2017

Best songs of 1948: Final Wrap Up 4

Naushad_C Ramchandra_Ghulam Haider_Husnlal Bhagatram December 25, 2017

And the Songs of Yore Award for the Best Music Director goes to? I start with wishing the readers  Merry Christmas. After the Overview post and the three category-wise wrap ups – Wrap Up 1 for the best male solos, Wrap Up 2 for the best female solos, and Wrap Up 3 for the best […]

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OP Nayyar unlike OP Nayyar

OP Nayyar December 14, 2017

Guest article by Ravindra Kelkar (OP Nayyar lived life king size. Even when he was in financial difficulty in his later years, he was immaculately dressed and had a regal bearing; there was no dent in his famous pride – he refused the Lata Mangeshkar Award for music, which carried a substantial cash award for […]

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Duets of OP Nayyar: Part 2

OP Nayyar December 3, 2017

Guest article by Ravindra Kelkar (Of the 223 total duets composed by OP Nayyar, the most conspicuous are male-female duets in which the male voice is Rafi and the female voice, either Geeta Dutt or Shamshad Begum or Asha Bhosle. These are 119 in number, and were the subject matter of Ravindra Kelkar’s last post […]

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Duets of OP Nayyar: Part 1

OP Nayyar November 23, 2017

Guest article by Ravindra Kelkar (SoY readers would recall that Ravindra Kelkar has been making valuable contributions on OP Nayyar through his guest articles and, thus, filling up a gap in SoY. He has contributed three articles so far: ‘Three distinct phases of OP Nayyar’; OP Nayyar-Geeta Dutt: A peerless combination’; and OP Nayyar’s influence […]

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Best songs of 1948: Wrap Up 3

Best songs of 1948 November 12, 2017

And the Songs of Yore Award for the Best Duet goes to? As per the long-term average, female solos outnumber male solos by a big margin, with duets somewhere in between. The same is true for the year 1948. My list of 114/115 MEMORABLE SONGS in the Overview post has the following break-up:   Male […]

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Waterfalls in Bollywood

Waterfall in Bollywood November 2, 2017

Guest article by DP Rangan (DP Rangan is a man with boundless energy. Even with a late debut on the Songs of Yore, at the rate he is writing he will soon overtake the regular guest writers. After the horse series, he switched to romantic themes of moon and stars. This post on Waterfalls in […]

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Best songs of 1948: Wrap Up 2

Lata Mangeshkar-Shamshad Begum-Suraiya-Surinder Kaur October 23, 2017

And the Songs of Yore Award for the Best Female Playback Singer goes to? The readers may recall from my Overview post, and the detailed review of the best songs of 1949, that one significant difference between the two consecutive years was in Lata Mangeshkar coming as a tsunami wave in 1949, leaving her competitors […]

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Best songs of Kishore Kumar 1.0

Kiahore Kumar October 13, 2017

A tribute to Kishore Kumar (4 August 1929 to 13 October 1987) on his 30th death anniversary A later version of an operating system is considered superior to its earlier version. That is, ‘Windows 1o’ is superior to ‘Windows 8’, which is superior to ‘Windows 7’, and so on. However, that is not true for […]

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Lata Mangeshkar’s best songs by Hemant Kumar

Lata Mangeshkar and Hemant Kumar September 28, 2017

Wishing a very Happy Birthday to Lata Mangeshkar (b. 28 September 1929) on her 88th birth anniversary and a tribute to Hemant Kumar (16 June 1920 – 26 September 1989) on his 28th death anniversary Hemant Kumar was endowed with one of the most sonorous voices in light music. His film songs are universally popular. […]

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Best songs of 1948 songs: Wrap Up 1

Rafi and Mukesh September 18, 2017

And the Songs of Yore award for the best male solo goes to? Some general observations are in order. The year 1948 did not have a great diversity of male playback singers, unlike the female singers. KL Saigal had passed away a year earlier; Talat Mahmood would appear a couple of years later; Hemant Kumar […]

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