Mohammad Rafi

Rafi’s songs with some unrecognised composers

Rafi July 31, 2022

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 […]

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Mohammad Rafi’s Non-film Hindi Geets and Ghazals

Rafi December 24, 2021

A tribute to Mohammad Rafi on his 97th Birth Anniversary (b. December 24, 1924 – d. July 31, 1980) by guest author Ashok M Vaishnav and wishing Merry Christmas to all (Ashok M Vaishnav is a solid Rafi fan, without wearing it as a medallion, and without picking up a sword to slay anyone at […]

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Dattaram Part 2: Breaking out of the Banyan Tree with ‘Other’ Singers

Dattaram May 29, 2021

Second and final part of tribute to Dattaram (1929 – 8 June 2007) We saw in Dattaram Part 1 dealing with his songs for Mukesh and Manna Dey, how his association with the Big Banyan tree, Shankar-Jaikishan, made it difficult to get out of the comfort zone of SJ. The readers Mahesh and Hans Jakhar […]

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N Datta-Rafi: When they meet it is GOLD

N Datta-Rafi December 13, 2020

Guest article by Hans Jakhar as a tribute to N Datta (12 December 1927 – 30 December 1987) on his 93rd birth anniversary with his songs for Rafi (You can’t get a more passionate fan of Asha Bhosle than Hans Jakhar, and she was the principle female playback singer for Ravi. Therefore, he was the […]

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Chitragupta’s duets for Rafi: Melody Personified

Chitragupta and Rafi July 31, 2020

A tribute to Rafi (24 December 1924 – 31 July 1980) on his 40th Remembrance Day Today is the 40th Remembrance Day of Rafi. He was the most versatile playback singer of the Golden Era of film music and, more importantly, he was universally known as a good human being, without malice to anyone, and […]

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Ravi’s best duets for Rafi

Ravi and Rafi August 20, 2019

In my last post I covered Ravi’s best solo songs for Rafi. He composed about 250 songs for Rafi, including duets. It is a huge number in absolute as well as relative terms. Only two, Laxmikant-Pyarelal and Shankar-Jaikishan, have undisputedly composed more Rafi songs than him, as can be expected. Chitragupta is in the same […]

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Rafi’s best songs by Ravi

Ravi and Rafi July 31, 2019

A tribute to Rafi on his 39th death anniversary (24 December 1924 – 31 July 1980) Rafi being undoubtedly the most versatile playback singer of the Golden Era, he sang a number of great songs for many music directors. For most composers, he was their leading singer. Who gave the greatest songs for Rafi? I […]

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Rafi’s best duets by Madan Mohan

Madan Mohan and Rafi December 14, 2018

The best songs of Rafi for any music director would include a number of duets. So it is for Madan Mohan, despite the fact that his solos for Rafi are significantly more than the duets. That is an exception to the general trend of duets being far more in number than male solos. Since we […]

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Rafi’s duets by Roshan

Roshan and Rafi November 5, 2018

My post on Rafi’s solos by Roshan appeared more than six years ago, several years before I started the series on the stalwart music directors. And the reason was simple: Roshan ranked among the top in my reckoning for Rafi songs, along with Naushad, SD Burman and OP Nayyar. Duets have no less importance in […]

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Rafi’s best songs by Madan Mohan

Rafi and Madan Mohan July 31, 2018

A tribute to Rafi on his 38th death anniversary (24 December 1924 – 31 July 1980) Six years ago to this day, I wrote on the best songs of Rafi by Roshan. Roshan for me was among the big four, with Naushad, SD Burman and OP Nayyar, who gave the best songs for Rafi. Later, […]

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