Best songs of year

Best songs of 1947: Wrap Up 2

Suraiya-Amirbai Katnataki-Noorjehan-Uma Devi-Shamshad Begum-Zohrabai Ambalewali July 4, 2018

And the SoY award for the Best Female Singer goes to? This 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 […]

Read the full article

Best songs of 1947: Wrap Up 1

KL Saigal-Rafi-Mukesh-Surendra June 25, 2018

And the Songs of Yore Award for the Best Male Playback singer goes to? As I go down the list of 117/119 memorable songs (two songs had double versions) in my overview post on the best songs of 1947, the most striking thing is the rarity of male solos. I could count only 19 male […]

Read the full article

Best songs of 1947: And the winners are?

Parwana-Dard-Jugnu-Meera-Shehnai-Mirza Sahiban April 1, 2018

It was the best of years, it was the worst of years. The euphoria of independence was marred by the trauma of partition, the communal frenzy sweeping large swathes of the country, the bloodshed, and the largest mass migration in history from one side of the border to the other. The film world too could […]

Read the full article

Best songs of 1948: Final Wrap Up 4

Naushad_C Ramchandra_Ghulam Haider_Husnlal Bhagatram December 25, 2017

And the Songs of Yore Award for the Best Music Director goes to? I start with wishing the readers  Merry Christmas. After the Overview post and the three category-wise wrap ups – Wrap Up 1 for the best male solos, Wrap Up 2 for the best female solos, and Wrap Up 3 for the best […]

Read the full article

Best songs of 1948: Wrap Up 3

Best songs of 1948 November 12, 2017

And the Songs of Yore Award for the Best Duet goes to? As per the long-term average, female solos outnumber male solos by a big margin, with duets somewhere in between. The same is true for the year 1948. My list of 114/115 MEMORABLE SONGS in the Overview post has the following break-up:   Male […]

Read the full article

Best songs of 1948: Wrap Up 2

Lata Mangeshkar-Shamshad Begum-Suraiya-Surinder Kaur October 23, 2017

And the Songs of Yore Award for the Best Female Playback Singer goes to? The readers may recall from my Overview post, and the detailed review of the best songs of 1949, that one significant difference between the two consecutive years was in Lata Mangeshkar coming as a tsunami wave in 1949, leaving her competitors […]

Read the full article

Best songs of 1948 songs: Wrap Up 1

Rafi and Mukesh September 18, 2017

And the Songs of Yore award for the best male solo goes to? Some general observations are in order. The year 1948 did not have a great diversity of male playback singers, unlike the female singers. KL Saigal had passed away a year earlier; Talat Mahmood would appear a couple of years later; Hemant Kumar […]

Read the full article

The first duo Husnlal-Bhagatram (1): Their songs for Suraiya, Lata Mangeshkar and Rafi

Husnlal-Bhagatram July 11, 2017

I have signed off the series on Shankar-Jaikishan recently. Before that I had done series on Anil Biswas, Naushad, C Ramchandra and SD Burman. As the readers now expect the next famous music directors in line, there are some yesteryears stalwarts who shone like meteor for a short while, or who gave great music consistently over […]

Read the full article

Best songs of 1948: And the winners are?

Mela-Nadiya Ke Paar-Shaheed-Aag-Anokha Pyar-Anokhi Ada March 22, 2017

On our journey back in time to review the best songs of the year, as we reach 1948 we are entering the Vintage Era characterised by a great variety of full-throated female singers. Lata Mangeshkar did sing over 40 songs of which you can count about ten memorable and a couple of all-time great songs, […]

Read the full article

Best songs of 1949: Final Wrap Up 5

December 24, 2016

The SoY Award for the Best Music Director goes to? For the final wrap up, I can do no better than quote Mahesh: “The year 1949 itself was the biggest winner of all.” That refers to the historical place of the year in the evolution of Hindi film songs which we have discussed in the […]

Read the full article

← Previous Entries

Next Entries →