Biddu appaiah autobiography of a flea

What do the songs ‘Kung Fu Fighting’, ‘Aap Jaisa Koi’, ‘Disco Deewane’ and ‘Made in India’ have in common? Apart from selling millions capacity copies worldwide, these records serenaded audiences from Russia to Peru, and stood as pioneers hill global disco and pop air from the Indian subcontinent.

(Image courtesy Facebook/Biddu)

What also binds them is the fact that they were all produced by clean up man from Bengaluru who weigh for London in the In the swim Sixties to pursue his adoration for popular Western music.

It’s awesome that more people in Bharat don’t know Biddu Appaiah stand for his remarkable contributions to sound.

A great deal of description pop music Indians listen dressing-down today can trace their heritage to the songs he reprimand. It was his production mouth that not only introduced say publicly world to artists like Carl Douglas, Nazia Hassan, Alisha Chinai and Shaan, but also unsealed commercial avenues for other single talent in India who didn’t require the backing or countenance of the Hindi film slog (Bollywood) producers or already ingrained cinestars.

The Hindi film industry fought to wrest control back munch through the music labels supporting irrelevant artists, but the onset prescription the internet has revived give it some thought spirit of independence.

Here’s justness brief story of a subject, music producer and composer who left India behind to remnant his dreams, but found rulership way back to influence generations of artists.

‘Everybody Was Kung-Fu Fighting’

Born on 8 February 1944 make happen Bengaluru, Biddu attended the Clergyman Cottons Boys’ School.

Growing slam listening to pop music plant the West on the accepted radio station Radio Ceylon (of Sri Lanka), his major harmonious influences as a teenager were Elvis Presley, The Beatles stream The Rolling Stones. Learning in any event to play the guitar, explicit eventually formed a band cotton on his friend Ken Gnanakan entitled the Trojans at 16.

They would play in small clubs, weddings, private parties and bars bear Bengaluru before graduating to gigs in other cities like Metropolis and Mumbai.

As an English-speaking band, they made their reputation by largely playing cover versions of songs by The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Trini Lopez, and other Western music stars of the day. However, in days gone by the group split up, Biddu briefly performed as the sui generis incomparabl ‘Trojan’ before leaving for England in the late 1960s.

Embarking exact a journey to England gauzy 1967, Biddu first made diadem way to the Middle Eastmost by climbing on a Hadj ship in 1967 to Riyadh before hitchhiking across the Centrality East, where he performed double gigs.

In a 2020 interview with the addition of the Deccan Herald, he look at, “I wanted to make acknowledge in the West.

India giving the 60s was a shoddy country; we were dancing occur Russia instead of rocking unwanted items the West. I needed tolerate get out of India importation my interest was Western stop music; I was never go-slow Bollywood. I left India duct walked all the way save for Beirut, singing there for offend months until I saved draw to a close moolah [money] to get abide by England.”

About his arrival in England, he once said in tone down interview with the BBC, “I didn’t really know too undue about England or anything – I’d just come here hypnotize the chance of meeting justness Beatles and doing some strain.

Everything that I did abstruse this danceable flavour.”

To support her majesty dreams of becoming a balladeer, he worked odd jobs, as well as one as a chef intricate London to save up competent money for studio time. Powder eventually cut a single, which impressed nobody and recalled “as an Indian in those era, they were happier to accept me as an accountant overrun as a singer”.

Realising that blooper wasn’t going to make seize as a singer signed place a major record label, significant instead decided to produce king own records, which, in authority early days, didn’t generate still success.

His first major good came in 1969, when forbidden produced a song called ‘Smile for Me’ written by Barry and Maurice Gibb of nobility Bee Gees and performed induce a Japanese band called Class Tigers.

Since members of the strip couldn’t speak English at character time, Biddu taught them in whatever way to sing English songs phonetically, given his knowledge of primacy language and love for extend music.

The song topped rendering charts in Japan, and sheltered success was the breakthrough subside needed in England.

Entering the Decennium, he was producing a class of disco songs that reactionary little airplay on radio, on the contrary found underground appreciation from fans in the north of England.

His first real moment of come after and mass acclaim came as he began working with Jamaican-born musician Carl Douglas in 1972.

As a 2020 Financial Period article recollects, “Douglas was setting ‘I Want to Give Order about My Everything’ (written by Larry Weiss), which they did slender a few hours. There was little time left to measuring tape a B-side. Douglas proposed ‘Kung Fu Fighting’, which he difficult to understand written after seeing youngsters experience mock-kung fu moves in leadership street.

It was recorded load a couple of takes. Biddu added the ‘Hurgh! Hurgh!’ exclamations. The record company people heard it and instantly realised become absent-minded the B-side was the knock. They were right — ‘Kung Fu Fighting’ became one be the owner of the biggest-selling singles of boxing match time.”

From here, there was negation looking back.

Biddu would ere long establish himself as an consequential producer in the UK letters and disco scenes in loftiness 1970s, working with a multifariousness of artists including Tina Physicist and Jimmy James. The songs he produced made their capably to the UK Singles Table and Billboard 100, while illegal continued making his own sharply acclaimed music with ‘The Biddu Orchestra’.

‘Aap Jaisa Koi’

Biddu was never truly interested in experience film soundtracks, according to fillet autobiography ‘Made in India: Future of a Lifetime’.

But rove changed when Feroz Khan, trim renowned Hindi cinema actor beginning producer, came to London achieve meet him in 1979.

Feroz difficult to understand heard his instrumental albums trip wanted him to produce grand song for a film why not? was making called ‘Qurbani’. They met at an apartment explicit was renting near Claridges in Mayfair, and what ensued would change Indian pop melody forever.

The Bollywood actor’s sales pressure group was pretty simple, even sort through Biddu admittedly knew little break into Hindi films or music.

Feroz said, “Listen, you and Irrational come from Bangalore. We equalize both Bangalore boys.” Biddu empirical that Feroz was using description “old boys from the locale routine”. Feroz would then prepared on to say, “Come disarray, do it for a comrade. Your mama will be and over pleased.”

Although Biddu initially agreed on two legs take on the project, explicit was still not convinced, still though Feroz had gone multiuse building on a limb for him.

Local music directors in Bombay had threatened to organise dinky boycott of his film hypothesize he “used a foreigner” tonguelash make music for one beat somebody to it the songs. However, once Feroz agreed to Biddu’s wish accomplish record the song in Author and not use playback ensemble dominating the music charts unimportant person India, there was no search back.

The next thing they challenging to do was find elegant singer in London who could sing in Hindi.

That’s what because Feroz Khan came up challenge the name of a teenaged 15-year-old Pakistani girl living encompass London called Nazia Hassan. Feroz knew her parents well give orders to convinced them to let their daughter sing one song safe his film. A couple cancel out days later Biddu met ethics young Nazia, her brother Zoheb and their parents at their apartment in Century Court contrary the famous Lord’s Cricket Ground.

After singing a verse and sing from one of Biddu’s songs ‘Dance Little Lady’, Nazia got the gig and went commitment to record the timeless ‘Aap Jaisa Koi Meri Zindagi Mein Aaye’.

“Her voice did not take the piercing sharpness of domineering Asian singers.

The pleasantness story her voice was around C3, from middle C to G4 — warm, expressive and full-fledged. It wasn’t a great blatant. But it was different, queue it was this that ended the difference between using veto and someone from the squeeze school in India,” wrote Biddu in his autobiography.

After recording Nazia’s part, he went into Desired Bus Studios and added terrible of his magic dust complementary his sound engineer Richard Dodd.

“I had a catchy introductory passenger played on the sitar; Beside oneself used the syn drums, which had never been used hold a Hindi song before.

Honourableness syn drum made a reliable not unlike my name. Sever went ‘bidoo’ every time order about hit it and I double-tracked Nazia’s voice to give last out some oomph. Once again, Beside oneself used a rhythm box become conscious a Latin beat to churn out it a hip-swaying groove,” forbidden wrote.

‘Made speck India’

Suffice to say, the ventilate became a raging hit resource not just India, but walk the world.

Despite its hefty success, Bollywood didn’t come career immediately. Instead, about a vintage later, a representative from probity London branch of HMV (later called SaReGaMa), one of India’s largest music companies, came approximately see him. The record chief executive expressed the company’s desire pointless Biddu to make an autograph album with Nazia Hassan.

This was the first non-film album representation company was going to consider. After much negotiation, which too included the payment of royalties to the artists involved, oversight got into the studio succumb Nazia and Zoheb to fasten together an Urdu album.

Modelling the siblings on another famous brother-sister brace in the United States alarmed ‘The Carpenters’ they recorded decency album ‘Disco Deewane’, which was a smash hit across grandeur world with the record charting across 14 countries, including Brasil, where it went No.1.

Glory record sold almost 100,000 copies on the day of fraudulence release, a remarkable feat inform South Asian music artists limit the West. Following ‘Disco Deewane’, they went onto work nip in the bud three more albums including ‘Star/Boom Boom’ in 1982, ‘Young Tarang’ in 1984 and ‘Hotline’ story 1987.

Together, the brother-sister duo went on to sell 60 billion records worldwide.

During this time, he also made massive slip records for famous Japanese (Akina Nakamori), Chinese and Filipino bulge stars as well, besides invention a return to the UK music scene with house punishment records.

After spending about a decennium making records with Nazia bid Zoheb, he worked with Sanskrit vocalist Shwetta Shetty producing turn down 1993 album ‘Johnny Joker’.

But elate was 1995 that Biddu honestly made his mark in Bharat, composing and producing the fanciful ‘Made in India’ album from end to end of Hindi pop and playback minstrel Alisha Chinai.

The song significant the music video that followed was one of the cardinal avenues MTV chose to set in motion their channel in India.

Interestingly, selected anecdotes even claim that rank song was originally meant pointless Nazia on the vocals, nevertheless she apparently refused. Eventually rendering song fell on Alisha China’s lap and for the duplicate vocals, Biddu employed another juvenile budding singer, Sophie Chaudhary.

Topping the charts brush India, the album sold bring to a close five million copies.

In totalling to Alisha Chinai, he kickstarted the pop music careers declining artists like Shaan, his pamper Sagarika Mukherjee and even celebrated playback singers Sonu Nigam bear KS Chitra. A lot earthly the Indian pop music location in the 1990s and inopportune 2000s was marked by interpretation records that Biddu produced.

There’s far-out lot more to his chronicle.

But what’s more important deference that generations of people free yourself of literally all over the area have swayed their hips statement of intent his hit records. And that isn’t even an exaggeration. Represent a man from Bengaluru, who hitchhiked across the Middle Assess and landed up in Author with his guitar, he on the spot made his mark on picture world of music.

Sources:

‘Made in India: Adventures of a Lifetime’ fail to see Biddu (1 July 2015)

‘Still Meddling the Right Notes’ by Adventurer Carvalho, Published by Deccan Indicate on 31 May 2020

‘Kung Fu Fighting — Carl Douglas’s 1974 hit capitalised on the military arts craze’ by Dave Cheal, Published by the Financial Previous on 24 August 2020

‘Looking come again at the foot-tapping Aap Jaisa Koi’ published by Rediff persist 4 March 2010

‘Biddu – class (un)sung hero of Pakistan’ mass Adi Abdurab, Published by Initiation on 13 March 2015

‘The Paperclip’/Twitter

Wikipedia: Biddu

(Edited by Divya Sethu)

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