Music of a Bollywood song is composed by the Music Director and in many ways, that musical composition is the essence of a song. The lyrics of the songs are written by a Lyricist, which given it meaning and depth. However, in spite of their primary role, every song virtually belongs to the singer, for it is the singer who brings a concept of a song into actual existence. In more uncomplicated times, a song was simply sung by the singer, and how good or bad she was decided how good or otherwise the song has been.
In the last eight or so decades of Bollywood singing, we have blessed to have some great vocalists. These singers are music personified. The great heights of Bollywood music between the fifties and the seventies also largely coincided with the growth of some of these singing legends of Bollywood. From Lata to Rafi and from Kishore to Asha, it is these singers to whom we owe these musical gems.
Best of Mukesh
Mukesh Chand Mathur or Mukesh was one of the first of the group of great singers that pushed Bollywood songs to their current height of popularity. Those who like his songs would probably never consider anyone better, though Mukesh considered K. L. Saigal as his inspiration, which is also apparent from his early numbers, a few of them can leave you confused about the singer's identity. Many actors considered him their voice, chief among them Raj Kapoor, for whom Mukesh has sung some of his best songs. His range of singing was phenomenal, as became clear during some of his last movies, like Kabhie Kabhie (1976), a little before he departed.
Best of Kishore Kumar
Half a century after Kishore Kumar joined the Bollywood as an actor singer, today we know that he was one of the biggest geniuses that the industry has seen in its history. However, one must confess that it took the larger audience of Bollywood movies and songs a little over quarter of a century before they could realize his true worth. As a singer, for more than two decades, Kishore sang light songs with a bit of comic touch, often for himself or the great Dev Anand, who stuck with him and got some of the best songs in return. Finally, it was just prior to the seventies, with movies like Aradhana (1969) and Khamoshi (1970) that Kishore Kumar finally grabbed his place at the top of singer's pedestal, reaching heights that have neither been witnessed earlier, not afterwords.
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Best of Yesudas
Yesudas has the same place in South Indian Film industries as perhaps Rafi or Kishore have in Bollywood. Like them, he has also sang in different Indian languages, and thankfully that has given the Bollywood audience a glimpse of what they missed by his being a more frequent singer in Bollywood. His voice is itself a treat to listen, even if he is not singing, but when he sings, and in particular, when they are numbers based on classical raagas, it takes an almost divine quality. Like Mukesh, Yesudas lords over his arena of musical singing, where literally no one can match him.
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Not everyone remembers today that in the early fifties, Shamshad Begum was the leading female singer of Bollywood, more popular than Lata Mangeshkar and Geeta Dutt taken together, and at par with the other legendary singers of late forties, Suraiya and Noor Jehan, both of whom incidentally were singer actors, unlike Shamshad Begum, who was only a singer. Coming from a very conservative family, Shamshad was even reluctant to get herself photographed, and yet if everyone knew about her back then, it was because of the popularity of peppy songs, a genre that practially belonged to her, and died as she stopped singing.
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