“SPECIAL FAVOURITES” – by Des Kelly

Just for a change, (which is as good as a holiday), I have decided to feature three of my special Sinhala-Song favourites for the many thousands of eLanka members & readers, in the hope that these songs will bring back many precious memories, as music so often does, better than anything else.

The first, is the rendition of Dilhani-Dhuwane’ by Indrani Perera, whose “Cover” of the superb Original Composition of the late, great Clarence Wijewardena moved me so very much when I first heard it, after migrating to Australia in 1962, I decided to write my own “English” version, titled “My Lovely Island Home”, to the tune of this beautiful Sinhalese song. What many of our readers do not know, is that not many years thereafter, Indrani came to Melbourne, to feature in a couple of shows, and I joined her on-stage to sing the English version of the song, while Indrani sang the Sinhala version, balanced off beautifully by a top “Sound-Engineer”, who really knew his job. The audience loved it, and that was all Indrani & I wanted anyway. Once again, Clarence’s song was a hit, and I was very proud to sing it with this Songstress who was certainly one of the best in Sri Lanka, of that particular era. I then met Indrani back-stage, and found her to be a warm, congenial person, very much like another male Sri Lankan “Star” Keerthi Pasquel, who I was lucky to make contact with, also when he came to Melbourne. Not only is he a great Vocalist, I found him to be an excellent bass & rhythm guitarist, & very easy to keep company with, being, like Indrani, warm & friendly, just like most of our Sri Lankans are, (with the exception of a few, I must add).

I have chosen Keerthi’s “Bolanda Kathaa” (translates to trivial-talk), I think. There have been many versions of this superb song (Composer unknown), which is a shame, I think, but Keerthi does a wonderful job with it.

The third & final “Special Favourite” was sent to me by Maxwell Gerreyn with the song “Api kawrudha”?

(Who are we), written & composed by Senaka Batagoda. I always loved the song, which was also sung by Senaka’s very pretty young daughter Sareena, but this particular version was totally different. Unfortunately, I am unable to name either the band or the cute female Vocalist who is quite certainly not a Sinhalese lass, but does a fine job with the song. The band was also very good, but the “Sax-solo” could have been a bit better, especially when his jazzy “riff” almost went adrift when he hit a high note. The song, as a whole, was quite enjoyable, and this is what finally matters, anyway.

While I have simply chosen three songs, I have to say that there are many more very good bands and Vocalists both male and female, in Sri Lanka, but I dare not list them for fear of inadvertently missing one or two.

Please take the time to listen & enjoy these Special Favourites of mine, folks & let me thank those of you, who have kindly donated, in order to keep this eLanka website running smoothly.

Your donations help keep eLanka Staff in Sri Lanka working in order to bring us these hopefully interesting reading, & now, listening matter.