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

Mohammad Rafi

Rafi’s Centenary Special: 35 songs from 35 years (1946-1980)

March 19, 2024

Guest article by Sivanandam Palamadai as a tribute to Rafi with 35 songs in 35 years (1946-1980) in the continuing series of articles on Rafi’s centenary (24th December 1924-31st July 1980) (Songs Of Yore is celebrating 2024 as the centenary year of Mohammad Rafi. I heralded the year with his solos from A to Z. […]

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Mohammad Rafi from A to Z

January 1, 2024

Wishing the readers and their friends and families a very Happy New Year with Rafi’s centenary year celebrations (b. 24 December 1924, d. 31.7.1980) Mohammad Rafi is the undisputed most versatile playback singer of Hindi films. You think of genres – bhajan, qawwali, romantic, patriotic, ghazal – he could do all. There was another unique […]

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Rafi’s songs with some unrecognised composers

July 31, 2022

Guest article by Sivanandam Palamadai as a tribute to Rafi on his 42nd Remembrance Day (24 December 1924 – 31 July 1980) (Rafi was the most dominant male playback singer of the Golden Era of film music. Yet he remained an unassuming, simple-hearted person with malice to none. The stories of his kindness and support […]

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Mohammad Rafi’s Non-film Hindi Geets and Ghazals

December 24, 2021

A tribute to Mohammad Rafi on his 97th Birth Anniversary (b. December 24, 1924 – d. July 31, 1980) by guest author Ashok M Vaishnav and wishing Merry Christmas to all (Ashok M Vaishnav is a solid Rafi fan, without wearing it as a medallion, and without picking up a sword to slay anyone at […]

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Dattaram Part 2: Breaking out of the Banyan Tree with ‘Other’ Singers

May 29, 2021

Second and final part of tribute to Dattaram (1929 – 8 June 2007) We saw in Dattaram Part 1 dealing with his songs for Mukesh and Manna Dey, how his association with the Big Banyan tree, Shankar-Jaikishan, made it difficult to get out of the comfort zone of SJ. The readers Mahesh and Hans Jakhar […]

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N Datta-Rafi: When they meet it is GOLD

December 13, 2020

Guest article by Hans Jakhar as a tribute to N Datta (12 December 1927 – 30 December 1987) on his 93rd birth anniversary with his songs for Rafi (You can’t get a more passionate fan of Asha Bhosle than Hans Jakhar, and she was the principle female playback singer for Ravi. Therefore, he was the […]

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Chitragupta’s duets for Rafi: Melody Personified

July 31, 2020

A tribute to Rafi (24 December 1924 – 31 July 1980) on his 40th Remembrance Day Today is the 40th Remembrance Day of Rafi. He was the most versatile playback singer of the Golden Era of film music and, more importantly, he was universally known as a good human being, without malice to anyone, and […]

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Ravi’s best duets for Rafi

August 20, 2019

In my last post I covered Ravi’s best solo songs for Rafi. He composed about 250 songs for Rafi, including duets. It is a huge number in absolute as well as relative terms. Only two, Laxmikant-Pyarelal and Shankar-Jaikishan, have undisputedly composed more Rafi songs than him, as can be expected. Chitragupta is in the same […]

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Rafi’s best songs by Ravi

July 31, 2019

A tribute to Rafi on his 39th death anniversary (24 December 1924 – 31 July 1980) Rafi being undoubtedly the most versatile playback singer of the Golden Era, he sang a number of great songs for many music directors. For most composers, he was their leading singer. Who gave the greatest songs for Rafi? I […]

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Rafi’s best duets by Madan Mohan

December 14, 2018

The best songs of Rafi for any music director would include a number of duets. So it is for Madan Mohan, despite the fact that his solos for Rafi are significantly more than the duets. That is an exception to the general trend of duets being far more in number than male solos. Since we […]

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