Beautiful baby of Broadway
Posted on: April 28, 2013
This article is written by Sudhir, a fellow enthusiast of Hindi movie music and a regular contributor to this blog. With this, the blog reaches the figure of 8000 songs.
Chris Gayle’s recent record breaking feat in the 20/20 match at Bangalore, nowhere near compares with Atul ji’s performance on this blog. 😀 😀
I would challenge Chris Gayle to continue scoring this way, even for just one more match. Oh, I am so confident that he will not be able to repeat his performance. Not very soon, and neither so convincingly. But on our blog, the centuries being posted by Atul ji are remarkable – consistent, and incessant in their regularity. Just two weeks, give or take a day, and there we are, another century notched up on the board.
Welcome all to the 8000th song on this blog. A solid and a stable round figure. And of course, a better number than anything that has come before it (rightly so :)). The king of numbers on this blog today. (Ah but that is only for today. Because tomorrow, it will be belittled by the next postings. All the milestones on this blog are just ‘Ek Din Ka Baadshah’ – they do not survive any longer at the top. )
And to celebrate this milestone, here is a very special song from a film that has been waiting for a long time now to complete its tally of songs, and to be included in the list of films with all songs complete. The film is ‘Ek Phool Chaar Kaante’ from 1960. And the song – it is one of the zaniest sounds to have hit the Hindi film screen, way back then in 1960. And even today, for those who will remember, it stands out as one of the rocking-est songs ever in the annals of Hindi films.
My personal fascination with this song, goes way back to my childhood. Really, really tiny in years, it must have been around late sixties or early seventies that I got to see this film on Doordarshan. And my, what a commotion this song created. The next day, in the school bus, and in the school, this song, and a lanky Sardar ji who performed it on screen, were the hottest topic of conversation. Woe be it to any child who had missed seeing the film and this song. That child was an automatic outcast from all conversations that day, someone not fit to socialize with. The shake and the rock performed by Iqbal Singh (that is the name of the singer and onscreen performer), was something totally out if this world. It seemed as if there were more parts of his body moving, than the number of possible, naturally occurring joints in a human body. “Arre yaar, kaise karrta thaa yaar”, “Yaar wo to girta hi nahin tha. Aise bhi koi bend ho sakta hai yaar”, “Yaar, us ke to koi motor lagi hogi. Aise to koi kar hi nahin sakta”, and more. I can still recall the comments of wonder and incredulity that were exchanged amongst the class mates that day.
And for good reason too. There have been a good number of dance performances on screen – shakes, twists, rock and roll. But no one, simply no one has been able to come anywhere close to this song’s on screen performance by Iqbal Singh. And to think that Sunil Dutt, in the same film, captures the heart of Johnny Walker (playing Waheeda Rehman’s uncle, crazy for western music and dance), with a performance that looks pedestrian in comparison, with the song “O Meri Baby Doll”. “Yaar, agar dance ki baat thi to Waheeda Rehman ki shaadi to sardar se honi chaahiye thi” – another comment that I can recall from that day. 😀 😀
The film from 1960 is produced under the banner of Parbat Films, Bombay, and is directed by Bhappi Soni. The list of actors includes Sunil Dutt, Waheeda Rehman, Mumtaz Begum, Johnny Walker, Dhumal, Agha, Rasheed Khan, David, Tuntun, Bela Bose, Radhika, Sulochana, Iqbal Singh, Mohan Choti, Beer Sakhuja, Krishan Dhawan, Reeta Roy, Bindu etc. The film has 9 songs in total, coming from the pens of Shailendra (six of them) and Hasrat Jaipuri (the remaining three). This particular song is written by Shailendra. Music is by Shankar Jaikishan. And the singing voice is that of Iqbal Singh himself. And the manner of his singing – well suffice it to say that it took me a long time to completely decipher the lyrics, and that too with some errors that were later ironed out with the help of Harmandir ji (compiler of Geet Kosh). And so this song has been waiting for quite some time in the wings, awaiting to be posted.
About the singer, I do not have any more information to add at this time, and I request other readers and friends to please add more information about this fantastic rock and roll singer and dancer.
And now coming to a very strange and a very interesting thing about this song. This song exists in two versions (as if one was not enough). As you can check out for yourself, the audio version and the video version have a slight difference. And the difference is in the first line. In the video clip, which the version of the song that was actually present in the film, the first line of the song is “Beautiful Baby of Broadway”. But when you hear the audio clip, the first line of the song is “Bombshell Baby of Bombay”. The rest of the song is almost completely the same. I say almost, because there is one more line different – you can check out the clips and the lyrics. At first, I did not notice it myself. Since the video version is easily available, one always went by it, and for all practical purposes, the song for me was “Beautiful Baby of Broadway”. As I started my efforts to decipher this song, and was checking the Geet Kosh for some details, I noticed that song is represented with a different first line in the Geet Kosh. This tickled my fancy and intrigued me. As I searched for this song online, you bet I was able to readily pull up the song “Bombshell Baby of Bombay”, albeit only as an audio. As I heard and compared them, I found that only the first line was different.
Then I went back to confirm from in own collection. I found that the version of the song that I had, which came from a recording from 78 rpm record, was surely “Bombshell Baby of Bombay”, something that I had not earlier paid attention to. Then I wrote to Harmandir ji, and he responded, equally surprised. He too had never noticed the difference before. Then he added the possible explanation. The song was originally recorded as “Bombshell Baby of Bombay”, and also originally would have been filmed as such. However, the film got in trouble at the time of censor certification, possibly because of the wording “Bombshell Baby of Bombay”. The objection must have been very stringent and categorical, that the producer of the film was forced to make changes to the lyrics, and in the film version, the song is played with the words “Beautiful Baby of Broadway”. Then subsequently, I also found this anecdote mentioned in a detailed article on Shankar Jaikishan, telling about the censor’s objections, and how S-J were forced to re record this song with a different first line, and then had the audio of the revised song superimposed on the sound track of the already created print of the film. So that is how, the song came to exist in two versions. And to think that in 1960s, the censors objected to and cut out something sounding so innocuous as “Bombshell Baby of Bombay” – innocuous, as per today expectations.
(NOTE: just very recently, I also found out another such incident, this one relates to the famous song “Chhalia Mera Naam” from the film ‘Chhalia’ (1959). This song also exists in two versions, thanks to the objections raised by the censors. The original audio recording carries the words “Chhalia Mera Naam, Chhalnaa Mera Kaam”, where as the video clip from the film contains the words “Chhalia Mera Naam, Chhalia Mera Naam”. Once again, on account of the censor’s raising the question – “how can someone, a single person be responsible to cheat so many people coming from all walks of life and all groups of population”. And so, Kalyanji Anandji and Qamar Jalaalabaadi, re created this song with different words and inserted it into the already created print of the film. This particular incident has been confirmed by Ameen Sayaani ji, in one of his recent recordings.)
So anyways, the 8000 milestone has been breached, and we are celebrating this milestone with a ‘dhamaaka’ song. Listen, view, wonder – but above all, enjoy.
Audio
Video
Song-Beautiful (Bombshell)) baby of Broadway (Ek Phool Chaar Kaante)(1960) Singer-Iqbal Singh, Lyrics-Shailendra, MD-Shankar Jaikishan
Lyrics
———————————————–
(version 1, original 78 rpm audio recording)
———————————————–
bombshell baby of broadway
rock in right over my heart
you have set me a fire any way
you are too good in your art
don’t want to miss you
life without you
can’t think of it
o my shoo shoo
ooo ooo
bombshell baby of broadway
my twinkling eastern star
I would have whispered what I long to say
if you were only not so far
don’t want to miss you
life without you
can’t think of it
o my shoo shoo
ooo ooo
bombshell baby of broadway
rock in right over my heart
you have set me a fire any way
you are too good in your art
don’t want to miss you
life without you
can’t think of it
o my shoo shoo
ooo ooo
bombshell baby of broadway
my twinkling eastern star
I would have whispered what I long to say
if you were only not so far
don’t want to miss you
life without you
can’t think of it
o my shoo shoo
ooo ooo
——————————————
(version two, from film soundtrack)
——————————————
o beautiful baby of broadway
rock in right over my heart
you have set me a fire any way
you are too good in your art
don’t want to miss you
life without you
can’t think of it
o my shoo shoo
ooo
o beautiful baby of broadway
rock in right over my heart
I would have whispered what I long to say
if you were only not so far
don’t want to miss you
life without you
can’t think of it
o my shoo shoo
ooo ooo
o beautiful baby of broadway
rock in right over my heart
you have set me a fire any way
you are too good in your art
don’t want to miss you
life without you
can’t think of it
o my shoo shoo
ooo ooo
o beautiful baby of broadway
rock in right over my heart
I would have whispered what I long to say
if you were only not so far
don’t want to miss you
life without you
can’t think of it
o my shoo shoo
ooo ooo
29 Responses to "Beautiful baby of Broadway"
April 28, 2013 at 11:41 am
WOW *))) (ie 8,000 if you press shift and type 8000).
This will put the strike rate of CG to shame. CG to chaar din ki chandani phir andheri raat hain.
Yaha to harroz chakka lagta hai; aur yeh kabhi na khatma hone wali match hai which is matchless to say the least. yaha harroz diwali hai!!!!!
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April 29, 2013 at 12:50 pm
A strike rate of over 4.5 songs daily for nearly five years is indeed quite a decent rate.
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April 28, 2013 at 12:24 pm
Atul ji and all of my people here
Congratulations on 8000th song.
Regards
Prakash
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April 28, 2013 at 1:11 pm
Atulji,
Congratulations!!!!
Sudhirji,
Kya gaana chuna hai. “Rock and roll” se CG ki chhutti kar di. 🙂 Ab doosri baar record karne ke baare mein sochega 🙂
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April 29, 2013 at 12:53 pm
Hindi movies sometimes contain songs that most of us can scarcely imagine.
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April 28, 2013 at 1:52 pm
Atul ji,
Congratulation on the 8000th song.
Sudhir ji,
very suitable song for the occasion.
-AD
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April 29, 2013 at 12:54 pm
Thanks a lot. This song was held back for such an occasion.
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April 28, 2013 at 4:55 pm
Congratulations Atul ji !!! and congratulations to all ‘team-Atul’ members, readers,contributors and well wishers of ‘atulsongaday’ !!
@Sudhir ji – another great post as usual, thanks !
have watched this movie in early mid-seventies (i think) and do not remember it now ! and finally what a great performance by Sardar Iqbal Singh !
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April 28, 2013 at 5:51 pm
Congratulations to all for this record which will soon be surpassed. Right choice of song for the occasion
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April 28, 2013 at 7:10 pm
Congratulations Atul and associates for an impressive figure of 8000.
atulsongaday.me is a ‘sporting wicket’ which allows ‘players’ to hit fastest century after century. 🙂
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April 29, 2013 at 12:57 pm
We need to make sure that we do not get overconfident unlike previous generation Indian players.
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April 28, 2013 at 7:17 pm
Congratulations to Atul and his acolytes. May many more records be soon created.
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April 28, 2013 at 7:53 pm
I thought the lyrics were “Beautiful baby of broadway”
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April 28, 2013 at 8:34 pm
Atulji & Sudhirji,
Congratulations!!!! for an impressive figure of 8000.Best wishes for
many more records. Very good choice of song for the occasion.
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April 29, 2013 at 1:01 pm
Thanks a lot ! This song was waiting in the wings for quite some time !
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April 29, 2013 at 12:42 am
Wow! 8000!!! Hearty congrats, Atul.
And I totally agree, Sudhirji, Gayle’s feat totally fades in comparison to Atul’s sustained and daily efforts.
Coming to the song. Waah – kya gaana chuna hai. I love the dance!!! I always knew this as Beautiful Baby of Broadway. Didn’t know the whole story behind it – very interesting to read. So S-J had to re-work to meet censor requirements!
I even liked the movie a lot. Good, light-hearted stuff.
Excellent write-up as usual, Sudhiji. Thanks a lot.
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April 29, 2013 at 1:04 pm
Thanks a lot ! The blog has been achieving some cricket like records these days, viz centuries, thousands, fast strike rate etc. This thousand took 166 days and it was not even the fastest thousand. 🙂
And the tales behind the making of songs always make for interesting reading.
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April 29, 2013 at 4:09 pm
Hi to all in Atuldom
i ve been busy these last few days as well as waitng for song number 8000… and Peevesie informed me late last night that we have touched 8000 … and by the tym i logged today i find song number 8003… that means i am 3 songs behind you all
Congratss to Team Atul
And by the way i am yet to listen to the song.. can’t seem to recollect the song.
and even if i sound the “Parrot” to all that has been said till now i agree with Sudhirji CG ki chutti ho gayi
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Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
April 28, 2013 at 11:35 am
Atulji,contributors and readers,
Congrats to all for yet another feet.
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April 29, 2013 at 12:48 pm
Thanks !
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