Filed under: India
♬ Escape
The Mustangs were from India.
The majority of the music produce in India, is either Filmi or Classical.
Filmi is the music of India’s film industry, the most well known is the Hindi music of Mumbai (formely Bombay, and refered to as Bollywood). But since there are 23 official languages in Indian, there are many other studios, most notable are Tamil in Kodambakkam, Telugu in Hyderabad, Malayalam in Kerala, and Kannada in Karnataka as well as others.
The two main streams of Indian Classical music are: Hindustani music from North India and Carnatic music from South India. The prime themes of Hindustani music are Rasleela (Hindu devotionals) of Krishna and Nature in all its splendour. Carnatic music is similar to Hindustani music in that it is mostly improvised, but it is much more influenced by theory and has stricter rules. Classical music of India is best represented by such musicans as Ravi Shankar, L. Subramaniam, Ali Akbar Khan and Ustad Vilayat Khan.
But popular music that falls outside of the film industry and Classical music, is not very common in India. You could probably count the number of rock ‘n’ roll records released during the 60’s and early 70’s on one hand. And most of that were covers of American and British songs, as can be found on the Simla Beat records of 1970 and 71.
I have not been able to find any information about The Mustangs. It says that it was written by Danny Hamilton (which doesn’t sound like an Indian name to me, but who knows?).
If you have any information, please contact me.
Catalog number 45-POPV. 8086 on HMV of India. No release date listed.
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Since this posting, I have been contacted by Taras Mohamed, who’s father was in the band. The band did release one other single, which had four songs on it. Also, The Mustangs are reuniting a performance in Bangalore in January 2010.
8 Comments so far
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Radiodiffusion Internasionaal Annexe 
Thanks !
Comment by Wectpypetok August 3, 2008 @ 8:35 ami brought back two copies of that 45 from mumbai 2 weeks ago. same label number, but both look different and even different to the shown above! they have no “cut out centre” and the labels are a bit different in the types. maybe they were pressed in different states or over a long period…
i wasn’t able to find any info on the band either and i forgot to ask the guy from who i bought the records. only found out that one copy was sold on ebay in january this year for 40 dollars…
slightly confusing, as is india at times..;)
Comment by ben November 3, 2008 @ 3:32 pmHey my dad was part of the Mustangs, Kittu. You can e-mail me and i’ll get you in touch with him.
Great to see this on here.
Comment by Anish Ratnam November 22, 2008 @ 8:11 amHi Anish – I bought a copy of this and another single by the Mustangs (4 track, with ‘Love is Blue’ on) in India in Feb 2007 and have thoughly enjoyed them! Do you have any idea when they were recorded and released please?
Comment by Mark Goodliff September 15, 2009 @ 4:54 amHi Mark,
I have no idea, but the Mustangs are having a reunion in Bangalore the January 15 th weekend in 2010.
I will try and get that information for you.
Comment by Anish Ratnam October 30, 2009 @ 8:39 amWell just spoke with my dad and they were recorded in 1968 and released somewhere in ’68 ’69. Will be sending this to the other members of the mustangs and hopefully they’ll be able to help you more. P.S. Are you on facebook, its easier to communicate and exchange pics and such there. You can send your replies to jcratnam@gmail.com
Comment by Anish Ratnam October 30, 2009 @ 9:06 amHello Mark
Comment by Haroon November 27, 2010 @ 5:09 amI am Haroon,bass player with the Mustangs(India).
We all will be getting together again in Jan 2011 for 2 shows in Chennai and Bangalore, India.
My email address is: capl@bigblue.net.au. I would appreciate help in getting a sound clip of our record. The only copy that I have is very badly scratched and I need a ‘clean’ copy for us to practice with.
We are all in our 60s and now live in 3 different continets, 4 different countries and 6 different cities. I live in Melbourne, Australia.
I’d appreciate your help as I have been trying hard to obtain a copy of our 45rpm records. Cheers, Haroon
“I have not been able to find any information about The Mustangs. It says that it was written by Danny Hamilton (which doesn’t sound like an Indian name to me, but who knows?)”
It’s a Ventures cover. I prefer the Mustangs version though!
Comment by Will January 19, 2012 @ 10:16 am