shards of song wafting through my head as I sit in the train ...memories of good old MTV back home in India ... and perhaps still topical

Free your mind and the rest will follow (En Vogue) {anyone in the White House listening?}

Just found out that the Salt N' Pepa hit (a duet with En Vogue) Whatta Man was a cover ... of a Linda Lyndell song from 1968. AllMusic has nothing on Linda Lyndell. Surprising.

And the Coolio - LV hit collaboration Gangsta's Paradise explicitly samples the tune of Pastime Paradise, from Stevie Wonder's Songs in the Key of Life. Never paid attention to the base tune itself, but the really really interesting (cool) thing about Wonder's original is the way the song ends, with the chorus recanting "Hare Krishna Hare Krishna/Krishna Krishna/Hare Hare | Hare Rama Hare Rama/Rama O Rama/Hare Hare". In a like vein, pay close attention to the "Jai Guru Deva" refrain in The Beatles' Across the Universe.