A tribute to old Hindi film music. Songs of the 30s through the 60s.

Music Directors

OP Nayyar’s quintessential Rafi

January 28, 2015

A tribute to OP Nayyar on his 8th death anniversary January 28 (January 16, 1926 – January 28, 2007) [Songs of Yore is now on Facebook.] I read a comment somewhere that OP Nayyar rescued Rafi from the staid classicism of Naushad. I ignore the sarcasm targeted at my favourite Naushad, but it underscores the […]

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The Master of Musical Comedies C Ramchandra and his ‘Patanga’ (1949)

January 12, 2015

A tribute on C Ramchandra’s birth anniversary January 12 (12 Jan 1918-5 Jan 1982) In my simplified history of Hindi film music, when I move from RC Boral-Pankaj Mullick to Anil Biswas to Naushad, it would be quite unfair if I miss C Ramchandra. The Great Maratha (in the sense of one belonging to Maharashtra) […]

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The Jewel in the Crown of Naushad: ‘Rattan’ (1944)

January 1, 2015

SoY celebrates 2015 as the Year of Naushad in the 75th Anniversary Year of his debut If I were to write the history of Hindi film music, it would go as follows. Once upon a time there were RC Boral and Pankaj Mullick. Then came Anil Biswas. He was followed by Naushad, who in a […]

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Down the memory lane with ‘Anil Da’

December 25, 2014

Wishing Merry Christmas to all with guest article by Sharad Dutt concluding Anil Biswas Centenary Celebrations (SoY celebrated 2014 as the Centenary Year of Anil Biswas with a guest article by his daughter, Shikha Biswas Vohra on the New Year Day, remembering him as a father and a maestro. This was followed by singer-specific posts on […]

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Best songs of 1951: Final Wrap-Up 5

Anil Biswas-_Shankar-Jaikishan_SD Burman_C Ramchandra

December 13, 2014

And the SoY Award for the Best Music Director goes to? This 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 […]

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The revolutionary music genius: Salil Chaudhary

November 19, 2014

A tribute to Salil Chaudhry on his birth anniversary (November 19) by guest author Sadanand Warrier (SoY regulars are familiar with a more famous Warrier – Anuradha or Anu. Her husband, Sadanand, prefers to keep his immense knowledge hidden under the Nom de plume “SSW”. Now that the cover is blown, readers are familiar with […]

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Anil Biswas’s songs for Bombay Saigal: Surendra

November 11, 2014

A tribute to Surendra on his 104th birth anniversary as a part of Anil Biswas’s Centenary Year series I have mentioned a few times that because of contractual difficulties inherent in the Studio Era, Anil Biswas could not compose for KL Saigal, even though their careers overlapped for over a decade, half of which was […]

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Kishore Kumar’s duets by SD Burman

October 13, 2014

A tribute on Kishore Kumar’s death anniversary October 13 It is befitting that I am completing my (renewed) series on SD Burman with the singer he was most fond of. With 115 songs, he gave Kishore Kumar more songs than any other (male) singer. Surjit Singh’s site indicates that out of this only 53 were […]

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The Swar-Saamraagyi and the the Sangeet-Maartand: Best of Lata Mangeshkar by Anil Biswas

September 28, 2014

Continuing Anil Biswas Centenary series, his best songs for Lata Mangeshkar as birthday greetings to her Anil Biswas occupies an important place among the music directors who played a major role in grooming and developing Lata Mangehskar. She was an artiste par excellence, but Anil Biswas taught her the craft of playback singing: the importance […]

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Hemant Kumar’s songs by SD Burman

September 17, 2014

Hemant Kumar, a singer-composer par excellence, and SD Burman, a Titan among singer-composers. And the former was quite open to singing for other composers too. That brought the two great Bengalis together. Hemant Kumar was another name for melody and sweetness – he is among those who never sang anything which was less than extremely […]

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