Singer inside Music Composer
Singer inside Music Composer
The Golden Era of Hindi Music have witnessed number of famous talented playback singers who have performed very melodious and popular songs to the audience. Their contribution in enriching Hindi film music is appreciated and never forgotten. The singer used to put their all efforts to finalizes the song by considering mood of the song and situation in the movie and giving full justice to the best composition created by music composer and wording by the lyricist. Without mentioning particular name let us thank all these singers for making our life pleasurable. The voices and style of these singers are all known to us. we remember their all songs by heart.
Today, however, we are going to listen to songs in the voices of some different singers; we will listen to the the singer hidden inside of the Hindi Music Composers.
(In this article, I have excluded names of regular Music Composer Cum Singer who sing on regular basis viz. S. D. Burman, Hemant Kumar, C. Ramchandra, R. D. Burman and few others).
Many eminent and talented musicians have made Hindi film music glorious in the golden age of Hindi film music. Many of these musicians entered in the film industry to become playback singer.
Composer Madan Mohan Kohli entered the film industry as a singer and sang two songs with Lata Didi in the 1948 film ‘Shaheed’ composed by Ghulam Haider. But both those songs could not appear on screen or on record. In 1947 Madan Mohan had recorded two ghazals in his voice. Composer Ravi (Ravi Shankar Sharma) also came to Mumbai in 1950 to become a singer. Composer Omkar Prasad Nayyar (O. P. Nayyar) was also fond of singing. He used to work as a Singer/Composer on Lahore radio.
Composer Usha Khanna was also fond of singing. “On seeing my passion for singing, I was taken to a famous producer to become a singer,” she once said in an interview. “Then the producer asked me if I could sing better than Lata, better than Asha?, I said “No”. Then he said, “Then you don’t go for singing”. Lyricist Indeevar, who was standing there, said to the producer, “Yeh ladki gaana bhi achcha banati hai”, thus Usha Khanna became a musician at a very young age. But she later completed her her passion for singing in her movies.
Let’s hear some of these unfamiliar voice songs now. (Some of these songs are presented as it is, so you may find them short).
Let’s start with composer O.P. Nayyar with his rare composition in Nayyar’s voice.
Composer Omkar Prasad Nayyar (OP) was also fond of singing. OP himself sung a song in the prograame ‘Ujale Unki Yaadon Ke’ aired on Vividh Bharati few years back. let’s first hear this rare song in OP’s voice. Mahendra Kapoor has sung the song for the unreleased 1991 film ‘Jaane Mehboob’.
This rare song in Op’s voice has been made available to the internet for the first time for fans.
OP used to sing and compose music on Lahore radio during his youth. At the age of 17 (in about 1943), OP composed Kabir Dohe for HMV and sang it himself. Let’s listen Kabir Dohe in OP’s voice. Influence of the great singer Saigal is clearly seen on his OP’s singing.
In 1998, on the occasion of the 150th episode the ‘TVS Saregama’ show, presented on Zee TV. Many imminent and legendary Composers and Singers of the Golden Era of Music industry were invited as judges. At the end of the show the host Sonu Nigam requested OP Nayyar to sing with him, who was present there as a one of the judge. And OP had sung a verse of his one of the famous song along with Sonu Nigam. We can see the magic of OP’s voice even at the age of 73.
Composer Madan Mohan used to record in his voice while composing a song or rehearsing the song on a tape. Many such tapes were in his collections. Madan Mohan’s family handed over some tapes of Madan Mohan to the HMV after they were was approached by HMV to do a new album of Madan Mohan’s songs to pay tribute to him. Many compositions and songs were found in those tapes consisting rehearsing the Mukhadas, Antaras and rehearsals of many released and unreleased songs and compostions. Some of those compositions have been used by producer and director Yash Chopra in the 2004’s film ‘Veer Zara’. Let’s first hear two full songs sung by Madan Mohan himself from that collection.
Madan Mohan recorded the song ‘Naina Barse, Rimzim Rimzim’ in his own voice for the film ‘Wah Kaun Thi’ for completing from shooting of the film, as Lata Didi was ill. And the song was shot on actress Sadhana Lip Syncing in that masculine voice. The song was later recorded in Lata Didi’s voice after Lata Didi recovered from illness and used in the film.
Source: https://www.saregama.com/search/song?s=Madan%20Mohan%20Sings%20Naina%20Barse
Same thing happened again. In Lata Didi’s absence Madan Mohan sang ‘Mai Ri Main Kase Kahu Pir Apne Jia Ki, Mai Ri’. The song was later recorded in Lata Didi’s voice and used in the film after the song was shot.
Film: Dastak (1970), Lyricist: Majrooh Sultanpuri. Original singer: Lata Mangeshkar. Producer, Director, Screenplay: Rajinder Singh Bedi
Madan Mohan recorded a dummy track once in the absence of singer Mohammad Rafi.
Source: https://www.saregama.com/song/madan-mohan-sings-aapke-pehloon-mein_97345
Madan Mohan had composed three to four different versions for the ‘Dil Dhoondata Hai Phir Wahi, Fursat Ke Raat Din’. Let’s hear those compositions moves in his own voice.
Visit the link below to listen to few more songs from the tapes found in collection of Madan Mohan’s voice as mentioned above, compositions, rehearsals etc:
http://madanmohan.in/html/goldenmoments/mmsings.html
‘Shankar-Jaikishan’ were the famous and popular duo of Golden Era of Hindi cinema music. Listen composer Jaikishan singing in his special voice in live event.
Composer Ravi had started his career by singing in the chorus in the famous song ‘Vande Mataram, Vande Mataram’ from the film Anandmath composed by Hemant Kumar. Ravi has since sung some songs in the film he composed. Now let’s listen to his very popular composition in his own voice.
Composer Ravi was also a good lyricist. He has written and sung songs which were on screen in many films like ‘Ek Phool Do Mali (1969), Asha (1971), Padosi (1971) and Jogi (1982)’. Let’s listen to another song written and composed by Ravi in his voice.
Composer Khayyam has sung a duet with his wife famous singer Jagjit Kaur.
Composer Usha Khanna had learned poetry, singing and music from her father Manohar Khanna. At the age of 18, in 1959, veteran director Shashidhar Mukherjee, a legendary producer of Hindi film industry, entrusted Usha Khanna with the responsibility of composing songs for a new film ‘Dil Deke Dekho’. Usha Khanna was fond of singing so she has sung some songs in a film composed by her. Other musicians also used her voice, but not found to have given the full song to her. She was used only a few words humming or, one or two lines, given to her. After a lot of searching found two songs in which Usha Khanna has sung full stanzas. Find below those songs.
Hindi film music has numerous songs, so some known songs and unknown songs of the same type are still left. Only 14 songs are given here due to the limitations of the article’s length. As the new songs are found they will be reintroduced to you.
See you soon again with new songs and new topics.
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Nice collection of unknown singers/ music directors