The golden era of Hindi film music gave us an immense  variety of songs composed by many music directors, singers and lyricists. The decades of 1950’s and 60’s were truly fantastic with all the legendary artists at their peak of their creativity. Most of the music composers started off without having any specific attachment to a particular singer in their very early years. However , gradually many started having some affinity for a particular singer or some selected singers. Except for very few , like the infamous O P Nayyar’s total exclusion of Lata Mangeshkar in his songs or Anil Biswas’ aversion to Mohammad Rafi , many did not openly display a particular like or dislike for a singer. But one could always make out their preferences or if you want a stronger word, bias towards or against a singer.

Now I have always maintained a policy of not getting into the controversies or politics of music. This blog is just an attempt by me to look into those rare combinations of certain music directors and singers, who worked only in few songs together and this particular blog is only about the solo songs. I shall not be discussing why some singer was preferred or not preferred as that would lead to many controversies.

This idea came after recently listening to some songs of Talat Mehmood under the music direction of  Shankar Jaikishan, Mohammad Rafi  for Anil Biswas and Salil Chowdhury, Mukesh for Madan Mohan and S D Burman, Kishore Kumar for Shankar Jaikishan, Manna Dey for Naushad etc.

Before I proceed further, the usual caveat-the basis premises of this blog is purely my own personal view based on how I define the ‘ popular’ combinations and ‘ not-so-popular’ combinations. This is not based on some vigorous statistics .

When I have a huge list of artists still not covered in my blogs,  taking up a theme that does not focus on a particular artist , may appear a bit odd , but I am sure anyone going through this blog further may agree with me that this is an interesting way of looking at some of the music composer-singer combinations in a new way.

In the golden era of Hindi films, there were so many great music composers, lyricists  and singers who had a strong association between them. For example , if you take Naushad, after his initial years he worked mostly with Lata, Rafi and Shakeel Badayuni. Similarly Shankar Jaikishan worked with Shailendra and Hasrat Jaipuri among lyricists and Rafi, Mukesh and Lata among singers. S D Burman was instrumental in giving Kishore Kumar his great songs around 20 years prior to Aradhana when he took off in a very big way with his second and more prolific innings. O P Nayyar, after initial association with Shamshad Begum and Geeta Dutt, switched over completely to Asha Bhosale, till the time they parted ways. Mukesh had some of his excellent songs with Shankar Jaikishan and Kalyanji-Anandji. For Madan Mohan, Lata & Rafi were almost inseparable.

I can give many such examples but it would be boring and also make this blog quite long. Hope one gets the drift of what I am trying to explain. It is not that the combinations mentioned were the only ones and the music directors did not work with others. There are only few exceptions like one can never find a Lata song in O P Nayyar’s music as they never worked together or  a lone  , mediocre composition was the only one  Naushad could offer Kishore Kumar in his entire career! Anil Biswas never preferred Rafi except for a few songs that one can count in single digits ( maybe!) or Salil Chowdhury, despite coming out with superb songs with Rafi , totally had around less than 20 songs for him.

Once again, I am not going into the merits of these preferences or bias as they all are legendary artists and might have had their own reasons. Who are we, mere listeners, to question their choices?! My theme for this blog is only to highlight just one or two songs from these rare combinations, which are truly good songs. It is to the credit of the singers and music directors, that despite their very limited number of songs together, they could come out with fabulous songs.

I will  make it more clear by giving an example. Shankar and Jaikishan were known for their peppy, fast-paced, jazzy numbers and one could think of only one solo song they composed for Shamshad Begum- Ek Do Teen Aaja Mausam Hai Rangeen(Film :Aawara). It would have been great if they could have come out with more songs like this. Similarly Mukesh sang very few songs for Madan Mohan -Bhooli Hui Yaadon Mujhe Itna Na Sataao (Film :Sanjog) but it is an evergreen song and one can only say “ wish we had more”  as both were known for their melodious songs.

Few criteria that I have applied while selecting the rare combinations:

1. These are combinations of singer-music director and not lyricist-music director or a singer-lyricist as those combinations may be a separate theme altogether.
2. I have tried to take only prolific singers and music directors as if we venture into lesser-known artists on both categories, once again the list will be huge.
3. Some of the singer-music directors may have worked relatively in few songs only , but at some point of time they had given many hits-for example Talat Mehmood and Shankar Jaikishan worked together in the early years but had given many memorable songs and so I have not considered them as strictly ‘ rare combination’.
4.  I have mostly focused on solo songs only and not duets. One song is an exceptional duet  that has one singer doing only an alaap.
5. Some of the combinations and their songs I have selected may not be truly ‘ fabulous’ as I have titled this blog, but it is my own purely personal opinion that they are good to hear and will make one wonder “ why this combination did not give more songs” ?

I am listing out the songs in two parts- Part 1 for female playback singers and Part 2 for male playback singers. I will be posting Part1 first followed by Part 2.

The songs are listed in no particular order and are just random , instead of the usual chronological order. The song, film , year  and lyricist are mentioned in that sequence.

These are not the only rare combinations and only songs from such rare combinations. One can keep discovering many such songs and would be glad if readers mention them in the comments section.

Also after seeing these combinations, one may wonder why the most famous female playback singer is not aapearing-Lata Mangeshkar . Reason is simple-with the exception of O P Nayyar who did not compose even one song for her, among the top , prolific music directors, she had so many songs that it is difficult to term anyone combination as ‘ rare’!!

Part 1-Some  female solo songs of rare combinations

1. Shamshad Begum and Shankar Jaikishan

Although Shamshad Begum sang a handful duets , to the best of my knowledge there was only one solo she sang in S-J ‘s music direction. Despite that the song remains popular to this day. I always wonder how they created a background noise of a club where so many people are talking throughout the song!

Ek Do Teen Aaja Mausam Hai Rangeen-Aawara-1951-Shailendra

2. Geeta Dutt and Madan Mohan

Madan Mohan , after discovering Lata and Rafi mostly stuck to these two singers with occasional songs for Asha Bhosle, Talat Mehmood and Manna Dey. But that one song of Geeta Dutt is played in every playlist and has become one among the top preferences of many playlists even today.

Ae Dil Mujhe Bata De Tu Kis Pe Aagaya Hai-Bhai Bhai-1956-Rajendra Krishan

3. Geeta Dutt and Shankar Jaikishan

Geeta Dutt was somehow ignored by Shankar-Jaikishan also like Madan Mohan In the film Love Marriage we have this solo and a duet Dil Se Dil Takraye that she sang with Rafi. There were just a handful duets and triad songs , maybe one can count within ten. Just like Shamshad Begum one wishes with the peppy style of Geeta Dutt and SJ , one can only wonder why they did not give many more memorable songs.

Kareeb Aao Na Tadpao-Love Marriage-1959-Shailendra

4. Asha Bhosle with Naushad

In case of Naushad, after his early works with the singers of the vintage era like Noorjehan, Suraiya, Shamshad Begum among others, he stuck to Lata Mangeshkar predominantly in the decades of 50’s and 60’s. It is very rare to hear an Asha song in his music , especially a solo. Even this song that I have listed is not strictly a solo-his favourite singer Rafi chips in between with those superb alaap.

Daiya Re Daiya Laaj -Leader-1964-Shakeel Badayuni

5. Asha Bhosle with Madan Mohan

In case of Madan Mohan, it is well known that he had a fabulous team work with Lata and their songs they came out are legendary. Only when a song required to be picturized in a peppy , fast-paced way, he turned to Asha and also one peculiarity was for many duets , he preferred Asha paired with Rafi. It was very rare to hear a Rafi -Lata duet in MM composition despite both being his top favourites for solo songs. The three solo songs of Asha I have listed are top class without any doubt. My personal favourites are Sabah Se Yeh Kehdo that is a very sober ghazal and the foot-tapping Shok Nazar Ki Bijliyan.

Saba Se Yeh Kehdo-Bank Manager-1959-Jalal Malihabadi

Shok Nazar Ki Bijliyan-Woh Kaun Thi-1964- Raja Mehdi Ali Khan

Jhumka Gira Re-Mera Saya-1966-Raja Mehdi Ali Khan

Since the Youtube links are not getting embedded, I am providing a link which one can click and open in separate tab to listen.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UscktZOMGJY&list=RDUscktZOMGJY&start_radio=1

6. Asha Bhosle and Hemant Kumar

Like many music directors, Hemant da also preferred Lata mostly and the songs they created together are some of the top in Gindi films, especially those haunting melodies. In a Guru Dutt film , it is very rare to listen to Lata and so the film Sahib Bibi Aur Gulam had some the career best songs of Geeta Dutt and Asha Bhosle. I always prefer Meri Baat Rahi Mere Man Mein from this film and the other one Bhanwara Bada Nadaan Hai is also quite popular. The two songs of Anupama are all-time favourites for me.

Meri Baat Rahi Mere Man Mein-Sahib Bibi Aur Gulam

Bheegi Bheegi Fiza-Anupama

Kyun Mujhe Itni Khushi De -Anupama

7. Suman Kalyanpur and Naushad

To be frank, I had to search for a solo song of Suman Kalyanpur in Naushad ‘s music direction, and it was known to me earlier. As such Suman Kalyanpur was preferred by many music directors mainly during those four years of rift between Lata and Rafi when they did not sing together. Solo songs were a rarity for her.

Poonam Ki Raat Aayee-Saaz Aur Awaaz-1966-Khumar Barabankvi

8. Suman Kalyanpur and S D Burman

For S D Burman also solo songs for Suman were far less in numbers , but this tandem song ( the male version by Hemant Kumar is more popular).

Na Tum Hamen Jaano-Baat Ek Raat Ki-1962

Acknowledgement & Disclaimer 

I sincerely thank the publishers of following blogsites & Internet sources for the information that I could gather for this article:

1. You Tube
2. Wikipedia

The songs mentioned are from the popular, public domain and have been embedded here   only for the listening pleasure of the music lovers. The photograph is taken from the internet, duly recognizing the full copyrights for the same to the  original creator or the site where they were originally displayed .This blog does not claim any copyright over them, which rests with the respective owners of the rights.