2025

Best songs of Asha Bhosle by RD Burman

Thumbnail image for Best songs of Asha Bhosle by RD Burman September 8, 2025

Wishing Asha Bhosle a very Happy 92nd Birth Anniversary (b. 8 September 1933- ) with her best songs by RD Burman At the beginning of blogging, I remember, I made a comment, talking about the blog that, On this blog you would not find best songs of Asha Bhosle by RD Burman. Today I can […]

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A Musical Association: RD Burman and The Kapoors

Thumbnail image for A Musical Association: RD Burman and The Kapoors August 29, 2025

Guest article by Dr Rajesh Deshpande (During our discussions about possible themes in RD Burman series, Dr Rajesh Deshpande made an obvious (!) mention of RDB-RK. I was taken aback that no one would associate Raj Kapoor with RD Burman. Dr Deshpande clarified he had in mind Rajesh Khanna! But our cross-understanding led to discussing […]

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Gulzar and RD Burman: A combination in contrast and excellence

Thumbnail image for Gulzar and RD Burman: A combination in contrast and excellence August 18, 2025

Celebrating 91st Birth Anniversary of the lyricist, poet, story-writer, director and producer Gulzar (b. 18 August 1934) with his combination with RD Burman No two persons can be more different than Gulzar and RD Burman – one was known to be a serious, sensitive poet; the other, bit of a Chhote Nawab, hyper, carefree, impatient. […]

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Best songs of 1940: Wrap Up 2

Thumbnail image for Best songs of 1940: Wrap Up 2 August 9, 2025

And the Award for the Best Female Singer goes to? The year 1940 also shows preponderance of Female Solos over Male Solos in total numbers, in line with the  long-term trend, as evident in the list of MEMORABLE SONGS in the Overview Post. But there the comparison ends. Music is never about total numbers, it […]

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RD Burman’s best songs for Rafi

Thumbnail image for RD Burman’s best songs for Rafi July 31, 2025

Continuing the series of tributes to RD Burman with his best songs for Rafi on the latter’s 45th Remembrance Day RD Burman composed over 125 songs for Rafi. He was friends with Kishore Kumar, and their personal and musical temperaments matched. Plus, post-Aradhana (1969) an era changed, and Kishore Kumar’s vocals seemed to be transformed […]

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The musical revolution: RD Burman and the 70s

Thumbnail image for The musical revolution: RD Burman and the 70s July 20, 2025

Guest article by Dr Rajesh Deshpande continuing the series on tributes to RD Burman (When I embarked upon celebrating 2025 as the year of RD Burman, I was aware of my limitations. The blog’s focus area was 1930s through 60s, whereas RD Burman was clearly a man of the 1970s onwards. I was deeply into […]

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Best songs of 1940: Wrap Up 1

Thumbnail image for Best songs of 1940: Wrap Up 1 July 8, 2025

And the Award for the Best Male Singer goes to? 1940 was a year of churning in the film world. It came at the transition of the first decade of spoken films, 1930s, and the beginning of the 1940s. It was a churning of musical styles when one kind of music making was coming to […]

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RD Burman sings for RD Burman

Thumbnail image for RD Burman sings for RD Burman June 27, 2025

Continuing the series of tributes to RD Burman remembering him on his 86th Birth Anniversary (27 June 1939 – 4 January 1994) with my favourite songs sung by him RD Burman was renowned as a music director. He is credited with changing the way music was made. He was fascinated by different streams of music: […]

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R D Burman and His Orchestration Improvisations – String Instruments

Thumbnail image for R D Burman and His Orchestration Improvisations – String Instruments June 17, 2025

Guest article by Ashok M Vaishnav (SOY regulars are aware that this blog is celebrating 2025 as the year of RD Burman with some contribution from me and some guest articles. Among guest authors, our veteran Ashok M Vaishnav has taken up the cudgels with his first article in the series with RD Buman’s improvisations […]

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Songs of Yore completes 15 years.

Thumbnail image for Songs of Yore completes 15 years. June 7, 2025

Fifteen has a nice ring to it. However, the beginning of the 15th year gave me a little concern. With the introduction of a new law in place of the Indian Penal Code, Taazirat-e-Hind Dafa 302 in our court room movies would be a thing of the past. Because there would be no Taazirat-e-Hind on […]

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