Best songs of year

Best songs of 1950: Wrap Up 2

And the award for the Best ‘Other’ Female Singer goes to?

Suraiya-Rajkumari-Shamshad Begum-Geeta DuttThis year, too, I faced the familiar dilemma I faced last year while reviewing the best songs of 1951: whether to make a combined list of the best female solos or split it in two – Lata Mangeshkar and ‘Others’. Male solos which I reviewed in my last post do not pose this difficulty. This was best underscored by Mumbaikar 8’s comment: there is not much to wriggle about in male solos. It is both a question of numbers and diversity. The female solos outnumber male solos by a factor of four to one. Within the female solos Lata Mangeshkar had established her position as the frontrunner by miles. As per Venkataramanji’s statistics she had 20% of female solos, in all, in the year, whereas in my Select List she has 32%. The other dominant singers were Geeta Roy and Shamshad Begum accounting for about 41% of the total songs, but in my list they had 31%. Thus, Lata Mangeshkar not only had a large share in the pie, her share in the memorable songs was even larger. I described this phenomenon as flattening of the pyramid. Many readers gave two separate lists, but tried to give a combined list, too, by including 3 or 4 of Lata Mangeshkar and apportioning the rest among the ‘other’ singers.

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Best songs of 1950: Wrap Up 1

Songs of Yore Award for the Best Male Playback Singer goes to?

Talat Mahmood-Mukesh-Rafi-Manna DeyThe year 1950 too shows, like 1951,  that male solos were far outnumbered by female solos (by about a factor of 4), both in the total songs and in my Select List which comprised about 15% of the total songs of the year. There have been many additions by the readers to the Select List. These are overwhelmingly female solos, and within that Lata Mangeshkar songs. If we include those songs the Select list would be about 200, and the female solo dominance over male solos would be even more pronounced. Such overwhelming asymmetry was a feature of film songs in general across all the years. We leave the reasons for such difference for another time; we limit ourselves in this post to intra-male solos’ analysis.

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Best songs of 1950: And the winners are?

Babul_Bawre Nain_Jogan_Arzoo_Sargam_NiralaAfter the year-wise review of the best songs of 1955 and 1953, I entered the era of pre-Filmfare Awards with 1951 last year. Continuing the year-wise review I come to 1950, i.e. the beginning of the glorious 50s. End of the 40s marked the end of an era of the vintage singers, and consolidation of the hold of Lata Mangeshkar. Now there was no doubt who the reigning queen of female playback singing was. The male playback domain did not show a similar one-star dominance. The two reigning monarchs of music, Naushad and C Ramchandra, who are incidentally being felicitated in tandem on SoY, dominated the year. The lesser stars too shone bright, with some landmark scores, matching the titans in brilliance. Enough to give music lovers hours of delight in contemplation and nostalgia. For the analytically-minded, the year gives enough material for intra-year and inter-year comparison.

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Best songs of 1951: Final Wrap-Up 5

And the SoY Award for the Best Music Director goes to?

Anil Biswas_Shankar-Jaikishan_SD Burman_C RamchandraThis is the third series of detailed year-wise review of songs. Mid-way I had a feeling that this exercise might appear monotonous and uninteresting. I am very happy to note that my fears were unfounded. Rather, the readers’ participation has been more intense and passionate, and their comments very knowledgeable. Therefore, as I conclude this year’s exercise with the Final Wrap-Up about the best music director(s), I have to sincerely thank the readers for their participation and making the exercise worthwhile.

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Best songs of 1951: Wrap-Up 4

And the award for the best duet goes to?

1951 FilmsWe are now nearing the end of the Review of the songs of 1951, with the penultimate wrap-up – of the best duets – before the final wrap-up of the best music director. The wrap-up of the best solos, especially of the male solos, caused some serious differences of views and sharp reactions. I had thought duets would not pose such problems. But looking at the comments in the overview post, I could not have been more wrong. Several readers added a number of duets from outside my long list, which I had thought was fairly exhaustive. One such addition I find so breathtaking that I have to give it a place in the final shortlist. There is an all female duet, which is my great favourite, but seems to be on no one’s radar screen, though another all female duet from the same film has been mentioned. There are some other all female duets, or songs with more than two singers, mentioned by the readers. And among the well-known songs, the choices vary widely, some being quite unexpected.

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Best songs of 1951: Wrap Up 3

Songs of Yore Award for the Best Female Playback Singer goes to Lata, Lata, Lata…Lata Mangeshkar, with Happy Diwali greetings to all

Lata MangeshkarAll superlatives fall short of describing Lata Mangehkar’s dominance in 1951, just as we saw in 1955 and 1953. Mahesh even said that the best female playback singer other than Lata Mangeshkar is Lata Mangeshkar herself. Many of us would give 1 to 10 slots to her, and still feel that many more everlasting songs are still left out. Since the year also had career landmarks of several ‘other’ singers, we decided to split the female singers in two parts. ‘Other’ singers have been covered in the Wrap Up 2. In this Wrap Up (3), devoted exclusively to Lata Mangeshkar, we can discuss her best without being constrained to look over our shoulders to include ‘others’ for equity.

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Best Songs of 1951: Wrap Up 2

Songs of Yore Award for the Best ‘Other’ Female Playback Singer goes to?

Amirbai Karnataki-Rajkumari-Zeenat Begum-Shamshad Begum-Geeta Dutt-Sandhya MukherjeeIn the previous two series for 1953 and 1955, I had one Wrap Up for the best female playback singer, and unlike the question mark for male singers, the by-line for female singer had a straightforward: “And the Award goes to Lata, Lata, Lata, Lata, Lata….Lata Mangeshkar.” But in the write-up and the final ten I made efforts to include about 3-4 songs of other singers too, in the nature of affirmative action. Her dominance is no less pronounced in 1951- Mahesh goes to the extent of saying that the best female playback singer other than Lata is Lata Mangeshkar herself. But several readers gave separate lists of their favourite songs of Lata and ‘other’ female singers, and suggested that I do the female playback singers in two parts. The ‘other’ singers bring immense variety and several of them had their landmark songs in the year. Therefore, let me split the female singers in two parts, and start with the ‘other’ singers first.

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Best songs of 1951: Wrap Up 1

Songs of Yore Award for the Best Male Playback Singer goes to?

As the readers of SoY are by now aware, the survey article on the best songs of a year is followed by category-wise Wrap Ups. I start with the first Wrap Up on the Best Male Playback Singer of the year. The series is now attracting progressively more and more extensive and intensive comments. I am greatly benefitted by all the comments on the survey article Best songs of 1951: And the winners are? I have tried to capture the sense of the House to come up with the best ten male solos and the best singer of the year.

Rafi_Mukesh_Talat Mahmood_CH Atma_GM Durrani_Kishore KumarI have to start with a Breaking News: Awara hun does not excite the erudite readers of SoY a great deal, and no one will lament – except perhaps with the exception of one – if it is consigned to the category of SSS songs (Songs that became a Surprise Sensation). Therefore, I am announcing up-front that I am not including it in the ten best songs of the year. Who is the solitary exception? Mahesh was the first off the block with a firm endorsement of Awara hun. This song did figure in some other comments too, but somewhat tentatively in the manner of ‘how can one leave out a landmark song like this?’.

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Best songs of 1951: And the winners are?

1951 FilmsAfter reviewing the best songs of 1955 and 1953, which were gap years in the Filmfare Awards (Baiju Bawra, 1952 was the first film to get the Filmfare Awards for the best music, but in the later years no films of 1953 and 1955 won these awards), I come to the pre-Filmfare era with 1951. This briefly explains my odd selection of years. Henceforth, it is going to be yearwise review in reverse order until 1945, which is the task given to me by the readers.

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Best songs of 1953: Final Wrap Up 4

The Songs of Yore Award for the Best Music Director goes to?

Shankar Jaikishan_C Ramchandra_Anil Biswas_Salil Chaudhary_Ghulam MohammadCanasya asked in one of the posts in this series, what was the avowed objective of these posts? Jignesh mentioned that SoY Awards have surpassed the fame of Filmfare Awards (I like that Smile).  Filmfare is indeed a reference point, because this series started last year on some readers’ suggestions that I do a year-wise review of the best songs of pre-Filmfare years. The somewhat presumptuous title and style of writing is all for enjoyment. But music is a serious thing, and the discussions have become deeply involved, the comments both in quantity and quality have increased significantly compared to the last year. So to answer Canasya’s question – some like-minded people, most of whom know each other only in the cyberspace and who are deeply passionate about music, are together embarking on this wonderful voyage of reminiscing about and rediscovering old film music. The survey article together with Wrap Up 1 on the best male playback singer, Wrap Up 2 on the best female playback singer and Wrap Up 3 on the best duets and the present final Wrap Up together represent probably the most unique and comprehensive discussion of the entire music of a particular year. The Final Wrap Up is based on the previous posts and the readers’ comments, naturally, and seeks to focus on the best music director(s) of the year.

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