Difficult songs to sing !!!

[Ramesh Hariharan]

Hello folks :

This is especially for those in the newsgroup who love to sing
.. yeah, that includes everyone from the bathroom singer to the on-stage
professional :-) ... I was trying to list songs that are difficult to
sing. Now, a song can be challenging to sing because of the following reasons :

A) The songs spans too wide a range of frequencies [Rafi, Lata, Asha]
B) It's a semiclassical song ... complicated aalaps. [Manna Dey, Amir
Khan, Rafi, Yesudas, Lata, Asha]
C) Breath control is difficult ... [can't think of anyone spec. here...
D) The songs has Kishore yoodling in it .. :-) [KK]

Here's the list I came up with .. please feel free to add on/comment

Pretty challenging :

1) Kuhu kuhu bole koyaliyan : Lata and Manna Dey [A,B]
2) Aaj gawat man mero : Ustad Amir Khan and Pt. D. C. Pasulkar (Baiju Bawra)
[A, B]
3) Jhanak jhanak : Manna Dey from Mere Huzoor [B]
4) Lapak Jhapak tu aare badarawa : Manna Dey in Boot Polish [B,A,C]
5) Jhanak Jhanak payal bhaje : Ustad Amir Khan [B]
6) Saaz ho tum : Rafi in Saaz aur awaaz [C, A]
7) Oh Duniya ke rakhavale : Rafi in Baiju Bawra [A]
8) Tori jai jai karatar : Ustad Amir Khan in Baiju Bhawra/Goonj uti
shahanayee[B]
9) Cham Cham bhaje re payaliyan : Manna Dey in Jane Anjane [B,A]
10) Tere naina talash : Manna Dey in Talash [B]
11) Hato kahe ko jhotti banao batiyan : Manna Dey in Manzil [B]

Difficult :

1) Aaj ki raat : Rafi in Ram aur Shyam [C]
2) Phulgendawa na maro : Manna Dey in Door ka Chand [B]
3) Tore naina rasile katile hai raam : Manna Dey in Hamdard [B]
4) Toote hue khwabon ne : Rafi in Madhumati [B]
5) Sur na saje : Manna Dey in Basant Bahar (?) [B]
6) Radhike toone bansuri chura lee : Rafi + Lata [A,B]
7) Madhuban mein radhika nache : Mhd. Rafi in Kohinoor [B]
8) Tu hai mera prem devata : Manna Dey with Rafi [B,C]
9) Nis sa ga ma pa ni : Yesudas [B]

Slight difficulty :

1) Insaaf ka mandir hai ye : Rafi in Amar [C]
2) Dil jalta hai : Mukesh in Pehli Nazar [C, A]
3) Kaun aya mere man ke dware : Manna Dey [B]
4) Laga Chunari mein daag : Manna Dey in Dil hi to hai [B]
5) Jeevan se bhari teri aankhen : Kishore in Safar [A]
6) Bol re papi : Vani Jayaram in Guddi [A, B]
7) Koyi gaata mein so jata : Yesudas [C]
8) Kahan se aye badira : Yesudas with Hemanti Shukla. [B]
9) Maan mera ehsaan (have to hold breath for a long time) : Rafi [C]
10) Duiya na bhaye : Rafi in Basant Bahar [A]

Some observations :

1) Mukesh and KK (excluding the yoodling kind) have sung hardly any
difficult tunes (based on the info I have). The above is more true of Mukesh.

2) Naushad (highs with Lata, Rafi) and Shankar Jaikishan (semiclassical
with Manna Dey) made lots of challenging tunes, whereas SDB (melodious
music with KK usually) and OP Nayyar (rhythmic) made simple but sweet tunes.
It's however worth mentioning that the music SJ made for the Mukesh-RK team
used to be simple in general.

3) Manna Dey clearly scores over the rest based on his potent
classical prowess.

4) Rafi scores high primarily due to his ability to reach high freq with
ease.

5) I am sure there are lots of Asha and Lata songs (esp. Asha) that are
difficult to sing that I can't think of ... pl. tag on to the above list ..

6) The classification above is very personal ! It depends on what you
find to be easy; someone maybe very trained in classical music and for
him/her the above Manna songs maybe easy but they may struggle with O
duiya ke rakhavale. The reverse scenario is also easily conceivable.

--
Steve Young rolls to the right, connects with Jerry Rice who's going up
the middle .. he is going .. going ALL THE WAY ... 80 yard pass TD 49ers ...
HEY !!!! FOOTBALL IS BACK .. WOW !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Ramesh Hariharan, Chem. Engg., Princeton Univ.

[Suresh Subramanian]

Some more additions to the list are as follows:
Very difficult:-
1)Man Mohana Bade Jhoote-"Seema"-Lata Mangeshkar is just unbelievable especiallytowards the ending.I doubt that any of the present female singers can do an
encore of Lata in that song.
2)Jhoote Naina Bole-"Lekin"-Asha -this song can only be sung by a classical
musician and Asha's flexibility is evident.

Which reminds me-In my opinion the most difficult song ever in any Indian film
is "Mannil Inda" from a Tamil film "Keladi Kanmani" in which the entire stanza
of the song is sung by SP Balasubramaniam in one breath-the stanza is nearly
a minute long-Does anyone else who has heard this song have a different opinion?

-Suresh
-

[Suresh Subramanian]

In article <1993Aug30.2...@Princeton.EDU> hari...@eads.Princeton.EDU (Ramesh Hariharan) writes:

Some additions to the VERY DIFFICULT category are:-
1)Man mohana Bade Jhoote-Lata Mangeshkar in SEEMA-(B,C,)
2)Jhoote naina Bole-Asha in LEKIN_(C)
3)Ek chatur Naar-Manna Dey and Kishore in PADOSAN-(B,C)

In my opinion the most difficult song to sing from any Indian film would be
"Mannil Inda" from the Tamil film Keladi Kanmani-in which SP Balasubramaniam
sings the entire stanza in a single breath.The stanzas are at least a minute
long and I'm sure that even the well-trained classical musician would find
the going pretty tough if he/she attempted to sing this song.Does anybody else
who has heard this song agree or disagree with me?
--Suresh

[Abhay Avachat]

subr...@rodan.syr.edu (Suresh Subramanian) writes:
>Which reminds me-In my opinion the most difficult song ever in any Indian film
>is "Mannil Inda" from a Tamil film "Keladi Kanmani" in which the entire stanza
>of the song is sung by SP Balasubramaniam in one breath-the stanza is nearly
>a minute long-Does anyone else who has heard this song have a different opinion?
>
>-Suresh

I have heard this song, its plain awesome. The way SPB sings the whole
stanza in one breath is incredible. There is no apparent stress, it's
as if he could go on for more time ! It's all incredible, something
which you cannot describe in words, one must listen to it. Another
thing about this song is its melody ! Even with the superhuman effort,
the song doesn't ever lose its sweetness. A truely great song.
Those of you, who love music, but haven't heard this song, are missing
something real good. Make this is your first priority.

PVR mentioned about the try by some SPB fans to register this as some
world record too.

Luckily, I have seen this song. SPB himself is acting. The song is a
pleasure to watch too.

And this reminds me of the topic which was discussed at that time.
Why doesn't SPB sound equally good in Hindi songs ? It's nothing to
do with the language pronuniciation problem. The voice itself sounds
different. To me it's a tragic mystery.

- Abhay.
The start of a new SPB thread.

[VRA...@ukcc.uky.edu]

>subr...@rodan.syr.edu (Suresh Subramanian) writes:
>>Which reminds me-In my opinion the most difficult song ever in any Indian film
>>is "Mannil Inda" from a Tamil film "Keladi Kanmani" in which the entire stanza
>>of the song is sung by SP Balasubramaniam in one breath-the stanza is nearly

Sorry to rain on your parade, but apparently it is a recording studio
gimmick - SPB didn't sing it that way - it was sliced together later.
I remember reading an SPB interview somewhere on this issue. Also, some
of my friends who have attended SPB concerts attest to this - they
claim that he doesnt get anywhere close to replicating the stanza in
question.

However, I think it doesn't diminish the beauty of the song in any way
- it's beautifully sung and craftily produced.

Venkat

[Suresh Subramanian]

I dont have a parade for you to rain on ,but I was In Trichy at the time the
movie was released and there was certainly no mention of the recording
studio gimmicks etc.at that time.In fact Illayaraja himself came on DD and
said that SPB was the only one who could have sung it,but then this wasn't
the first song of its kind and that there were other songs where the words were
such that they required holding ones breath for an extended time.
And yes-there was again a light music concert shown live on Madras DD where
SPB sang the song without a breath-and believe me,I saw that.

[Anish K. Desai]

Ramesh Hariharan (hari...@eads.Princeton.EDU) wrote:
: Hello folks :

: Pretty challenging :

: Difficult :

: Slight difficulty :

: Some observations :

I beg to differ as far as your observations on KK go. I can't think of too many singers who can sing the following songs:
a) Hum the woh thi aur sama rangeen samajh gaye naa (Chalti Ka Naam Gaadi)
b) Ek Chatur Naar (Padosan)
c) Pagha ghunghroo baandh Meera (Namak Halaal)

-anish desai

: 2) Naushad (highs with Lata, Rafi) and Shankar Jaikishan (semiclassical

[John Jacob]

More on SPB:

Check out his songs in "Teri Payal Meray Geet" - all renditions are excellent and compositions are, well good old Naushadian
classical style.

It is the title song though, by SPB, that's the cream of the compositions - sounds suspiciously close to Naushad's Kohinoor(?)
composition for MD. Rafi - "Madhuban may radhika naachay ray".

It's a once in a lifetime collaboration of two Indian music industry's finest talents.

[combin...@gmail.com]

In my opinion, the posts were really worth looking at. With Rafi,SPB,Manna Dey,Lata...The song variety varies from person to person but one composition i remember of Madan Mohan for "Yeh dawa aaj duniya bhar se manwa ne ki khatir aa" from Laila Majnu (1976). A typical Qawwali style with a complex composition giving very little chance of breath in between stanzas. Superbly rendered by Rafi Sahab.

[anil....@gmail.com]

True. Remember SPB admit it on a TV show,that it was done in the studios later.
But he is quiet capable of singing it in a single breath. But in films the effects have to be out of this world and hence the post production editing.

[anil....@gmail.com]

[shu...@gmail.com]

On Thursday, May 5, 2016 at 11:08:47 PM UTC+5:30, anil....@gmail.com wrote:
> True. Remember SPB admit it on a TV show,that it was done in the studios later.
> But he is quiet capable of singing it in a single breath. But in films the effects have to be out of this world and hence the post production editing.

Nurjehan's Um,ange Dilki Machali with Harakats ,Murkis,change of pace and Change of Taal is very difficult to sing
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1o9MIcCJlew

[shu...@gmail.com]

actually all Lata song (if not all most of them) are difficult for others.It is only easy when she sings it.something like jhonty Rhodes making a catch !

[uday.ta...@gmail.com]

I never considered lataji or ashaji as great singers.Apart from not having much classical base,I always found Ashajis voice cracking and too sharp!! they got on top just because they suppressed the rest.I consider Geeta dutt ji a lot many times better than Lataji. The mangeshkars got into the lime light just because they maintained the monopoly by not giving a chance to new comers sometimes even to their own clan.
Take for example Bol re papi hara..the singer vani Jairam had a similar or even better voice but she was systematically curbed from Bollywood.
Sadly the real great female singers like Smt Kishori Amonkar Parveen Sultan never entered the dirty world of Bollywood.(Of course with the exception of geet gaya pattharone)
By the way this is my personal opinion and I mean no offense to anyone.