Yesterday’s Melodies Today’s Memories
by Manek Premchand
1st Edition 2003
2nd Edition 2004
3rd Updated Edition: 2018
Notion Press, Chennai
A book review is generally meaningful when the book has come fresh out of the mint. But there are a number of reasons why it is never too late to review ‘Yesterday’s Melodies Today’s Memories’ (YMTM) on this forum. YMTM had made quite a splash when it came out and it has since remained quite popular. Book Review is not a regular feature on this blog. A reader Shachindra Prasad suggested that I review well-known books on Hindi film music, and I recall that he also mentioned this book. But the most important reason for me is that, true to its title, it is so much like Songs of Yore. The tagline of this blog says “A tribute to old film music. Songs of the 30s through 60s”. And Manekji says in the first line of his introduction to the book that it is “essentially about the many creative individuals whose genius produced unforgettable Hindi film songs from 1931 to 1970, and specifically between the years 1947 and 1970”. There couldn’t have been a better fit than this book for review on SOY.