2024

Best songs of 1941: Wrap Up 3

Thumbnail image for Best songs of 1941: Wrap Up 3 September 4, 2024

And the SOY Award for the best duet of 1941 goes to? I have mentioned the special charm of duets for the variety they add to the film music. In the Vintage Era it is more pronounced as we come across many gems by singers whose names we have not heard. The long term average […]

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Some Hidden Gems of Mohammad Rafi: The Romantic Solos

Rafi August 23, 2024

Guest article by Ashok Vaishnav continuing the centenary celebrations of Mohammad Rafi (24.12.1924-31.7.1980) (Among many romantic solos of Rafi there are several gems hidden under the layer of superhit songs. Some of the hidden gems are more melodious than superhit songs. Our SOY regular and guest author today, Ashok Vaishnav, throws the spotlight on some […]

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Best songs of 1941: Wrap Up 2

Thumbnail image for Best songs of 1941: Wrap Up 2 August 12, 2024

And the SOY Award for the Best Female Singer goes to? As the readers are aware from the year-wise reviews, the female solos on the average far outnumber the male solos. In the Overview Post of the best songs of 1941, I had included 71 songs. In the Wrap Up 1  about the best male […]

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Mohammad Rafi & Johnny Walker in Symbiosis

Mohammad Rafi-Johnny Walker July 31, 2024

Guest article by DP Rangan as a joint tribute to Rafi on his 44th Remembrance Day and Johnny Walker on his 21st Remembrance Day. (The title of this post says it all. When you think of Johnny Walker you think of Rafi. JW established a presence for himself and soon the producers and music directors […]

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Kalyanji-Anandji’s ‘other’ male singers

Kalyanji-Anandji July 20, 2024

If you were to ask me which singer I associate most with Kalyanji-Anandji, my answer would be instantly Mukesh. It was natural I wrote a post on Mukesh-KA in the initial years of the blog with the title, Made for each other. When I started looking for their Rafi songs as a part of his […]

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Rafi ‘s songs for “not the top heroes”

Rafi July 10, 2024

Continuing Rafi’s centenary celebrations, guest article by Sivanandam Palamadai on his songs picturised on not-so-famous actors (Songs Of Yore has been celebrating Rafi’s centenary year 2024 with a series of articles, some by guest authors. Sivanandam Palamdai, who is one of Rafi’s prominent fans in blogosphere, now writes on his songs for not-so-famous actors. We […]

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Rafi’s best songs by Kalyanji-Anandji

Thumbnail image for Rafi’s best songs by Kalyanji-Anandji June 30, 2024

Continuing the series on Rafi with a tribute to Kalyanji (30 June 1928-24 August 2000) and Anandji (2 March 1933-) on Kalyanji’s 96th birth anniversary. When you think of Kalyanji-Anandji’s main playback singers, Mukesh comes to mind first. They seemed to be made for each other, and there is already a post on KA-Mukesh combination […]

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Kasme vaade pyar wafa sab

Thumbnail image for Kasme vaade pyar wafa sab June 18, 2024

Our elections are now over after a most toxic campaign. When the two formations were not abusing each other they were competing in promising the electorate moon. Voters seem to have now become smart. They must have realised that most of the promises would not be, cannot be fulfilled. There is no free lunch; if […]

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Songs of Yore completes 14 years

Thumbnail image for Songs of Yore completes 14 years June 7, 2024

When I started this blog I never imagined that it would go on for so long. And it is not just clocking year after year. Songs of Yore is perhaps the only place where you will find a comprehensive series on Arrangers and Musicians, the people who embellished the songs with various instrumental preludes, interludes […]

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Best songs of 1941: Wrap Up 1

Thumbnail image for Best songs of 1941: Wrap Up 1 May 27, 2024

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 […]

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