"Brimful of Asha" is an East-West Fusion pop-rock song by the British band Cornershop, which originally reached number 60 in the UK Singles Chart in 1997. A remix by Fatboy Slim became a hit in 1998 on the US and UK charts, reaching #1 in the UK. The lyrics are a tribute to Asha Bhosle, one of the most famous pop singers/film-score vocalists of India.

This song is based upon the history of film culture in India. Since their introduction, Indian films have relied heavily on song-and-dance numbers attributable to Broadway musicals. Almost always, the singing was performed by background singers while the actors and actresses lip-sync. Asha Bhosle is one of these playback singers who has sung over 20,000 songs. Playback singers Lata Mangeshkar (Bhosle's sister) and Mohammad Rafi (one of the top male playback singers of the mid-century) are also mentioned in the song.

It has also been suggested that the song has several symbolic meanings. Asha is Hindi for Hope. It has been suggested that the lyrics mean that everyone has a brimful of Hope, that the song is a message of how the Indian media provide the impoverished with hope for a better life, and that the lyrics "Everybody needs a bosom for a pillow" actually is a skewed translation of the saying "Everybody needs a shoulder to cry on". This would seem to be supported by the full verse "Everybody needs a bosom for a pillow; mine's on the 45", where Channel 45 is the popular channel for Indian television. More likely though, this is a reference to records being played back at 45 revolutions per minute, and how he would listen to music (possibly indian) as his comfort. This is both denoted by the picture of the girl listening to a record player and the last time he says this lyric he changes the words to "mine's on the RPM."

The music video for the song was produced by Harder/Fuller Films.

In popular culture

The song is also heard in the film The Love Guru.

References

External links

• More background information about "Brimful of Asha" and its lyrics.
• Lyrics

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