Ten best songs (solos) composed by SD Burman

AK

Your choice of Devdas and the song of Talat Mahmood would no doubt be upheld by many more and you will be patted on your back for your aesthetic taste. What about this song from film Angarrey, music set up by S. D. Burman. Is it not equally entrancing expressing more or less a similar mood.

Doob gaye Akash ke tare

https://youtu.be/5sDI21jFZSA

AK ‘ji ;
A perfect tribute to the great singer and composer . All the songs chosen in your 60 songs listings represent in general the best of mine as well. I agree with you and Dinesh ji on choosing the best songs that takes into account aesthetic appeal as well . One can mar or enhance quality of a song by its cinematographer or its art director . Take the case of ….Aaj sajan mohe aang laga lo…..I think picturisation of this song is a mile stone in bollywood history as to presentation of a song in its totality . I wish this song to be there amongst top tens .
There are two more songs which I wish could find a place in 60 songs listing :
Lata’s…Phelli hui hain sapnoan ki bahen
S D B ‘s…Dheere se aana bagiyan mein
Once again thanks for this wonderful post.

Well written and interesting. I might have included a few more songs from later movies as well, yet great list.

AK,
Choosing one song from SDS’s best. Is, I think, an impossible task.
Like Anu I would enjoy.
All 60 and may be 120 more.
Talking about overdose. I would love to die of SDB’s overdose:)
Thanks!

Amirbai Karnataki song is soul stirring. It appears to be based on the Raag Desh. I never knew it was debut for SDB. What a title – 8 Days. Did it run for as many days.

A K’ji;
After listening and watching all the songs, again and again , I will vote for Top Three songs as :
1. Mitwa lagi re yeh kaisi ……Talat……Devdas
2. O re maanjhi……..S D B…..Bandini
3. Thandi hawaiyen ….Lata…..Naujawan

My rating is based on the quality of the composition vis a vis its lyrics , interlude that captured the situation in the movie beautifully ; as also the mood and performance of the actors .

AK nice songs, SD as a composer had such a wonderful sense of melody, that he could bring out beauty with the minimum of notes. I have never been able to do a best of , too many things influence me at different times. You have veered towards older compositions. I would like to present some that I find interesting.
Rangeela re
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GzJCS7IiyJc
Beautifully arranged , great use of rhythmic movements by strangely even the strings and of course guitar and congas, a lovely violin solo in the middle and of course Lata.

Raat akeli hai
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t7s6eepvodw
Can we leave the other sister behind? Right from the first few notes on the keyboard and the slow unfolding by Asha and the cymbals …such a lovely combination of alto saxophone and flute. Asha would go even higher than this in another SD Burman song possibly the highest any female singer has touched in Hindi though one could argue that she sang falsetto there.

For Rafi since you mentioned Kaagaz ke phool to me it brought to mind the title song.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ddJfKbwPM0
Sebastian D’souza’s arrangement of this song is wonderful. The organ and the slow pedantic measured notes on the double bass only emphasizing the first beat of the 3/4 rhythm most of the song is set in, the use of the male and female parts in the chorus.
Talking of arrangers one must not forget the amazing arrangement for “Yeh raat yeh chaandni” by Anthony Gonsalves. Without that arrangement for me the song would not be half of what it is.

For Kishore Kumar I this song floated into my head… mainly because of the bluesy guitar lick that goes on , beautiful because there is almost no real differentiation of mukhda and antara it is almost an unbroken sequence..and the ending, though on the tonic, somehow still seems incomplete.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DytqTTZbhAA
I must admit that Dev Saab’s hirsute appendage on the upper lip put me off a bit.

So many good songs , I could never limit myself to a best of…:-)

SSW,
Your comments always make the songs more enjoyable.
Kishore was SDB’s preferred singer after Aradhana, but I always have a ” Kaash Rafi had sung these songs” feeling for two of his songs.
The one you have mentioned, Dil aaj shaair hai from Gambler, is one of them the other is
Phoolona ke rang se from Prem Pujari.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R9nrKcDgBho
I am glad he picked Rafi for this song from Gambler
Mera man tera pyaasa
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qg4BSk8qTu4

Thanks, AK, for a special feature’ only’ for me!! I appreciate the gesture and the effort made by you. I was out of station, and have just returned to the world. Will revert asap, with my comments, and ‘my’ list of the ‘Ten Best’.

AKji,
After giving a more careful thought on short listed songs for Rafi, I would have found it difficult to exclude “Kahin Bekhayal Ho Kar” & “Aise To Na Dekho” from Teen Deviyan & “Apani To Har Aah Ek Tufan Hai” from Kala Bazar.

AK I think my typing has left my grammar and meaning a little off key. 🙂
I meant the song reverts back to the tonic so it has to be the lyrics. But then again there is this indefinable sense of how the last note hangs in the song. That positioning is something that was pretty uniquely SD. It isn’t that simple to get , my teacher sometimes says “when you stop concentrating on the notes, you will play the music.”

When ever I think of Rafi , Devanand and S D Burman combo ; I think of Tere ghar ke samne ‘s trio songs :

1. Dil ka bhawar kahe pukar
2. Tu kahan yeh batta
3. Sun le tu dil ki sajja
Its a sheer pleasure listening to these songs again and again .

AK,
I had decided not voice dissent this time but after your response to Ravindra Kelkar comment #34 I feel like speaking up.
In past Hans has accused of being unfair to Rafi at times I felt he was stretching it too far but when you chose Rafi’s five song in SDB best collection I must say तो मुझे सोचना पड़ा

Sigh. Another list! And endless debates. To what end?

AK
I am bemused by your observation about Naushad. If you talk of people in general, Hindi songs are very popular in South even though majority cannot understand or even pronounce the words properly. For the musicians he was a gold mine with huge resources to plagiarise and produce bad imitations. Naushad must have been very magnanimous to ignore such crass slaughter of his tunes. Please tell me the higher judicial authorities to whom we all should appeal against your findings and get justice.

AK

What a masterstroke. Your long innings in Govt. service has honed your skills in obfuscating an issue and so diluting it even the aggrieved party would not know what he was agitating for.

Appealing to the general assembly is like calling the flying denizens to assemble at one place for a hearing. Even then they would be squeaking , flapping and shouting at each other that I do not know who will bang the gavel to restore semblance of order and start with the proceedings. I give up the attempt as forlorn ab initio and continue to bear it. I will follow the adage my father used to state from his personal experience, i.e. I used to argue with him often – What cannot be cured must be endured.

Continue your post in this line merrily knowing your stand is unassailable. Why not the best ten of C Ramchandra and Naushad since this is their year as decided by you.

Mumbaikar8,
You have a valid point here about the fact that only five Rafi songs are short listed (Lata has seven songs short listed).
AKji,
I know I am sticking my neck out here, but possibly SDB is an exception in the sense that he was the only composer who has more number of great solo songs composed for a male singer. Almost all the other great composers of that era have more number of great solo songs created for female singers. I confess that I have not really studied this in great detail, but that’s the general impression I get. I am limiting the scope for this observation for Naushad, CR, AB, MM, SDB, OPN & SJ, since I consider them to be the top quality level composers.
Possibly, SJ might have more number of great male solo songs than the female songs, though I am not sure. But prima facie SDB definitely has greater number of superb quality male solos as compared to female solos. What’s your take on this?

AK and All

Okay, here is my list of the best 10 SDBs. In trying to do so, I did not start with any self-imposed conditionality such as only solos, but after finalising the list, I found that all 10 happened to be solos.

1. Piya tose naina lage re – Guide – For me a big and surprising omission in AK’s list. I still remember, rather vividly, when I first heard the 15-minute Guide promotion programme by the inimitable Ameen Sayani on Radio Ceylon way back in 1965 (1964?) when I was just entering my teens and had little appetite for classical music, he presented this song in its complete version saying that short of watching the film this would be the only occasion to hear it full, and so it was, until the dawn of the internet age. I was not taken in by it then, but this song , for its classical-based composition, melody, orchestration, Lata’s rendering, and picturisation, grows on you for ever the more you hear it. My all-time No. 1 song by SDB.
2. Khoya khoya chand – Kala bazaar – Another immortal gem of a song, made incomparable by Dev’s unique – by his own stylish standards, too – movements in the film, besides of course Rafi’s smooth rendering.
3. Tum na jane kis jahan – Sazaa – for its melody and orchestration…not to forget Lata.
4. Phaili hui hain sapnon ki – House No.44 – You would love this song for its innocent chirpiness and sweet rendering if you just ignore Kalpana K’s non-acting in the film.
5. Aaj sajan mohe – Pyasa – I ‘discovered’ this song when I watched the movie late during my univ days, and was blown away by its impactful picturisation.
6. Thandi hawayen – Naujawan – A memorable song, favourite on all lists. The first one penned by Sahir for SDB, and also his first when he returned to Bollywood with a vengeance.
7. Jalte hain jiske liye – Sujata – Needs no words.
8. Phoolon ke rang se – Not mentioned by any of you, so I am a little apprehensive including it here, except that it was my no. 1 song among ALL for many years. Besides, SDB and no Kishore; blasphemous, AK!
9. O re manjhi – Bandini – Again, needs no justification….And the last…
10. Jayen to jayen kahan – Taxi driver (Talat/Lata) – The best first Filmfare song!

I would also, like AK, add a few more of SDBs that I love: Ab to hai tumse (Abhiman); Chand phir nikla (Paying guest); Chup hai dharti (House No. 44); Dil ka bhanwar (Tere ghar ke samne); of course, Hum bekhudi mein (Kala Pani); Sun mere bandhu (Sujata)…and numerous others like in Paying Guest, Nau Do Gyarah, Chalti ka Naam Gadi, and so on.

To add tangentially, it was SDB’s Aradhana (not Shakti Samant’s so much) that catapulted Kishore’s singing career above all others, as well as Rajesh Khanna’s.

Many of you have already observed that SDB was one composer who maintained his high quality and popularity all through right till the very end, unlike other stalwarts like Naushad, OPN, SJ, CR, even Salil and Khaiyyam. In this respect, there is no one to beat SDB.

What has, however, long intrigued me is that much of SDB’s initial work in late 40s and early 50s, much to my surprise, was nowhere as captivating. Any comments on this?

On some other comments before this, I suppose there are two very distinct aspects to such music, as indeed to most art and most things in life, which are (a) its merit, and (b) its analysis including statistical – remember one of AK’s recent pieces loaded with stats? While the former is the raison d’etre why we all are here, some of us are, well, inclined to finding the latter, too, absorbing, just as in cricket. And once you start doing that, why stop before you verifiably conclude that indeed Bradman was the best ever. I can well understand that it is not everybody’s cup of tea, but that is how life goes.

AK, thanks again. Now I await Salil and Khaiyyam, Inshallah! Or rather, AK willing…

@53
Your arguments are sound if intent is to cover as many singers as possible. I have one more suggestion as follows:

Take any one singer – Rafi, Asha, Hemant Kumar, and Manna Dey. Confine to a period and choose best songs for composers. Here singer would be one but composers as many as possible. I deliberately omitted Lata Mangeshkar because O P Nayyar would be outside the fray, which is not fair in any presentation of this type.

There were some excellent songs in Munimji, Paying Guest ,Nau do Gyarah and Funtoosh also. But they have not featured in this discussion.Same is the case with Taxi Driver and Solva Saal.

AK,
Sorry, I missed your comment # 46.
Ravindra Kelkar’s comment is the answer to your question.
It is not with or against you. I just raised a question?

Ashok Tyagi

My understanding is that Tu Ganga ki mauj won Naushad the ebst MD award, but the best song award was won by Jayen to…

While I am at it, let me acknowledge a couple of inadvertent factual errors as also omissions in my last post. I hardly need flag them here in this group of such erudite people.

@65

To stress the point about tabla role in S D Burman music direction, the following song from Mein Surat Teri Ankhen (1963) by Rafi would bear it out.

https://youtu.be/6kcoihovNfU

AKji,
SDB was a great MD. I consider SDB, OPN, Naushad, AB,CR, MM & SJ as the top MDs in the golden era. What your post points out is the fact that SDB was much more democratic or socialist in his outlook about giving songs to all the prominent singers of that time. Probably, the only missing singer is Mahendra Kapoor. At least, I don’t know any song of Mahendra Kapoor for SDB. All of these singers have sung memorable songs under the baton of SDB is not a surprise really, since he was a great composer. According to me, the ability to create a wonderful tune to meet the requirements of the song situation in the film, is what makes any MD great. Who finally sang it, has only a minor impact on the final output. As OPN claims, the orchestration & singers contribute only 25% in the final quality of song. Keeping this in mind, if we have high quality singers available to render the song, the final result is not going to be too different, if instead of singer A, singer B sings it. Just to make this more clear, let us examine the three Mukesh songs that you have short listed. I can imagine “Jaanewale ho sake to” being sung by Hemant Kumar, similarly “Sun ri Sajani” being sung by Manna Dey & “Ae dil-e-awara” being sung by Talat. Possibly, all the three songs could have sounded even better than what Mukesh managed to achieve.
SDB had many assistants who later became well known MDs, e.g. N Datta assisted him for Jaal. Then he had Jaidev for many years, followed by RDB. Probably for SDB, the role of an assistant was very important, because it’s claimed that at least at the start of his career as MD, he didn’t know anything about music arrangement & orchestration. It’s said that CR made musical arrangement for his first film & due to this fact, CR never considered SDB as a great MD.
Another observation I have is that SDB’s songs were more melodious when Jaidev was his assistant. I think “Guide” was the last movie for which Jaidev was his assistant. Probably it’s not a coincidence that for majority of the 12 songs you have selected, Jaidev was his assistant. If you notice, after Guide, many of his songs had more orchestration based upon western style & sounded a bit loud & hence less melodious as compared to his earlier songs. The music of “Jewel Thief” is a classic example of this. This was probably due to the influence of RDB as his assistant. SSW in his comments refers to Sabastien as his assistant, which I was not aware of. May be it was an exception. After Aradhana, RDB stopped being assistant to SDB & SDB’s wife Meera Burman took over that role. To my ears, I find his music for Tere Mere Sapane as better than Aradhana & more melodious since RDB was not in the picture.

Mahendra kapoor has sung for SD in two films – Miya Biwi Razi and OP Ralhan’s Talash.

KB

Thank you very much.

Evidently there are no videos or even audio recordings available anywhere on the net; what a pity!

Hans,

Thanks; both are fair songs.

May I ask how you found them , for my search at UT yielded only failure!

Hans & KB,
Amazing find. Thanks for the information.
I think the Miyan Biwi Razi song of Mahendra Kapoor can be explained. As the story goes, Mahedra Kapoor won the best emerging singer contest presided over by prominent MDs which included Nuashad & MM. This was in the year 1958 or 1959. It was mandated by Music Directors Association that the winners will be given opportunity to sing at least one song by all the MDs prevelant at that time. So fot that reason, SDB must have used Mahendra Kapoor in that movie.

In fact CR used the vocals of Mahendra Kapoor in quite a few movies such as STREE and NAVARANG and later in films such as BAHURANI and TASVEER and almost upto the end of his career.

I was prevented from commenting earlier thanks to a malfunctioning internet connection. By now everything I could say has been said – and said better – by someone else. So let me just thank AK for this brave and beautiful post. Brave because choosing so few out of such a vast field requires courage.

AK ji,
Congrats yet again for another wonderful article. A special thanks to Mr. Dilip K Jain for inducing you to come up with this post. One cannot have enough of S D Burman’s songs. They are evergreen work of a genius.
I do agree that the selection (60songs) captures almost the best of S D Burman’s songs. I would not like to greatly differ either from your choice of the best solo songs of the 12 main singers of S D Burman. Yes I would have gone for Poocha na kaise, but You are very right about Mat ro mata laal tere bahutere. It is a very moving song. Here is an interesting anecdote on this song told by Manna Dey in one of his interviews.
‘Another song close to my heart is the Bandini solo ‘Mat ro mata laal tere bahutere’. Sachinda was reduced to tears by the end of my rendition. He was very happy with my singing. This song too suffered because of change in situation. The original situation was that Nutun asks Ashok Kumar to sing a song and he says that I know only one song and he sings ‘Mat ro mata laal tere bahutere’ This was the situation Burman dada gave to me when I recorded this song. When the film got over Bimal Roy changed his mind. The song was finally picturised on a man heading for the gallows.’
It appears Manna Dey and S D Burman were not pleased with the change. But as you said even without the visuals Mat ro mata laal tere bahutere is a touching song.
Another interesting observation is that you have selected almost equal number of male solos (31) and female solos (29), where as female solos will account 65 % of S D Burman’s solos. Interestingly 23 of the male solos are from the 1956-65. The majority of the female solos (16) in your selection are from the period prior to 1956 (9 from 1951 ).

Hans ji has pointed out that the between 1956 and 1965 the solos were equally distributed among males and females and this was principally due to the fact that Rafi was singing for SDB and he had a lot of great solos in this era. Can Lata Mangeshkar’s absence for a few years during this period can also be another reason for lesser number of female solos during this period?
Based on your selection of 10 songs from the year 1951 and 5 songs from the film Bandini (1963) alone, can we say that 1951 was the best year and Bandini was the best film for S D Burman.

SD used Kishore Kumar’s voice for Raj Kapoor in Pyar (1950) and Mukesh’s voice for Dev Anand in Vidya (1948) which was unique.

K B’ji’s two unique songs reminds me of other such lesser heard songs of S D B :
1. Dekho mane nahi ruthi haseena ……Asha , Jagmohan…..Taxi driver..SDB
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lhoKIf3mn-c
2. Hum dam se gaye……Manna dey……Manzil…..SDB
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IN64vMbAoPI
3. Yaad aa gai woh nashili…Hemant….Manzil….SDB
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w5RgfAYAM8k

Hansji,
Thanks for your observations on great male solos as compared to great female solos. As you rightly point out in the second phase(1956-1967), male solos were greater in numbers than female solos, mainly due to Rafi. Somehow for me, whenever I think about SDB songs, I tend to recall & listen to Rafi, Kishore & Hemant Kumar solos more often than Lata, Asha & Geeta .

AKji,
I was reading your old posts on SDB. In your Asha-SDB post, you have mentioned that Asha-SDB combo impresses you more than Asha-OPN, most surprising, indeed. The number of wonderful Asha-OPN songs will be at least three times than that of Asha-SDB. However, to appreciate those songs, you will need to overcome the anti Asha-OPN mindset .
Coming to your post on Kishore-SDB, you rightly point out that he was SDB’s preferred singer. However, in spite of this, he gave so many wonderful songs to Rafi, because SDB was a true professional & he realised the true Rafi qualities, as well as that he was the winning horse. After the tremendous success of Aradhana, he realised that times have changed &like a true professional he stuck to Kishore, who was now the winning horse. Also, in my opinion, Rafi’s voice was starting to sound a bit jaded by 1970 & SDB had a great ear in spotting such things. Another aspect was that the quality of Hindi Film Music was already starting to lose its sweetness & melody (this applies to SDB also). Most of the songs after 1970, were of quick-fix nature, there was less requirement to express subtle emotions/feelings, in which Rafi was far better that Kishore. OPN, Naushad & SJ were the MDs who were the real backers of Rafi. OP, Naushad were being phased out & the death of Jaikishan spelled doom to SJ. Film industry is a purely commercial field, so once Aradhana/Rajesh/Kishore combo clicked , due to the already evident deterioration in the quality of Hindi Film Music, it was inevitable that Rafi was going to lose his domination. Another point to be noted is that from 1970 onwards, there are hardly any Lata songs worth the mention(comparatively with the period 1950-1970), which again points towards the end of golden era. So all in all, as a Rafi fan vis-a-vis Kishore, I don’t actually feel sad that Kishore became number one, because there were hardly any songs which Rafi missed, which would have compared favourably with those of 1950-1970.
Another interesting point about SDB is the use of different male voices for the same hero in the same film. In Manzil, he used Hemant Kumar, Manna Dey & Rafi for Dev Anand. In Abhiman, he used Kishore, Rafi & Manhar for Amitabh. Remember, Amitabh is playing the role of a professional singer in that film. It is quite amusing to imagine a person who can be so versatile that he can sing like Rafi, Kishore & Manhar at the snap of a finger. He used Hemant Kumar & Rafi for Dev Anand in Solwa Saal & Baat Ek Raat Ki. Kishore & Hemant Kumar in Munimaji & Jaal, Talat, Kishore & Jagmohan in Taxi Driver, Rafi & Manna Dey in Kala Baazar & Bambai Ka Babu. He used Rafi & Kishore for Dev Anand in a number of films, which need not be mentioned. I am sure there are more examples. Of course, with the advent of Kishore as numero uno, there are a number of films where Rafi & Kishore sang for the same hero under different MDs, post-Aradhana. I know for Raj Kapoor, SJ used Mukesh & Manna Dey in a few films. But I think SD has used different male voices for the same hero in the same film the maximum number of times. One logical reason could be that, SDB created the tune first, & then thought about the suitable singer to do the best justice & got it rendered by that singer, this also enforces my belief that he was truly a professional.

AKji,
Thanks for your comments. About Asha-OP, well the loss is yours, you are missing a great deal of happiness & joy, which is inherent in OPs music.
About trying to compile best songs post-70 to match Golden Era, Best of Luck, however, my advice will be to let it go, it’s a waste of time. It will be “Khoda Pahad Aur Nikala Chooha”. There are so many hidden gems in the 1950-70 era, yet to be discovered, so why waste time & energy for the above effort?
By the way, did Raj Kapoor had three playback voices in Mera Naam Jokar, which you have alluded to? I thought it was only Mukesh & Manna Dey.

AKji,
Well!! Well!! Well! It’s a news to me that in RK film, Rafi is singing for Raj Kapoor. Somenthing must have happened to Mukesh, which made SJ/RK go to Rafi…..I have not heard the song. I haven’t seen Mera Naam Joker so I didn’t know that Mera Naam Joker was in three parts. I am a Dev Anand fan so generally I gave miss to RK films.

Dear AKji,

What a fantastic list of songs!

May I suggest one more arresting melody by Mukesh for the film Vidya (1948) – Bahe na kabhi nain se neer.

Undoubtedly, Rafi was at his best under the baton of SD
Khoya khoya chand
the GUIDE numbers
absolute gems

Tyagiji,
I thought selecting ten best solos by SDB was in itself a daunting task and then selecting best out of the best would be very challenging, no wonder none ventured into that. But kudos to you for doing wonderful analysis and coming up with the best solo.
I will just add that Shailendra was not only missed dearly by SJ but by SDB as well.

Whether it is Rafi orKishore or even Mukesh under SD they came up with unusual and brilliant numbers. Same was in the case of Salil Choudury who brought out the best from Mukesh ,Mannadey and Kishore and rarely Rafi. And surprisingly Talat did extremely well with Salil and a host of other composers. It is desriable to make a list of Salil Choudhary compositions as it is done with SD with different singers to show his range and versatility.

Personally, I like a song not mentioned above: “Piya tose naina lage re” … but then, as I said, people are bound to differ in their choices …