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

Singers

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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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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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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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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OP Nayyar’s association with Mahendra Kapoor

May 27, 2025

Guest article by Ravindra Kelkar in OP Nayyar centenary series (Ravindra Kelkar wrote a series of articles on OP Nayyar eight years ago. The grand centenary celebrations of Rafi on SOY inspired Mr Kelkar to mount a similar tribute to OP Nayyar whose centenary is on 16 January 2026. He also offered to write a […]

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The evolution of Mohammad Rafi: PART ONE (1944-55)

February 25, 2025

Guest article by Hans Jakhar extending the centenary celebrations of Rafi (b. 24 Dec 1924 – d. 31 July 1980) (Hans Jakhar, an SOY regular, is an avid Rafi fan and a Master of Data. Therefore, when I decided to celebrate 2024 as Rafi’s centenary year, my thoughts first went to him whether he would […]

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Some Less Heard Gems of Mohammad Rafi – The Sad Romantic Solos: 1940s through 50s

February 14, 2025

Guest article by Ashok M Vaishnav wishing everyone a very Happy Valentine Day with Rafi’s sad romantic solos, extending his centenary celebrations (Ashok M Vaishnav had sent this article for Rafi centenary celebrations in the calendar year 2024. But with series on Kalyanji-Anadnji and Usha Khanna added in, I could not squeeze this article in […]

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Rafi’s duets with different music directors over the years

December 24, 2024

A tribute to Rafi with his duets concluding his centenary celebrations (24 December 1924 to 31 July 1980) and wishing Merry Christmas to all Rafi would have been a hundred years old today. His life was cut short at a young age of 56 years, but in this short span he gave joy to millions […]

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SAFARNAMA: In Pursuit of Two Iconic Lives

December 11, 2024

A Journey with Dilip Kumar (11th December 1922 – 7th July 2021) and Mohammed Rafi (24th December 1924 – 31st July 1980) Guest article by N Venkataraman in the series of Centenary Celebrations of Rafi with his songs for Dilip Kumar on his 102nd Birth Anniversary (Dilip Kumar is the undisputed thespian of acting. Rafi […]

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Kalyanji-Anandji 2.0: Their best songs for ‘other’ male singers

November 20, 2024

After I had covered the best songs of Kalyanji-Anandji for Mukesh and Rafi, I once browsed through their songs for ‘other’ male singers for a lark. I was amazed to find an enormous variety of singers they had chosen. Though all the songs were well-known it had not registered in my mind instantly. The result […]

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