First of all, Happy New Year folks! (Live relay, konjam delay madhri… Jan 1st illama, Feb 1st solren. But, basically It’s the new year according to STR Calendar). Hope you all have a lovely, amazing year ahead 🙂

Hope you are playing the song as you are reading the blog right now. ‘Hey Baby’ is my most favorite song in the album Aegan, Shankar Mahadevan oozed out his heart, singing the lovaangi lines penned by Pa Vijay for the tune composed by Yuvan Shankar Raja. In the no single era, U1 dropped this banger just like that. The album had H-U-G-E expectations as U1 & Ajith combo returned fresh after the chartbuster Billa 2007. The album had a simple launch at Hello FM, it was just U1 and the RJ who were at the launch as the team was shooting ‘Hey Baby’.

So, why all of a sudden this song!?! I re-discovered this song recently during a visit to my friend’s place. Doode has got a new speaker, It’s Tannoy’s Gold 7. Like an enthu kid who got a new toy, he made me sit by his music system and played this beauty. I fell in love with this song all over again. It’s the 1st full fledged jazz song by U1 I believe (Yuvan loves jazz & has treated the score of SMS in Jazz). He actually recorded this song with a grand orchestra in London. Result – You’ll feel that when you listen to the song loud in your favorite speaker/earphones. The song was arranged and mixed in a way that you’ll feel as if you are amidst all the drums, sax, trumpet, piano & double bass.

The prelude of the song with the drum strokes builds a strong concrete to the song & it hits the top gear with

“கல்லூரிப் பாடம் சொல்லும்
ஏஞ்சல்தான் நீயும் நீயும்
நான் கேட்கும் பாடம் எல்லாம்
உன் நெஞ்சம் அறியும் அறியும்…”

The interludes are just a charm! With trumpets, double bass, drums and paino like an icing on the cake. Like I always quote, a beautiful song is like a marriage between good music, lyrics and vocal. If something is wrong with one among the three, it’ll never come closer to a perfect song. Special mention to Shankar Mahadevan for pulling off this song, I don’t think anyone else would have done justice to the tune like Shankar Mahadevan did. He owned the song.

The lyrics, wow! When I listen to konjam old songs with great lyrics I feel the next generation will never be able to appreciate, enjoy poetry like we did. Pa Vijay penned,

ஏகாந்த மேகம் என்னை கேட்டதே
அசைகின்ற மின்னல் அவள் எங்கே என்று தான்…

நடைப்பாதை பூக்கள் என்னை கேட்டதே
மலர்வாச தேசம் அவள் எங்கே என்றுதான்…

மலையோரம் நானும் சென்றால், அவள் எங்கே என்றே கேட்கும்
இவை யாவும் கேட்கும்போது, நான் கேட்கக் கூடாதா???

for this song! phew

One more thing I absolutely love about the song is the choreography. Raju Sundaram did it beautifully (He also directed this film). I watched the video of the song before I started typing this out, I had a smile on my face throughout the song.

I hope you revisit the song & fall in love with it once again like I did. See you soon in another blog post!

Peranbudan,
Pattukkaaran 🙂