RD Burman

R D Burman and His Orchestration Improvisations: Vocal Experiments

Thumbnail image for R D Burman and His Orchestration Improvisations: Vocal Experiments October 24, 2025

Guest article by Ashok M Vaishnav (We are celebrating 2025 as the year of RD Burman. He was acknowledged for his improvisations in sounds. Our guest author Ashok M Vaishnav has already covered his instrumental improvisations in percussion, string and blow (or wind) instruments. An important part of RD Burman’s orchestral improvisations was his novel […]

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The trio that changed the Hindi film music scene – RD Burman, Kishore Kumar and Rajesh Khanna

Thumbnail image for The trio that changed the Hindi film music scene – RD Burman, Kishore Kumar and Rajesh Khanna October 13, 2025

Guest article by Dr Rajesh Deshpande in the continuing series on RD Burman, with his songs for Rajesh Khanna on Kishore Kumar’s 38th Remembrance Day (4 August 1929 – 13 October 1987) (The single most important factor for RD Burman’s fame is his songs for Kishore Kumar lip-synched by Rajesh Khanna on the screen. Therefore, […]

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Lata Mangeshkar’s best songs by RD Burman

Thumbnail image for Lata Mangeshkar’s best songs by RD Burman September 28, 2025

A tribute to Lata Mangeshkar on her 96th birth anniversary (b. 28 September 1929 – d. 6 February 2006)  with her best songs by RD Burman continuing the series of tributes to him Lata Mangeshkar’s singing-acting career started in 1942 with Marathi Nritya-Natak and Marathi films, under tragic circumstances, when RD Burman was still a […]

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R D Burman and His Orchestration Improvisations: Blow Instruments

Thumbnail image for R D Burman and His Orchestration Improvisations: Blow Instruments September 18, 2025

Guest article by Ashok M Vaishnav (When I mentioned that I would need help from our guest authors from the SOY-community to dedicate the year of 2025 to RD Burman in a befitting manner, Ashok M Vaishnav offered to write a few articles on instrumental improvisations by RD Burman. He has already anchored a series […]

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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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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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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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