- This article details the Indian-British
music producer, for the Palestinian village in the West Bank see
Biddu,
Jerusalem
.
Biddu or
Biddu Appaiah (born 1943
or 1944) is an
Indian-British music
producer, composer and song-writer who produced and composed a
number of hit records during the early part of the British
Disco scene of the mid-1970s. He lifted the careers of
British Disco music stars
Tina Charles,
Carl Douglas, among others; and later
found success producing several hits on the Indian subcontinent. He
launched the career of Pakistani singer
Nazia Hassan, and produced
Indipop hits for a number of Indian acts, notably
Alisha Chinai. From the mid-1970s,
Biddu has also been producing his own pop instrumental albums as
Biddu Orchestra.
Biddu, now 64 (as of 2008), is still active in the Indian and
western music scene, producing albums which are more spiritual and
eastern-oriented.
Early career
Biddu's
originally hailed from Kodagu
, Karnataka
state, India
, but he was
brought up in the city of Bangalore
, India. He carries the clan name of
Chendrimada. In the 1960s, as a youth, he developed a liking for
the then new pop and rock music, as he said in a media interview,
listening to pop hits played on the shortwave radio band of
Radio Ceylon of Ceylon (Sri Lanka),
which was then popular throughout Asia.
He learnt to play the
guitar and in his late teens and early twenties he frequented the
clubs and bars of Bangalore, and soon started a music band called 'Trojans'
with a few friends. The band found limited success belting out
cover versions of The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Trini Lopez and hits of other western stars of
the day, in the clubs of Bangalore and also other Indian cities. The band,
however, split after a while, leaving Biddu alone in the business,
playing under the name 'Lone Trojan'.
Biddu had a penchant for even bigger things in popular music, and
in 1967 decamped for England – with less money and a journey
through the Middle East, which he mostly made on doles handed out
for singing catchy numbers and playing guitar everywhere he could.
A few months after leaving India, at the age of 23, Biddu arrived
in England, the country where he had dreamt of making it big; as he
said in an interview to the
BBC, years later: "I
didn't really know too much about England or anything - I'd just
come here on the chance of meeting the Beatles and doing some
music. Everything that I did had this danceable flavour".
In England, he supported himself doing odd jobs and also working as
a chef in the American Embassy. He saved a few pounds before he
decided to rent studio time and record his own single. The song,
along with many other single-releases in the early 1970s failed to
impress anyone, but gave new introductions in the music
industry.
The Disco Era
In 1972, Biddu scored music for the UK spy thriller
Embassy. Around this time, he also started working with
UK-based Jamaican-born musician
Carl
Douglas on a 45 (rpm record) single
I Want to Give you my
Everything. While this song was intended for the A side, they
cut a song for the B side,
Kung Fu
Fighting, in just 10 minutes. Later, at the insistence of
A & R at Pye Records,
Kung Fu Fighting was put on the
A-side. Soon after release in 1974,
Kung Fu Fighting
became a worldwide hit, topping charts around the world, ultimately
selling over 9 million copies worldwide. Shortly after, Biddu also
produced
Carl Douglas' debut LP (album)
Kung Fu Fighter, which produced another major hit,
Dance The Kung Fu.
In 1975, Biddu recorded and released the instrumental LP
Blue
Eyed Soul, and watched his own star rise even further as the
album's first single,
Summer of '42, climbed to #14 on the
UK chart spending a full two months there.
Also in 1975, a friend introduced Biddu to
Tina Charles, a singer who had had some success
singing lead vocals for the group '5000 Volts'. The first single
they worked together,
You Set My Heart on Fire, clinched a
recording deal with CBS. In 1976, the second single
I Love to
Love was a major hit worldwide.
I Love to Love
and the subsequent hit
Dance Little Lady Dance sold
millions of copies around the world, gave Tina Charles a worldwide
audience and fame, launched her solo career and firmly established
Biddu.
In 1976, Biddu produced his own
Rain Forest LP, followed
by
Eastern Man in 1977, both credited to Biddu & His
Orchestra.
In 1977, he worked on the
Life LP of veteran Jamaican-born
soul singer , which churned out two smash disco hits
I'll Go
Where your Music Takes Me and
Disco Fever.
In early 1978, Biddu's own
Journey to the Moon was a hit,
peaking at #41 in the UK. also that year, he scored music for the
English film
The Stud.
Biddu worked with various musicians in Britain till the late 1970s,
when Disco music slowly began to wane and funk music began taking
centre-stage in popular music, taking with it Biddu's established
place in the British music scene. but he soon found himself
spinning out hits and working in another part of the world - his
home country.
Qurbani & Introduction to the Indian Music Scene
In the late 1970s, western Disco was getting popular in Asia and in
India – but there was no home-bred musician who could belt out a
Disco tune or two with ease and authority. It was this reason that
led established Indian actor and film-maker
Feroz Khan to England and to Biddu, in 1979. Khan
wanted to introduce a catchy song in his upcoming Hindi film
Qurbani, in which the
main score of the film was to be legendary Indian music duo,
Kalyanji Anandji.
Biddu initially wasn't interested in composing a Hindi film song,
but later took it up as he would say years later, "I thought it
would keep my mum happy (back home in India)". About the same time
Khan happened to come across 15 year old
Nazia Hassan at a party in London. Khan later
requested Hassan have an audition with Biddu. Biddu later signed
her up for the song he was composing for
Qurbani.
It didn't take a long time for Biddu to compose
Aap jaisa
koi for
Qurbani. Critics said Biddu's tune and
composition of
Aap jaisa koi sounded very similar to the
Tina Charles' hit
Dance Little Lady
Dance. As the girl, Nazia Hassan, had a nasal voice Biddu
decided to backtrack it for an echo effect. The song which was
recorded in London, was the first Hindi song to be recorded on 24
tracks. In 1980,
Qurbani ran to packed houses in India,
largely on the weight of
Aap jaisa koi and another number
Laila O Laila. Nazia Hassan became a teenage sensation.
Aap jaisa koi was a massive hit in the subcontinent.
Riding on the massive popularity of the song and the film, Biddu
decided to sign Hassan and her brother Zoheb up for a Hindi pop
album, something hitherto not tried in India. Biddu modelled them
on the then popular American brother-sister duo,
The
Carpenters. Biddu composed a few catchy numbers for Nazia and
Zoheb for the album
Disco Deewane. In
1981, the album was a massive hit across Asia, South Africa and
some countries in South America, charting in 14 countries. The
album became the biggest selling pop album in Asia. Nazia Hassan
became a household name in the subcontinent. Biddu saw his stars
rise in India.
Disco Deewane was followed by the
production of three more heavy hitters;
Star/Boom Boom in 1982 (the number
Boom Boom from the album/film was a big hit), then the
album
Young Tarang 1984 two
years later, before winding up 2 with the duo in 1987 with
Hotline.
90's Indipop
Having spent nearly a decade with this pair, Biddu next turned his
attention to Hindi vocalist
Shweta
Shetty, both writing and producing the
Johnny Joker
album in 1993. Then in 1995, came another sensational pop album,
composed and produced by Biddu.
Made in India - a
remarkable dance album for Hindi pop/film playback singer
Alisha Chinai. The album became the best
selling Hindi dance album ever and featured a slick handful of
Western styled videos - a sure selling point for India's
newly-launched MTV set.
In 1996, Biddu made a brother-sister duo again with
Shaan (Shantanu Mukherjee) and Sagarika
Mukherjee, producing the
Naujawan album. Biddu spent the
rest of the 1990s working with a variety of musicians, including
the Indian girl-group "The Models", and
Sonu
Nigam, as well as continuing his collaboration with
Alisha Chinai on her
Dil Ki Rani
album. Into the new millennium, he produced two hit albums with
Sansara,
Yeh Dil Sun Raha Hai and
Habib.
His own 1999 album
Eastern Journey was an ambitious
experiment which blended Indian pop with Western flair and strong,
jazz elements.
Biddu also worked with Junaid Jamshed. Both of them worked in
London and produced an outstanding album under the composition and
lyrics of non other than Shoib Mansoor Sahab. Album name "Junaid of
vital signs " Later the album name was changed to "NAAM" OR
"TUMHARA AUR MERA NAAM" .This album includes the hits like Pehli
Dharkan,Tumhara Mera Nam , Ab Jiya Na Jaye,Barish.
Experiments in fusion
His album
Rainforest of 1976 received four
Ivor Novello Awards.
He had a big hit in Japan working with top Japanese musician
Akina Nakamori on the song
The
Look That Kills. Also a hit in France with
Claude François on the piece
Laisse
Une Chance A Notre Amour.
In 2004, Biddu re-emerged with a new genre to soothe the soul of
western audiences. the album
Diamond Sutra, inspired by
the tragic events of 9/11, has Sanskrit chants and a painting of
Buddha on the front cover of the album, shaping Biddu's concern of
the world in danger of self-destruction.
He is critical of American arrogance and what he describes as an
"I, me, my society," but insists he is not trying to lecture or
moralise through his music.
Biddu now lives in Spain with his English wife and two grown-up
children.
Discography
Produced -
Biddu Orchestra
- Rainforest (1976)
- Funky Tropical (1977)
- Journey to the Moon (1977)
- Soul Coaxing / Nirvana (1977)
- Journey to the Moon / Journey in the Rain (1977)
Albums
- Blue Eyed Soul (1975)
- Rain Forest (1976)
- Eastern Man (1977)
- Futuristic Journey (1978)
- Diamond Sutra (2004)
Film Scores
External links
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