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Song Stories

“Brimful of Asha”

Cornershop | 1997

Cornershop were not the biggest band to emerge during the Britpop era, but the success of "Brimful of Asha" certainly added some Bollywood swagger to an otherwise totally Anglocentric moment. The subject matter of "Brimful" — film dubbing and Asha Bhosle, India's best-known singer of movie soundtracks — imparted a little something about Indian culture when the song rocketed to Number One in the U.K. and made the Top 20 Modern Rock tracks in the U.S. "I think it's just about everything we've wanted to do within music," said Cornershop founder Tjinder Singh. "To get loads of people of different ages into a song."

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Song Stories

“Is It True”

Brenda Lee | 1964

As the British Invasion reached its peak in 1964, Brenda Lee went from Nashville to London to record one of her hardest-rocking hits, her perky vocal backed by a stuttering, squalling guitar. That guitar was played by session musician Jimmy Page, yet to skyrocket to fame with first the Yardbirds and then Led Zeppelin. "She said to me, 'I've come here to make a record with the British sound,'" remembered producer Mickie Most. "She felt she wouldn't get the same sound in Nashville because they're only just catching up on the British beat group sound of about six months ago."

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