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

Singers

The Master of Qawwali Roshan and some hidden qawwalis of Madan Mohan

August 9, 2018

While Roshan and Madan Mohan generally proceeded in tandem, one or the other created a special niche for himself in some genre. Roshan became known as the undisputed master of qawwalis, whereas Madan Mohan became a byword for ghazals. The essential difference in the two forms is not one of content, but of singing style. […]

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Rafi’s best songs by 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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Suraiya: The Last Nightingale of Bollywood

June 15, 2018

Guest article by DP Rangan (Suraiya was literally as sweet as a nightingale. I have covered her in some detail. But with his amazing enthusiasm for research, DP Rangan was not deterred in finding enough interesting material and uncovered songs on her. I thank Mr Rangan for this nice article and join him in paying […]

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Talat Mahmood: A Mesmeriser

May 9, 2018

Guest article by DP Rangan as a tribute to Talat Mahmood on his 20th death anniversary (24 February 1924 – 9 May 1998) (We know all the famous songs of Talat Mahmood. Most of them are already covered on SoY. But that is not a deterrent to a real Talat-fan like our indefatigable DP Rangan, […]

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Best songs of Kishore Kumar 1.0

October 13, 2017

A tribute to Kishore Kumar (4 August 1929 to 13 October 1987) on his 30th death anniversary A later version of an operating system is considered superior to its earlier version. That is, ‘Windows 1o’ is superior to ‘Windows 8’, which is superior to ‘Windows 7’, and so on. However, that is not true for […]

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Lata Mangeshkar’s best songs by Hemant Kumar

September 28, 2017

Wishing a very Happy Birthday to Lata Mangeshkar (b. 28 September 1929) on her 88th birth anniversary and a tribute to Hemant Kumar (16 June 1920 – 26 September 1989) on his 28th death anniversary Hemant Kumar was endowed with one of the most sonorous voices in light music. His film songs are universally popular. […]

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OP Nayyar-Geeta Dutt: A peerless combination

July 20, 2017

A tribute to Geeta Dutt on her 45th death anniversary (23 November 1930 – 20 July 1972) by guest author Ravindra Kelkar (A general grievance against SoY is that Geeta Dutt has not been given her due place on the blog. There has been one exclusive post on her best songs by SD Burman which, […]

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

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 […]

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Shamshad Begum with 3G

April 14, 2017

A tribute on Shamshad Begum’s 98th birth anniversary (14 April 1919 – 23 April 2013), and wishing the readers a very happy Baisakhi, Vishu, Bihu and Tamil New Year. Shamshad Begum has been a perennial favourite on SoY. Earlier, there was a reference to the great trinity of Naushad, C Ramchandra and OP Nayyar who […]

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MS Subbulakshmi: A journey from Kunjamma to Meera

December 11, 2016

A tribute on MS Subbulakshmi on her birth centenary (16 September 1916 – 11 December 2004) by guest author N Venkataraman (About three months ago, there was a burst of discussion on SoY on MS Subbulaxmi, initiated by a new member RSR (RS Ramaswamy) to which many others joined. Shalan Lal posed a question why […]

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