at one point I tried investigating the connection between these two tunes but as you might expect, I didn't get very far... David Javelosa, the Sega of America sound technician who localized the original Puyo Puyo music/audio and wrote the Mean Bean-original tunes, claims they were inspired by this song (not that I necessarily believe they were riffing on this tune and not, like, Bille Jean or whatever):
I also tried hitting up Marvin Hawkins, the Hot Drinks dude—they currently work for civil/economic rights advocacy groups in Cincinnati and still perform in a local band, but whoever replied to my email didn't seem interested in talking about Hot Drinks in any capacity. Sorry dude but your tombstone's been chiseled.
