A tribute to old Hindi film music. Songs of the 30s through the 60s.

Singers

Tennis, Pathakji and ‘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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Talat Mahmood by Naushad and C Ramchandra

February 24, 2015

A tribute to Talat Mahmood on his 91st birth anniversary (24 February 1924 – 9 May 1998) There was every reason for Talat Mahmood to have a long innings with Naushad. Both coming from Lucknow, they represented a similar Urdu sensibility and cultural milieu. Talat’s entry into Bombay Hindi film music was spectacular with Ae […]

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OP Nayyar’s quintessential Rafi

January 28, 2015

A tribute to OP Nayyar on his 8th death anniversary January 28 (January 16, 1926 – January 28, 2007) [Songs of Yore is now on Facebook.] I read a comment somewhere that OP Nayyar rescued Rafi from the staid classicism of Naushad. I ignore the sarcasm targeted at my favourite Naushad, but it underscores the […]

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Anil Biswas’s songs for Bombay Saigal: Surendra

November 11, 2014

A tribute to Surendra on his 104th birth anniversary as a part of Anil Biswas’s Centenary Year series I have mentioned a few times that because of contractual difficulties inherent in the Studio Era, Anil Biswas could not compose for KL Saigal, even though their careers overlapped for over a decade, half of which was […]

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Best songs of 1951: Wrap Up 3

October 23, 2014

Songs of Yore Award for the Best Female Playback Singer goes to Lata, Lata, Lata…Lata Mangeshkar, with Happy Diwali greetings to all All superlatives fall short of describing Lata Mangehkar’s dominance in 1951, just as we saw in 1955 and 1953. Mahesh even said that the best female playback singer other than Lata Mangeshkar is […]

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Kishore Kumar’s duets by SD Burman

October 13, 2014

A tribute on Kishore Kumar’s death anniversary October 13 It is befitting that I am completing my (renewed) series on SD Burman with the singer he was most fond of. With 115 songs, he gave Kishore Kumar more songs than any other (male) singer. Surjit Singh’s site indicates that out of this only 53 were […]

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The Lonely Ghazal Queen: Begum Akhtar

October 7, 2014

A tribute on her Birth Centenary, October 7 A legend in her lifetime, who achieved enormous fame at a very young age, and gave joy to millions of listeners of many generations, including doyens like Mehdi Hasan, Talat Mahmood, Madan Mohan, Pt. Jasraj and Pt. Ravi Shankar, Begum Akhtar’s own life seems to be full […]

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The Swar-Saamraagyi and the the Sangeet-Maartand: Best of Lata Mangeshkar by Anil Biswas

September 28, 2014

Continuing Anil Biswas Centenary series, his best songs for Lata Mangeshkar as birthday greetings to her Anil Biswas occupies an important place among the music directors who played a major role in grooming and developing Lata Mangehskar. She was an artiste par excellence, but Anil Biswas taught her the craft of playback singing: the importance […]

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Hemant Kumar’s songs by SD Burman

September 17, 2014

Hemant Kumar, a singer-composer par excellence, and SD Burman, a Titan among singer-composers. And the former was quite open to singing for other composers too. That brought the two great Bengalis together. Hemant Kumar was another name for melody and sweetness – he is among those who never sang anything which was less than extremely […]

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Made for each other: Mukesh and Kalyanji-Anandji

August 27, 2014

A tribute to Mukesh on his death anniversary August 27, and a tribute to the music duo In the surfeit of TV programmes associated with Centenary Celebrations of Indian Cinema last year, I closely followed the ones on film music. There was one presented by a young lady on Kalyanji-Anandji. After a quick reference to […]

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