Sunday 27 December 2009

Bappi Lahiri: College Girl (1977)

College Girl

One more before the end of the year; a worthwhile if uneven Bappi Lahiri score. It's from before his disco period, yet does contain signs of what was to come - especially noticeable on the title track. Both the synth-line at the beginning and the 'I love you' chorus in the middle are from Donna Summer's 'I Feel Love'; to Bappi's credit though, borrowing bits from the now classic electro anthem was probably still a novel idea in 1977.

'College Girl' is otherwise noteworthy for the 2 tracks sung by the composer himself. 'Please Dear Please' has a frantic conga-driven beat and edgy guitar playing, but is somewhat lacking in melody. His mod-soul/proto-disco take on 'In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida' (with a touch of 'Wild Thing') however is fab. There are countless reasons for such an undertaking to go wrong, yet amazingly he pulls it off; 'Everybody Dance With Me' is great fun!

Track listing:
1. Bappi Lahiri: Everybody Dance With Me
2. Kishore Kumar: College Girl 'I Love You'
3. Kishore Kumar: Pyar Maanga Hai Tumheen Se
4. Mohd. Rafi: Phoolon Ki Tarah
5. Yesudas & Chandrani Mukerjee: Nahin Chahiye Rang Mahal
6. Bappi Lahiri: Please Dear Please
7. Mahinder Kapoor: Jab Se Bana Hoon Dulha

7 comments:

  1. Thanks very much! I have no idea where my previous rip from but it was ripped at 128kbps, so... goodbye to those.

    HNY as the kiddies say!

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  2. Thank PC,

    Really appreaciate all the hard work you do. The quality is superb.

    Vick

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  3. i recently picked this up aswell - -the "everybody dance with me" track is freaking ace! i can't see it leaving my 'play-out' bag for a while to come...

    great blog.

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  4. Strangely I have a whole folder of versions of the Iron Butterfly In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida track but the "Everybody Dance With Me" version by Bappi Lahri has totally escaped my radar till now!

    its insanely good! though I am guessing that the original album you ripped it from had poor sound quality issues as all the other rips I have heard from you have been wonderful (even at 192kbps!)...is that the case or have my ears suddenly become clogged with cotton-wool?!

    Many thanks for sharing,yet another album I had no idea existed till I discovered your blog!

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  5. Actually now that I have tracked down a couple of different audio files of "Everybody Dance With Me" I have realised that the actual recording is very "flat" sounding which is a big shame as the full impact of just how good it is can be lost.

    I was not casting doubts on your ripping abilities,that is the main point I want to make...so easy for misinterpretations to arise!

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  6. There are a few words about why some of these tracks sound as they do, here.

    ReplyDelete