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The 105 most popular/ significant Hindi-Urdu songs of 1960

Two notes on the credits

i) The Gulzar who wrote the lyrics of the song Rut albeli, mast samaañ for the film Shriman Satyavadi was not our good old Sampooran Singh Kalra, as an otherwise reliable website suggests by simply giving the credit to ‘Gulzar.’ This writer, instead, was the lesser-known Gulzar Deenvi, as several internet searches revealed and Hindi Film Geet Kosh confirmed.

ii) Who sang the song Na to qaravañ ki talash hai for the film Barsaat ki Raat? A usually reliable website said: Asha Bhosle, Manna Dey, Mohammed Rafi, Sudha Malhotra. But Binaca Geetmala ka Sureela Safar wrote: Manna Dey, Asha Bhosle, Sudha Malhotra, S.D. Batish. The arbitration of SaReGaMa was pointless because its site credited the song to Asha Bhosle alone. However, if you scoured the SaReGaMa site for the Geetmala ki Chhaon Mein CDs you learnt that the song had been sung by Asha Bhosle and Manna Dey. Small mercy. Therefore, Indpaedia consulted Hindi Film Geet Kosh, which agreed with Sureela Safar. Out of abundant caution Indpaedia also consulted the film’s credit titles, which confirmed that Sudha Malhotra and S.D. Batish were among the film’s singers.

History

Yogesh Pawar recalled in DNA India

In 1960 film-maker K Asif convinced legend Bade Ghulam Ali Khan Saheb to sing for his opulent Mughal era epic, Mughal-e-Azam. The late music composer Naushad once shared with [Yogesh Pawar:]

I had gone to Khan Saheb with K Asif since I felt there was no one else who could do justice as the voice of Emperor Akbar’s court singer Mia Tansen. With his Patiala-Kasur style, the Behram Khani elements of Dhrupad, the gyrations of Jaipur, and the embellishments of Gwalior, his flexible voice could effortlessly span three octaves and easily move in all tempi,” he had said. “I was convinced it won’t work after he first refused.”

But Asif wouldn’t give up that easily. He kept coaxing Bade Ghulam Ali politely.

In a bid to dissuade them, the maestro reportedly demanded Rs25,000 per song, “At a time when reigning playback singers like Lata Mangeshkar and Mohammed Rafi got less than Rs500 per song, this seemed stiff,” remembered Naushad. “Asif immediately agreed, and the Ustad agreed to sing my compositions in Raga Sohni and Rageshri.”

Both ‘Prem jogan ban-ke’ and ‘Shubh din aayo raj dulara’ are still regarded as high points in the history of Indian film music.

The ‘next rung’

The Geetmala ki Chhaon Mein CDs list 39 songs that were ‘in the shade’ (chhaoñ songs) this year. Prof Bhargava has compiled a list of eighteen runners-up. The two lists have nine songs in common. Thus, between the two, there are 48 unique songs in the ‘next rung.’

GC: Geetmala ki Chhaon Mein is a set of 50 CDs issued by Saregama in instalments that continued into 2012-13. The set concentrated on songs that had ‘remained in the shadow’ (chhaoñ) of the main annual list of Binaca and its successor Geet Malas. These, thus, were the ‘next rung’ of songs, which were popular but did not make it to the main annual list.

AB: Bhargava, Anil, Binaca Geetmala ka Sureela Safar (Hindi; 2007; Rs.1,200), Vangmaya Prakashan, Jaipur-302015. vangmaya_jpr@yahoo.com)

Volumes 16 to 20 of Geetmala ki Chhaon Mein contain songs from the years 1960 to 1963. However, the songs have not been organised according to the year or any other comprehensible criteria. That Indpaedia had to rearrange them yearwise is not the issue.

‘Sureela Safar’ has placed some songs released in one year in the next year’s Runners Up list. Perfectly understandable. Songs don’t lose their popularity at the stroke of midnight on December 31.

The issue is that in some cases GCM has listed a song in the year of its release but ‘Sureela Safar’ has placed the same song in the subsequent year. In such cases Indpaedia has listed the song under the earlier year, the one mentioned by GCM. However, if a song has been mentioned on ‘Sureela Safar’s’ Runners Up list alone Indpaedia has respected ‘Sureela Safar’s’ judgement about that song continuing to be popular in the next year as well.

Raags in songs

Few film songs that have a root in Indian classical music remain faithful to a raag throughout their length. Indpaedia volunteers have sometimes mentioned raags even when there is merely a hint of that raag in a song. (Raag is also spelt raga.)

Some of the songs on this page were suggested by

songsofyore

Ranade, Ashok Da, "Hindi Film Somg: Music Beyond Boundaries" (2006, Promilla & Company, New Delhi, Chicago; 2013 edition: Rs.695)

A special raag

The song Jane kaise sapnon mein kho gayi from Anuradha is set in Raag Tilak Shyam. This raag was created by Pt. Ravi Shankar himself. Those who are unaware of this new raag assume that the song is in Manj Khamãj.

Binaca Geetmala’s Top 32 songs of 1960

Binaca Geet Mala 1960: greatest hits

Contents

The 105 most popular/ significant Hindi-Urdu songs of 1960

Two notes on the credits

History

The ‘next rung’

Raags in songs

A special raag

Binaca Geetmala’s Top 32 songs of 1960

See also

For lists of popular songs

For lists of popular Hindi-Urdu films

For raags and taals

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