Could Elvis Sing This?: Aki Kumar and "Eena Meena Deeka"

Our random tune for today is called Eena Meena Deeka, and is performed by Aki Kumar, an Indian-born blues musician now living in San Jose, California. Aki Kumar moved from Mumbai to Oklahoma City in 1998 to study computer science. He finished out his degree at San Jose State University and worked at Adobe. However, he had also studied keyboards and harmonica and listened to Bollywood music and US "oldies" music while growing up in India. After moving to the Bay Area, he got turned on to the blues after going to blues bars and nightclubs, and he eventually joined a band playing harmonica. When Adobe closed his department, he decided to concentrate full time on a career in music, and quickly found a niche blending Bollywood music with the blues. He has released three albums. Eena Meena Deeka can be found on his 2016 album Aki Kumar Goes to Bollywood. The song is a Hindi song from the 1957 Bollywood film Aasha, and is considered the first rock and roll song used in a Bollywood movie. One version of the song in the movie is sung by the great playback singer Asha Bhosle, and another version is sung by another great playback singer, Kishore Kumar. The song was inspired by the children's game Eeny Meeny Miney Moe.

Listen to songs like this and more on the KUNM Global Music Show every Monday night from 10 pm - 1 am Mountain Standard Time. Live streaming, program information and the two-week digital archive can be found at http://www.kunm.org.

Sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aki_Kumar; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eena_Meena_Deeka_(song)