Best female solos

Best songs of 1943: Wrap Up 2

And the Award for the Best Female Solo singer goes to ?

Amirbai Karnataki-Parul Ghosh-Khursheed-Kanan DeviIf you browse through the Wrap Up 1 regarding the best solos of 1943, it was clearly a one-horse race with KL Saigal being the Pole Star. During Saigal-Noorjehan-era there was no female Saigal, or as I have said earlier a number of times, there was no Lata Mangeshkar before Lata Mangeshkar. But we should not draw an erroneous conclusion that female singing was devoid of talent. There were several exceptionally talented singers, and the total female solos outnumbered the male solos by a big margin. In fact my fascination for vintage singing is due to so many varieties of female voice.

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Best songs of 1945: Wrap Up 2

And the Award for the Best Female Playback Singer goes to?

Noorjehan-Amirbai KarnatakiWhen Noorjehan visited India in 1982 to celebrate the Golden Jubilee of Indian talkie movies, one of the songs she chose to sing was Baithi hun teri yaad ka lekar ke sahara from Village Girl (1945), composed by Shyam Sundar, to a deafening applause. She was the dominant female playback singer of the year, having memorable songs from Badi Ma, Village Girl and Zeenat. Her first superhit Hindi film was Khandan (1942), followed by some more successful films in which she was the lead actor-singer, such as Naadan (1943), Dost and Lal Haveli (1944). Thus by 1945 she was among the leading actor-singers of the era.

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Ravi’s ‘other’ female playback singer: Lata Mangeshkar

Another tribute to Lata Mangeshkar on her turning 90 (b. 28 September 1929)

Ravi-Lata MangeshkarLata Mangeshkar turned ninety two months ago to this day. On this special day Shalan Lal wrote a comprehensive article on her, analysing the ‘conditions’ that made the Lata Mangeshkar-phenomenon possible, while acknowledging that there was something divine about her voice, something transcendental beyond any physical explanation. Many readers were also expecting a post on her songs by Ravi, who is being felicitated on SoY in the series on the leading music directors and, in fact, were somewhat disappointed that there may not be one on this combination.

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Best songs of 1946: Wrap Up 2

And the SoY Award for the Best Female Playback Singer goes to?

Noorjehan-Amirbai Karnataki-Shamshad Begum-SuraiyaAs the readers would recall from Wrap Up 1, the Award for the Best Male Solo turned out to be a one-horse race, thanks to KL Saigal’s superlative songs in the film Shahjahan, composed equally superbly by the Great Mughal Naushad. Lata Mangeshkar acquired that status 1949 onwards, when in most of the years you would have to create two categories: One, she by herself, and the other, ‘Other Singers’. She did have some songs in the year in minor acting roles, but these went unnoticed. Today we know about them because of the Internet, but in the earlier era these songs would have been known only to the collectors and researchers. Lata Mangeshkar out of the reckoning in 1946, is there any other female singer sprinting far ahead of the pack?

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Ravi and Asha Bhosle: A class combination

Wishing Asha Bhosle a very happy 86th birth anniversary (b. 8 September 1933) with a guest article by Hans Jakhar

(Asha Bhosle, despite being the most recorded artiste by miles, remained the ‘other’ singer for most music directors of the Golden Era. All the accolades and the most melodious songs went to her elder sister Lata Mangeshkar. Ravi is among the rare major music directors whose ‘first’ female playback singer by choice was Asha Bhosle. In the ongoing series on Ravi it was natural that her primacy would be highlighted, and no one is better suited than Hans Jakhar to pay a tribute to her on her 86th birth anniversary with her songs for Ravi. Hans is puzzled that some of us are hesitant to count Ravi among the ‘greats’. He is not only a fan of Asha Bhosle, but he also has a deep empathy for her for having suffered the ‘Sister Tax’ in her career.

With this article Hans debuts as a guest author. I am sure the readers would not be surprised by it, the surprise is why it has taken him so long. His comments on the blog posts are full of facts, analysis and insights. Hopefully we would see more from his pen.

Hans is a B. Com and LLB, which reflects in the way he presents his arguments. After working for over 20 years in the central secretariat service in various ministries, he took voluntary retirement and now straddles between two worlds: the rural Haryana, which is his home state, and the urban metropolis of Delhi. The series on Ravi inspired him to write on his songs for Asha Bhosle, for which I am sure the readers of SoY would be grateful to him. Thanks a lot Hans – AK)

Ravi and Asha BhosleSome time back Dr Shetty made a comment to the effect that Asha Bhosle could sing all the songs Lata Mangeshkar could, and in addition she could sing many which Lata could not, so why should Asha be not called the best singer. This thought of his has stuck with me, because, I have come across many who held the same view. There were some who rated Suman Kalyanpur  the better singer. My elder sister who is four years older than me held the same view. In fact, in those days of the late 60s and early 70s, there were a number of magazines in circulation which gave stories about Lata’s manoeuvres. My sister made very angry remarks against her on that count, Suman Kalyanpur was her favourite by far. Though I was younger, I tried to cool her down. At that time I did not have much knowledge about these things and was also a bit hesitant in arguing, especially with elders, so I gave just one argument, that Lata must have special talent and because of that the composers were giving her more songs.

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Best songs of 1947: Wrap Up 2

And the SoY award for the Best Female Singer goes to?

Suraiya-Amirbai Karnataki-Noorjehan-Uma Devi-Shamshad Begum-Zohrabai AmbalewaliThis was the year of female playback singers. Compared to 19 male solos as discussed in the Wrap Up 1, female solos numbered 67 (N Venkataraman counted 69) in the list of 117/119 Memorable Songs (referred to also as Master List) in my overview post . They were from immense variety of voices. The year saw the departure of the Malika-e-tarannum Noorjehan post-partition. It also saw the entry of Lata Mangeshkar as a ‘playback’ singer with the film Aap Ki Sewa Mein, composed by Datta Davjekar. As is too well known, this 18 year old girl would sweep all the established vintage singers aside in a couple of years, and, for two decades thereafer, she would be the undisputed queen of female playback singing. Her debut song Paaon lagun kar jori re has come to public consciousness only during the Internet era, but connoisseurs have acclaimed it as an outstanding song.

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Best songs of 1949: Wrap Up 2

And the SoY Award for the Best ‘Other’ Female Playback Singer goes to?

Amirbai Karnataki-Rajkumari-Zeenat Begum-Shamshad Begum-Suraiya-Surinder KaurAs the readers would recall from the overview post on the best songs of 1949, this was a great year for the ‘other’ singers, and female singers in general. There were about 80 female solos in my select list of 160 (the list mentioned up to #157, but some songs had more than one version), i.e. about 50%. The number of male solos, i.e. 22, was only a quarter of female solos. Further, the female solos presented amazing variety. Lata Mangeshkar’s 35 songs contain the largest number of all-time great songs she sang in any single year. And to think that she was just 20 then, having made a very inconspicuous debut only a couple of years earlier. The remaining 46 songs are shared by the doyennes of yesteryear. The two singers who had maximum number of songs are Shamshad Begum and Suraiya having 16 and 14 respectively. The remaining 16 was accounted for by others (i.e. others within the ‘others’), such as Rajkumari, Amirbai Karnataki, Zohrabai Ambalewali, Geeta Roy, Zeenat Begum, Surinder Kaur etc. Here is a convenient pie chart showing the relative share of different singers in female solos.

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Best songs of 1950: Wrap Up 2

And the award for the Best ‘Other’ Female Singer goes to?

Suraiya-Rajkumari-Shamshad Begum-Geeta DuttThis year, too, I faced the familiar dilemma I faced last year while reviewing the best songs of 1951: whether to make a combined list of the best female solos or split it in two – Lata Mangeshkar and ‘Others’. Male solos which I reviewed in my last post do not pose this difficulty. This was best underscored by Mumbaikar 8’s comment: there is not much to wriggle about in male solos. It is both a question of numbers and diversity. The female solos outnumber male solos by a factor of four to one. Within the female solos Lata Mangeshkar had established her position as the frontrunner by miles. As per Venkataramanji’s statistics she had 20% of female solos, in all, in the year, whereas in my Select List she has 32%. The other dominant singers were Geeta Roy and Shamshad Begum accounting for about 41% of the total songs, but in my list they had 31%. Thus, Lata Mangeshkar not only had a large share in the pie, her share in the memorable songs was even larger. I described this phenomenon as flattening of the pyramid. Many readers gave two separate lists, but tried to give a combined list, too, by including 3 or 4 of Lata Mangeshkar and apportioning the rest among the ‘other’ singers.

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