verse – and Thou

Beside me in the Wilderness –

And Wilderness is Paradise enow.”

Paramhansa Yogananda, our own spiritual leader of the 20th century, has interpreted 'Bread' as the life-force, 'Wine' as God intoxication, 'Bough' as the spinal tree or centre of the nervous system concentrating on which brings great joy and inner peace, 'A Book of Verse' as inspirations emanating from the heart, 'Thou' as the Cosmic Beloved and 'Wilderness' as inner stillness leading to a state of Paradise.

Towards the end, Khayyam is wistful:

“Ah, Love! Could Thou and I with Fate conspire

To grasp this sorry Scheme of Things entire.

Would not we shatter it to bits – and then

Re-mould it nearer to the Heart’s Desire!”

TAMAM SHUD (It is done)

RAVI SHARMA....WHO?

Many years ago, there was a naval party in Vishakhapatnam to which a number of civilian dignitaries were invited. A colleague of mine went up to one of them and introduced himself thus, “Good evening, sir. I am …. son-in-law of….”  I recall smirking then at what I thought was a funny way to introduce oneself by throwing in a connection of someone well-known. Over the years, however, I realize that my colleague was right. When I introduce myself to strangers by just my name, their probable reaction is, “Ravi Sharma who? For all I care, you could be Chunni Lal or Ghasita Ram!”

As William Shakespeare famously wrote, “What’s in a name?” By itself, nothing. What matters is that either you are famous yourself or can boast of a connection to someone important so that your name could have some weight. Most of us fall in the latter category. I certainly do. 

My Nanaji was a respected High Court Judge known for his honesty and lucid and well-reasoned judgments. In my younger days, it helped if I told people that I was his grandson. My mother, starting as a long-serving headmistress of a popular girls’ high school in Jaipur and rising to become Director of Sanskrit Education, Rajasthan, had earned recognition all over the state and won many awards. I would proudly proclaim I was her son. Indeed, even today, long after she is gone, I can quote her name in Jaipur and go up a notch or two in people's eyes.

In the Navy, introductions were not necessary as one had to wear a name tally on one’s chest. In fact, one was known more by one’s appointment than by name. For instance, a Captain of a ship would be known by its name; so I was Katchall for some time followed by Trishul.

Nevertheless, I did have connections in the Service. Both my Mamas had joined the Indian Navy in its nascent stage. The number of officers was small and everyone knew everyone else. Long after I retired, I wrote a few ‘middles’ which were published and I received a letter from Admiral Russi Ghandhi saying that he had enjoyed reading them but asking who I was. I replied that I was Cmde Vinnie Sharma’s nephew and he wrote back that coming from that family, I must be an okay guy!

The same connection may not work well with all. Vinnie Mama and an officer  senior to him were together on the training staff at the Joint Services Wing, Clementown, Dehradun. The senior officer thought Vinnie Mama was too flamboyant and did not like him. The individual rose to the rank of Vice Admiral and became Chief of Personnel. Vinnie Mama specifically told me that he should never be told about our relationship. I wonder if the fact became known to him anyway and was one of the reasons for my initial non-selection for Staff College!

Now, though many years after retirement, I thought that in the Navy my name would be recognised. Recently, I asked a friend of mine who knows a serving Vice Admiral well, to request the latter for help in making some arrangements for my visit to Chennai. I quote from the message my friend wrote to the Vice Admiral, “A small request from Cmde RN Sharma, father of well known Economist Ruchir Sharma….” Obviously my name was not enough and the reference must have carried weight because the arrangements exceeded my expectations!

I suffer from no ego and if I am recognised more by my connections than by my name, so be it. There is one time though when I felt things had gone too far. As a bachelor, I had a pet dog named Lucky, a cute, creamish Pomeranian. As a pup, Lucky had fallen from a bed and fractured its right foreleg which gave it a peculiar, prancing gait. It was charming to watch Lucky as it approached you wagging its tail and looking at you with soulful eyes beseeching to be hugged and petted. It was so popular with my friends' kids that they called me not by my name but as “Lucky Uncle” which I thought was a bit much!

Amazingly, while writing this, a poem appeared on my computer screen, “I’m Nobody! Who are you?” by Emily Dickinson. It is eminently suitable to be quoted in this context:

“I’m Nobody! Who are you?

Are you-Nobody-too?

Then there’s a pair of us!

Don’t tell! They’d advertise-you know!

How dreary-to be-Somebody!

How public-like a Frog-

To tell one’s name-the livelong June-

To an admiring Bog!”

P.S. Latest connection: A few weeks back, I have acquired an in-law relationship with the all-time great West Indian cricketer, Vivian Richards and Neena Gupta, the famous actress.

POP SONGS FROM CLASSICAL MUSIC

 

Writing the previous blog and tweaking lyrics of Doris Day’s seductive “This Is Beautiful Music To Love By’, my thoughts went to some popular songs which have been inspired by and adapted from age-old classical pieces. Many such songs have been huge hits for all-time great and top singers of their time.

‘King’ Elvis Presley has a number of them. His 1960 release “It’s Now Or Never” is an adaptation of the evergreen Neapolitan classic “O Sole Mio” sung by scores of great tenors including my favourite, Luciano Pavarotti. Elvis' version was not the first one; in 1949, Tony Martin had recorded “There’s No Tomorrow” using the melody of “O Sole Mio”.

Elvis followed up with “Surrender” adapted from another Neapolitan great, “Torna A Surriento”. And while on Elvis, we can include “Can’t Help Falling In Love With You” which is from a French love song of 1784 vintage. Most of us will also recall its swinging reggae rendition by UB40 thirty years down the line which perhaps even bettered Elvis’ version in popularity.

Way back in 1945, Frank Sinatra sang “Full Moon And Empty Arms” based on Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No. 2. Many versions followed, prominent being the ones by Eddie Fisher and Caterina Valente, and Bob Dylan as recently as 2015. The Concerto has been very popular with movie music composers and has been used extensively in David Lean’s “Brief Encounter” (1945), “Rhapsody” (1954) with Elizabeth Taylor in the lead role, and “Seven Year Itch” (1955) starring Marilyn Monroe”. I remember seeing “Rhapsody” as a cadet in the NDA in the mid-‘50s and being captivated by the musical theme even before I learnt to appreciate classical music.

The slow second movement of this concerto of Rachmaninov’s has also inspired “All By Myself” by Celine Dion who we all know for her “My Heart Will Go On” from “Titanic”.

Another Piano Concerto, Tchaikovsky’s No. 1, led to the romantic “Tonight We Love” composed by a famous band leader of the ‘40s and ‘50s, Freddy Martin, and sung among others, by Caterina Valente and Tony Martin. 

Two contrasting numbers of mid-‘50s bring back sweet memories to me of our house on 3 Hospital Road in Jaipur and my top floor room where Radio Ceylon was the top source of music on our Philips radio. The first is the sentimental “Stranger In Paradise” from the musical “Kismet”. The song is an adaptation of Alexander Borodin’s “Gliding Dance of the Maidens” from his opera “Prince Igor”. Tony Bennett sang it in the 1953 movie and then performed it with Andrea Bocelli in 2011, 58 years later! 

The other number is the fast-paced, foot tapping “Hot Diggity” by Perry Como based on Chabrier’s “Espana”. It has funny and nonsensical lyrics like:

“Oh, hot diggity, dog ziggity, boom, what you do to me….when you’re holding me tight….

Never dreamed anybody could kiss thattaway

Bring me bliss thattaway, what a kiss thattaway…

Never knew that my heart could go ‘zing’ thattaway

Ting-a-ling thattaway, make me sing thattaway….

Hot diggity, dog ziggity, boom what you do to me

From the moment you’re mine

Hot dog!”

Sure to chase anyone’s blues away!

Paul McCartney and John Lennon did their bit of adaptation for The Beatles with “Because”, a take from the First Movement of Beethoven’s “Moonlight Sonata”. Further, Johann Sebastian Bach’s “Bourree in E Minor” led them to compose “Blackbird”. Paul said he went for the title on hearing the call of the bird while in Rishikesh. 

On hearing the opening chords on the Hammond Organ of the mesmerizing “A Whiter Shade Of Pale” by Procol Harum, one might think of Bach and would be right; the song is based on Bach’s “Air on the G String.” The title has an interesting story; songwriter Keith Reid overheard someone at a party saying to a woman, “You’ve turned a whiter shade of pale.” And so a song was born.

Bach seems to have been a big inspiration to pop music composers and singers. Still, it came to me as a surprise to learn that Simon and Garfunkel’s superb “Bridge Over Troubled Water” owed its origin to Bach’s hymn, “O Sacred Head, Now Wounded”!

To this day, pop music writers keep turning to classical music for inspiration. Billy Joel’s “This Night” came from the Second Movement of Beethoven’s “Pathetique” sonata, Lady Gaga’s “Alejandro” from Vittorio Monti’s “Csardas”, Phil Collins’ “A Groovy Kind of Love” from Clementi’s “Sonata in G Minor”, Beyonce’s “Ave Maria” from Schubert’s famous hymn of the same title but with different lyrics, John Denver’s “Annie’s Song” from the Second Movement of Tchaikovsky’s Fifth Symphony.... The list is endless and continues to expand.

Finally, can you believe that a classical piece can be converted into ‘rap’? Well, that is just what the rapper NAS did, adapting his “I Can” from one of Beethoven’s most popular pieces, “Fur Elise”. His song is intended to be an inspirational one for children written by NAS at the request of his mother and the video I have seen is sweet. Intentions might have been noble; however, I think it was just as well that Beethoven was deaf as hearing the musical twist given to his piece might have made him turn in his grave. 

THIS IS BEAUTIFUL SEASON TO GOLF BY - Apologies to Doris Day With Consideration For My Age

This is beautiful season to golf by

It’s the sun, it’s the air 

So sublime

 

Golf’s a gorgeous pastime to dabble in

Make it yours

Choose a club

Grip it tight 

There goes the ball 

Round and round 

To the flagged hole

And my heart’s jumping wildly

But don’t let it stop

Oh, I wish the ball would only drop in,

I don’t care, if it's sliced or it's pulled

This is beautiful season to golf by

Seize the hour 

It’s so sweet 

Live it long

There goes the ball

Round and round

To the flagged hole

And my heart’s jumping wildly

But don’t let it stop

Oh, I wish the ball would only drop in

I don’t care, if it's sliced or it's pulled

This is beautiful season to golf by

Seize the hour

It's so sweet

Live it long.

BURT BACHARACH PASSES ON - RAINDROPS KEEP FALLING

I read, "Bacharach, master of pop songwriting, passes away at 94."

Immediate flashback to 1969 and "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid", the sympathetic movie about two bank robbers. and one of the greatest songs of all time, "Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head" and its brilliant picturisation in the movie. Paul Newman in the role of Butch Cassidy takes the pretty and pert Katharine Ross acting as Etta Place, girl friend of Sundance (Robert Redford) Kid, on a bicycle ride with the beautiful, iconic song playing in the background. It is a fun trip in a farm with Etta first sharing an apple with Butch and then getting in a hut to watch Butch perform stunts on the bike till he tries to ride facing backwards and crashes through a fence. A bull and he exchange stares till he gets on the bike and picks up the shaken Etta with the bull charging at them.

What award did the song and the music for the movie not win for Burt Bacharach, the songwriter! He won two Oscars, Best Original Song and Best Original Music for the movie, British Academy Award for Best Original Music, Golden Globe for Best Original Score and Best Original Song, and a Grammy for Best Original Score in a Motion Picture or a Television Special. 

Burt won many more Grammys and another Oscar for Best Original Song, "Arthur's Theme (Best That You Can Do)". Many more of his songs are unforgettable like another Grammy winner,"That's What Friends Are For" popularised by Dionne Warwick, his first Grammy winner "Alfie" for Best Instrumental Arrangement, Tom Jones' favourite "What's New Pussycat", "The Look Of Love" by Dusty Springfield featured in James Bond's "Casino Royale", Herb Alpert's mesmerising "This Guy's In Love With You", and "I Say A Little Prayer" by the Queen of Soul, Aretha Franklin.

Burt's music is said to be 'easy listening' but as an NJ.com contributor, Mark Voger, wrote, "It may be easy on the ears but it's anything but easy. The precise arrangements, the on-a-dime shifts in meter, and the mouthfuls of lyrics required to service all those notes have, over the years, proven challenging to singers and musicians." "This Guy's In Love With You" is a brilliant example.

In 2008, he was honoured with a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award as music's "Greatest Living Composer", and in 2012, he along with his partner, lyricist Hal David, was awarded the Gershwin Prize for Popular Song by the Library of Congress, USA. As late as 2021, he with Hal wrote the music for the theatrical performance of "My Best Friend's Wedding."

Apart from his music, People's magazine in 2000 voted him as "Sexiest Man Alive" and one of the "50 Most Beautiful People" of 1999.

For me, "Raindrops" was enough for Burt Bacharach to find a permanent niche in my heart. He will live on as long as raindrops keep falling.