Singers

Best songs of 1941: Wrap Up 1

And the SOY Award for the Best Male Singer goes to?

In KL Saigal’s active years, the Best Male Singer was generally a one-horse race. He has sung great songs in 1941, too, in the film Lagan. Yet he is not a runaway winner. Nay, I would say with Doctor (1941) in which Pankaj Mullick appears as an actor-singer and the music director, he came up with a score of a lifetime. With six immortal solos from this film which I have included in the Overview Post, Pankaj Mullick is by far the front-runner in 1941.READ THE FULL ARTICLE

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

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. He has been the most prolific and versatile singer. Therefore, he can be discussed in several combinations and on many parameters.

Sivanandam Palamadai is a well-known Rafi fan. He writes regularly for a site dedicated to Rafi. My natural thought was to sound him whether he would be interested in contributing an article for Rafi’s centenary year. As I had expected he readily agreed. His debut article for SOY was also on Rafi with his songs for unrecognised composers.

Sivanandamji has been a marketing professional about 60 years of age, now living in Pune for 28 years in semi-retirement by choice. In this article he discusses Rafi’s 35 songs, one each year during his career (1946-1980). Rafi’s career actually started in 1944, but I suggested to start from 1946 when we started getting his great songs which achieved long-lasting fame. I am responsible for chopping off the first two years, but Sivanadamji deserves our appreciation and thanks for presenting a nice bouquet of 35 songs over 35 years. With this article you also get to appreciate many songs of Rafi with a new insight on his way of emphasising or elongating certain words. – AK)

When AK Ji wrote to me asking whether I would be interested in writing an article on Rafi on his centenary year, I was elated beyond words. This is a task that I would consider a blessing from the heavens! The year 2024 marks the birth centenary year of the legendary Rafi sahab  and I do not know when AK ji would be publishing this, but let us celebrate Rafi throughout the year. I do not think Rafi needs any introduction to the very knowledgeable readers of SOY and so I will skip even a brief biography. In his glorious career of around 35 years, he won the hearts of the listeners not only with his singing but, more importantly, with his humbleness and humanitarian character he earned people’s  love and respect. There can be personal likes and dislikes on music composers, singers, lyricists etc, but it is indeed rare to find anyone talk anything negative  about Rafi, the human being. The way he could emote the song depending on the mood and actor on whom it was picturised is legendary and one can say that he created a unique style of playback singing.READ THE FULL ARTICLE

Mohammad Rafi from A to Z

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 aspect about his voice – he had the unique ability to modulate his voice to sound like the character he was singing for on the screen, without much conscious effort. He personified Dilip Kumar, Shammi Kapoor, Rajendra Kumar, and he was the voice of Johnny Walker and Mehmood. His over 4800 Hindi film songs are the most by any male playback singer, leaving the next Kishore Kumar far behind. He is outnumbered by only the two great Mangeshkar sisters – Lata Mangeshkar and Asha Bhosle.

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SN Tripathi Part 5 (post-50s): His best songs by other female playback singers

Concluding the series on SN Tripathi with his best songs for ‘other’ female playback singers

It is time to conclude the series on SN Tripathi after a comprehensive coverage of his multi-faceted talent in the Vintage Era (1949 and earlier) in Part 1 as a singer, actor, music director and dialogue and story writer; Part 2 (post-50s) about his best songs for Rafi; Part 3 (post-50s) about his best songs for Mukesh and other male singers; and Part 4 (post-50s) about his best songs for Lata Mangeshkar. I also mentioned that during post-50s, while we know him primarily as a music director, he continued to act and added a new talent to his immense portfolio – as a director of famous films, such as Rani Roopmati (1959). While writing on Lata Mangeshkar I discovered that she did not appear much in SN Tripathi’s music in her Tsunami years of 1949 through early 50s. He used several ‘other’ female playback singers, with Geeta Dutt and Shamshad Begum appearing quite frequently.READ THE FULL ARTICLE

Best songs of 1942: Wrap Up 2

And the SOY ward for the Best Female Singer goes to?

In my overview post of the best songs of 1942, I had mentioned that the ratio between male solos and female solos in the songs in which singers were credited was 1:2.55 in the year as a whole. I had included 84 songs in my list of MEMORABLE SONGS in the year. The Wrap Up 1 of the best male solos listed all the 23 male solos that were in the list of MEMORABLE SONGS. These were divided among 15 singers, but KL Saigal naturally dominated the list. During his years of dominance the male singing was mostly a one-horse race.

How does female solos compare with this picture? In the list of MEMORABLE SONGS I had included 34 female solos divided among 17 singers as follows:READ THE FULL ARTICLE

SN Tripathi Part 4 (post 50s): His best songs for Lata Mangeshkar

Continuing the series on SN Tripathi with a tribute to Lata Mangeshkar on her 94th birth anniversary (28 September 1929 – 6 February 2022)

It is matter of satisfaction that after a reader noted the omission of SN Tripathi, I have been able to cover him in some detail, though late. I have already posted three articles on him: Part 1 about his multifaceted talent – actor, singer, music director, story and dialogue writer – in the Vintage Era (pre 50s); Part 2 (post 50s) about his best songs for Rafi, Part 3 (post-50s) about his best songs for Mukesh and other male singers. There cannot be a better way to continue the series than with his best songs for Lata Mangeshkar as a tribute to her on what would have been her 94th birth anniversary.READ THE FULL ARTICLE

Vasant Desai Part 3 (post-50s): His best songs for Lata Mangeshkar

Continuing the series on Vasant Desai, his best songs for Lata Mangeshkar as a tribute to her on her 93rd birthday (28 September 1929 – 6 February 2022)

Vasant Desai-Lata MangeshkarLata Mangeshkar would have been 93 today. This is her first birthday after she left this mortal world and this calls for a tribute to her. Coincidentally SOY is paying a series of tributes to Vasant Desai who was a class composer but was not counted among the top by the conventional pecking order. His songs for Lata Mangeshkar were exceptionally melodious. Vasant Desai Part 1 was devoted to his multifaceted talent in the vintage era (pre-50s) as an actor, singer and music director. The part 2 onwards are devoted to the post-50s era with which we are all more familiar. Vasant Desai Part 2 was devoted to his male singers in which I also included MF duets. Lata Mangeshkar is by far his most preferred female singer (no surprise there), and quite a good number are unforgettable. It became appropriate to post a tribute to her on her 93rd birthday with her best songs by the maestro in Vasant Desai Part 3. This would also include her duets with a female singer.

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Rafi’s songs with some unrecognised composers

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 to unrecognised music directors are legion. If his singing could help a struggling music director, he was willing to sing free for him. He sang some of his unforgettable songs for now-forgotten music directors.

Sivanandam Palamadai is relatively a new member of SOY, but is already an active participant. He is a passionate fan of Rafi and has been writing regularly for a forum dedicated to Rafi. When he offered to write on Rafi for SOY, we tossed ideas back and forth. I suggested this topic to him which can be worthy as a debut article on SOY.

Mr Palamadai is in his late 50s. He is a native of Tamil Nadu, but has lived in Pune for over 25 years. He has been a marketing professional all his working life, now in semi-retirement by choice to be in control of his career options. He is a keen listener of all kinds of music: film songs, non-film songs of Hindi and other languages, Hindustani, Carnatic and Western classical music. It gives me great pleasure to introduce a new guest writer with this superb article on Rafi’s songs for some unrecognised music directors, as a tribute to Rafi on his 42nd Remembrance Day. – AK)

RafiThere is a famous quote from Shakespeare’s play ‘Twelfth Night’: Some are born great; some achieve greatness and some have greatness thrust upon them. With due apologies to Shakespeare, we should add one more category to this: “Some are unfortunate in this world to be denied their greatness!!”

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Duets (+) of Mukesh: With Male Singers

Guest article by Ahok M Vaishnav as a tribute to Mukesh on his 99th Birth Anniversary (b. July 22, 1923 – d. August 27, 1976)

(Once SOY-veteran N Venkataraman remarked that there has been a post on Mukesh every year. If it was there, I or a guest author must have had something new to write on. It was not mechanical. The enthusiastic reader-cum-guest author Ashok M Vaishnav has noticed that a post on Mukesh’s duets with male singers is missing.

One reason for this omission is that MM duets are very few in number compared to the conventional MF duets, and these do not cause same waves as MF duets. But for a gold prospector like Ashokji, this is no deterrent. The result is a very thorough article on Mukesh’s duets with some male singers.

As the SOY regulars are aware, Ashokji is a retired engineer and now a freelance management training professional. He has been a prolific writer on this blog. Thank you Ashokji for yet another superb article on Mukesh as a tribute to him on his 99th Birth Anniversary. – AK)

Mukesh and his male co-singersFilms in India, by and large, revolve around different themes of love between a boy and a girl. As such, songs come in very handy as a very strong and direct, easy-to-comprehend, medium to express the different shades of feelings of love. Traditionally, the solo songs occupied the space of prime importance. During vintage era this was more a necessity because the singers were generally actors themselves. Moreover, the recording technology also was in the development stage, which made recording a duet song with two vastly different musical qualities of pitch and timbre of a male and female voice was quite difficult in comparison to the recording of a solo song.

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Nathli se toota moti re: Manna Dey’s Non-film Hindi Gems

Guest article by Ashok M Vaishnav as a tribute t0 Manna Dey on his 103rd birth anniversary (1 May 1919 – 24 October 2013)

(Manna Dey has been described by some as an enigma among singers. That was a reference to his apparent defensiveness about his place among the contemporary playback singers, despite having the most solid training in classical music. I take it as his modesty and accepting the reality that singing in films is different from classical music, and that there was something in Rafi which he didn’t have. I contrast it with the public grumbling by the later era Suresh Wadkar, how thorough was his training in classical music, yet Bollywood has been so unfair not to give him his due. 

Manna Dey was a man of many parts, and he was a singer of many parts. One important part of his singing – non-film songs – has not yet been covered on this blog. Ashok M Vaishnav identified this omission and fills the gap by this article.

Ashokji is a retired engineer, and now a freelance management professional. He is a keen lover of different forms of music and a prolific writer on this blog. Thank you Ashokji for this comprehensive article – AK)

Manna Dey

Among his contemporaries of the 1950s Manna Dey was considered as versatile as others.  His voice had unique strength even when being inherently soft. Devoid of any jerks, his voice radiated a feeling of eternal peace despite the extreme passion embedded in the rendition. As such the connoisseurs of film music fondly credited his voice to be capable of delivering the poetry along with music and melody. He was considered artist among fellow artistes and a singer of singers. It was perhaps his being so respectfully perched on a high pedestal that kept him away from being considered as ‘popular’, ‘mass’ singer.

However, I was lucky that my awareness, and in turn liking, for Manna Dey’s voice occurred during the very early years when I was unconsciously getting groomed to liking the films songs, much before I started reading about those divergent views about Manna Dey’s singing. As a result, all that I read about his singing never affected my very own liking for that enchanting voice.

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