2015

Songs of Yore completes five years

Songs of Yore completes 5th Anniversary June 7, 2015

Celebrating with some discovered gems, Jaunpuri, Darbari and Mukhtar Begum The fifth year of Songs of Yore has been more eventful than any preceding year. The year saw centenaries of four great music personalities – Anil Biswas, Begum Akhtar, Khursheed and Kavi Pradeep (the last one in the current calendar year). We remembered all of […]

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Best songs of 1950: And the winners are?

Babul, Bawre Nain, Jogan, Arzoo, Sangam, Nirala May 23, 2015

After the year-wise review of the best songs of 1955 and 1953, I entered the era of pre-Filmfare Awards with 1951 last year. Continuing the year-wise review I come to 1950, i.e. the beginning of the glorious 50s. End of the 40s marked the end of an era of the vintage singers, and consolidation of […]

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Multiple Versions Songs (21): Male solo and Duet or Chorus (Part II)

Multiple Version Songs May 14, 2015

Guest article by Ashok M Vaishnav (Ashokji has been recently exploring songs that have a solo version and a duet or chorus version.  In this series within the Mega series on Multiple Version Songs, he wrote on January 20, 2015 on songs that have a male solo and a duet or chorus version.  This guest […]

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Raju Bharatan’s ‘Naushadnama’

Naushadnama May 5, 2015

Book Review as a tribute to Naushad on his 9th death anniversary (25 December 1919-5 May 2006)   Naushadnama By Raju Bharatan Hay House India (2013) pp. 341 The most important thing about Raju Bharatan’s Naushadnama is that it is Raju Bharatan’s Naushadnama. Which means, if you are familiar with his writings, that there is a […]

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Shamshad Begum songs by C Ramchandra

Shamshad Begum and C Ramchandra April 23, 2015

A tribute to Shamshad Begum on her 2nd death anniversary (14 April 1919 – 23 April 2013) This year started with Naushad, who was followed by C Ramchandra. We have since seen their close duel with Amirbai Karnataki. Consequently, some  readers were surprised not to see a similar comparison in my last post on Shamshad Begum’s songs […]

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Shamshad Begum songs by Naushad

Thumbnail image for Shamshad Begum songs by Naushad April 14, 2015

A tribute to Shamshad Begum on her 96th birth anniversary (14 April 1919 – 23 April 2013) In my mind the best of Shamshad Begum always meant Naushad. I would be surprised if any of her famous songs, which I would automatically attribute to him, turned out to be composed by a different music director. […]

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Some thoughts on taxonomic-mathematical analysis of Hindi films and songs

Music Balance April 1, 2015

(SoY regulars would recall that discussions have often given rise to questions for which I have suggested a multi-disciplinary team of film/music experts and mathematicians for more precise analysis. It seems the experts have not come forward out of modesty. They must be looking for someone to take the initiative. In this post, I am […]

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Tennis, Pathakji and ‘Tere sadke balam’

Tere sadke balam March 22, 2015

That I am an inveterate fan of Lata Mangeshkar is nothing exceptional. She was ‘the’ female playback voice of the Golden Era. Now the readers are aware I am fascinated even more by Naushad. Therefore, I took it for granted that I have already written on Lata Mangeshkar’s best songs by Naushad, as I have […]

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Naushad-C Ramchandra duel for Amirbai Karnataki

Amirbai Karnataki March 15, 2015

A tribute on the 50th death anniversary of Amirbai Karnataki (c.1906 – 3 March 1965) (As her death anniversary was too close to my scheduled post on Holi songs, I am posting my tribute to Amirbai Karnataki, with her songs by Naushad and C Ramchandra, with some lag.) Which is the most popular Amirbai Karnataki […]

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Songs of Holi

Holi March 6, 2015

Wishing Happy Holi to all This is the fifth year of Songs of Yore, and I have not yet done a post on Holi songs. Every time Holi came, I thought everyone would be doing a list of Holi songs, and my doing one would be trivial, and may contain overlapping songs. Along the way, I […]

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