Lata : How many songs has she sung?
Jasjit Singh
Lata/Asha/Geeta/Rafi/Mukesh/Kishore/..... sung for Hindi films. I
believe Lata is the highest (I think she even holds some kind of
world record).
And any idea as to how many songs have been sung for Hindi movies so
far? 10,000? 100,000? A million ??
Have fun,
-Jasjit
Shiva Shenoy
>Have fun,
>-Jasjit
Lata does have the world record (Guiness). I think it is more than 30,000
songs so far. I don't have the Guiness book handy right now.
--
Shiva Shenoy | e-mail: she...@iastate.edu
2066 Black, | Office: (515)-294-0082
Dept. of Aero. Engg. & Engg. Mechanics | Home : (515)-296-7640
Iowa State University, Ames, IA 50010 |
Nasir Ahmed Noor
>I don't have the Guiness book handy right now.
Even if you did, it wouldn't have helped as a new song (from her) comes
out almost every single day. Or I guess more than one song!
Lets SUPPOSE she is singing for the past 40 years (which I think is little
exaggerated) and she has sung a TOTAL of 30000 songs (this figure is atleast
3 years old now). It comes out to be more than 2 songs/day!!!!
(Oh man, she is like a machine. Just think about it. Recording a song
involves a lot...rehearsals, test and final recordings etc etc. Above
figures are highly exaggerated and I guess carefull calculations would
give a number like 3 songs/every single day! I guess singing is the only
she does in her life. And I really mean "the ONLY thing"!!!!!)
A very very great artist. I love her!
--nasir
umn...@ccu.umanitoba.ca
Sudhir Kumar
>Does anybody have any statistics as to how many songs have each of
>Lata/Asha/Geeta/Rafi/Mukesh/Kishore/..... sung for Hindi films. I
>believe Lata is the highest (I think she even holds some kind of
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>world record).
Lata is credited with the maximum number of songs but that looks
doubtful to me. I remember once reading in Madhuri (one of the
best film magazine, Hindi) that in the period 1953 to 1960, that
is considered the best period for Lata, she sang ~1700 Hindi film
songs, (Madhuri did give the exact number but I do not remember that)
and Asha in the same period sang ~1900 Hindi film songs,
roughly 200 more than Lata. Later, Asha started singing even more songs,
and in eighties she completely dominated the Hindi film songs, I would
think she should have definitely a lot more Hindi songs than Lata.
Agreed that they also sang songs other than Hindi film songs, but the
number of such songs is much smaller than Hindi film songs. Hence
shouldn't Ash have more songs than Lata?
I want to know how is the fact substantiated that Lata has maximum
number of songs to her credit? Has someone objectively estimated or
is it just a hearsay?
>And any idea as to how many songs have been sung for Hindi movies so
>far? 10,000? 100,000? A million ??
I am interested in knowing that too.
>Have fun,
>-Jasjit
ciao,
-- sudhir
--
------------
Sudhir Kumar Any opinions expressed are strictly
ku...@asl.dl.nec.com my own and have nothing to do with
(214) 518-5000 NEC America, Inc.
Rajesh G Shenoi
I believe that Lata has the "record of records" in the Guiness book.
That is, she has released the maximum number of records or something to
that effect.
I have heard that figure of 3 songs a day (by Lata) before. It may
be the actual number too. :)
Adios,
Shenoi.
Rajan Parrikar
>she...@iastate.edu (Shiva Shenoy) writes:
>
>>I don't have the Guiness book handy right now.
>
>Even if you did, it wouldn't have helped as a new song (from her) comes
>out almost every single day. Or I guess more than one song!
>
>Lets SUPPOSE she is singing for the past 40 years (which I think is little
>exaggerated)
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
There is certainly NO exaggeration here! Lata began her singing career
when she was around 15 (she was born in 1928). That means she has been
singing for around 50 years!!
>and she has sung a TOTAL of 30000 songs (this figure is atleast
>3 years old now). It comes out to be more than 2 songs/day!!!!
>
>(Oh man, she is like a machine. Just think about it. Recording a song
> involves a lot...rehearsals, test and final recordings etc etc. Above
The 'salad' days of Hindi film music were in the 50s and 60s and
it was not unusual for Lata, in those days, to record 4 songs/day. She
is known to be extremely quick in absorbing a tune....the rehearsals,
for the most part, were to get the orchestration right.
Rajan Parrikar
==============
email: parr...@mimicad.colorado.edu
Preetham Gopalaswamy
number is highly exaggerated. An article was published in one of the film
magazines showing year by year, the number of songs sung by Lata, Asha, Rafi,
etc. and it showed a couple of things:
a] there is no way Lata could have sung the number of songs the Guiness book
of world records claims she did. In fact the number of songs counted till
1970 totalled to a comparitively measly 6000 (this is from memory and the
actual number is at best less than this).
b] by the mid 60s, Asha had already overtaken Lata in the number of songs sung
and after that, the difference only widened.
Granted that this only took into consideration songs in Hindi films, even if one
assumes that Lata sang 1/2 as many songs in all other languages together (which
is an exagerrated number in itself), you do not come up with the number of
30000. One must also consider that there was a fairly long period in the middle
when Lata could not sing since she had lost her voice and at 3 songs a day, that
would substantially reduce the number.
Also, Lata recorded her first song in 1946 (I think). In those days (for the
first few years atleast), it was impossible for her to have sung more than 1 song
a day on an average, partially because not too many films were made each year and
partially because there were a lot of other more established singers such as Noor
Jehan, Suraiyya and Geeta Dutt to compete with. It was not till 1950 that the
Lata/Asha monopoly started. Perhaps after that, the 4 songs a day is possible
but not likely.
I do not have the above article right now but do have a copy at home and will dig
it up when I get a chance.
Just my $0.02 worth on the issue. Comments/arguments/refutations to the net are
always welcome.
Preetham Gopalaswamy
Sudhir Kumar
>The 'salad' days of Hindi film music were in the 50s and 60s and
>it was not unusual for Lata, in those days, to record 4 songs/day. She
>is known to be extremely quick in absorbing a tune....the rehearsals,
>for the most part, were to get the orchestration right.
Lata might have sung 4, may be more, on a single day. But maintaining
an average of 4 a day over an extended period of time -- you are
talking BIG exageration here. As I said earlier in my post, according
to Madhuri (magazine) Lata sang close to an average of 1 Hindi film song per
day in the period 1953 to 1960.
-- sudhir
--
Sudhir Kumar Any opinions expressed are strictly
ku...@asl.dl.nec.com my own and have nothing to do with
(214) 518-5000 NEC America, Inc.
1525 Walnut Hill Lane
Rajan Parrikar
>parr...@csn.org (Rajan Parrikar) writes:
>
>>The 'salad' days of Hindi film music were in the 50s and 60s and
>>it was not unusual for Lata, in those days, to record 4 songs/day. She
>>is known to be extremely quick in absorbing a tune....the rehearsals,
>>for the most part, were to get the orchestration right.
>
>Lata might have sung 4, may be more, on a single day. But maintaining
>an average of 4 a day over an extended period of time -- you are
>talking BIG exageration here. As I said earlier in my post, according
>to Madhuri (magazine) Lata sang close to an average of 1 Hindi film song per
>day in the period 1953 to 1960.
>
>-- sudhir
Nasir Ahmed Noor wrote that Lata's singing career spanning 40 years is
an exaggeration (or something to that effect). My response was that IT
(the 40 years) is NOT an exaggeration. Yes, the *number* of songs she
is credited with is bloated. Sorry if I didn't come across that way.
Rajan Parrikar
==============
email: parr...@mimicad.colorado.edu
ps: BTW, I don't think there's any dispute that Lata has sung in the
most number of languages. Comments??
Girish Harshe
In this context I am reposting my earlier article sent to this group:
By the way what I remember the total number of Lata's songs
(as reported in Guinness Book) was above 40000 and that was a few years
back. Even Mohd. Rafi was credited with more than 28000 songs according
to the news reports following his death.
=================================================Beginning of Repost
Organization: Penn State University
Date: Fri, 24 Jul 1992 15:04:53 EDT
From: Girish Harshe <GR...@psuvm.psu.edu>
Message-ID: <92206.15...@psuvm.psu.edu>
Newsgroups: rec.music.indian.misc
Subject: How many songs has Lata sung?
Hi,
This question has remained unanswered for many years. Lata
Mangeshkar's name has been included in the Guinness Book of World
Records for maximum number of songs recorded. However, a simple
math reduces the number (above 40000) considerably.
If she is singing professionally since she was 12, then
her career years would be around say 50 so far, (correction welcome)
Assuming she sang 2 songs per day, for 300 days a year (which I
think is much more than average) she would have recorded 50x600
i.e. about 30,000 songs. But she is given credit for more
than 40,000 songs. That was 10 years back. How do you explain
this. Even Mohd. Rafi is said to have recorded 28000 odd songs.
Is that possible?
Just curious,
Girish
=====================================End of Repost
I think this number is highly exaggerated. She is indeed a great
singer. But let us have the records straight so that future
great singers with well documented careers, may have a chance
to surpass Lata's accomplishments.
Girish
On a completely different note: Why is Rafi's first name is
always spelled 'Mohd.' instead of 'Mohammed'?
Preetham Gopalaswamy
writes
|> Rajan Parrikar
|> ==============
|> email: parr...@mimicad.colorado.edu
|>
|> ps: BTW, I don't think there's any dispute that Lata has sung in the
|> most number of languages. Comments??
|>
While I am not aware of any official dispute over this fact, I do think
it may not be entirely true. Asha has sung in all the Indian
languages that Lata has sung in (I am almost certain of that) and in
addition to that has also sung in English ("Ave Maria" with the British
group Blanc Mange sp????). So I would guess that she is atleast one
up on Lata in the number of languages sung. I am almost certain that
Lata has not sung in English but as to whether she has sung in some
other language that Asha has not, I do not know.
Preetham
Animesh Y. Gandhi
I am new to this place so please excuse any mistakes.
In a recent issue of India Today there was an article on the current
singers in the Hindi film world.
It basiclly stated how the industry changed over the years.
The article also mentions that the current groups of singers like Kumar
Sanu record about 5 songs per day. Using that figured it is very
possible that Lata might have around 30,000 songs to her credit.
Juhana Kouhia
Hi,
I recall that Asha has the record on singing 70 song in one day.
Juhana Kouhia
Girish Harshe
Even if a singer records 5 songs a day, the average number of
songs recorded per day could be much smaller. For example
if a singer works 5 days per week, it will be about 3.5 songs
per day (spd). And over the period of 40-50 years this average has
to drop considerably. So in Lata's case with a 50 year long
career and an average of 1 spd, the most generous estimate
cannot exceed 19000 (18250+12 for leap years, to be precise).
Even any inflated estimates can hardly justify the claimed figure
of 30-40K songs. That's all. (However, her place in the Guinness
Book for most number of songs, is certainly well deserved, since
no other singer has had that successful a career, with the exception
of Asha).
Girish
Jasjit Singh
Surely you're kidding!!
Suppose , on that fine day, Asha sang for 14 hours out of 24 !!
Even then, that means a song every 12 minutes.... impossible.
The only logical explanation can be that she was singing songs that already had been sung previously.
Gaye ja gaye ja,
Jasjit
Juhana Kouhia
In article <1992Aug13.1...@intelhf.hf.intel.com>
jas...@juhi.uucp (Jasjit Singh) writes:
>
>In article <1992Aug12.1...@cc.tut.fi>, jk8...@cc.tut.fi
>(Juhana Kouhia) writes:
>|>
>|> I recall that Asha has the record on singing 70 song in one day.
>
>
No, My source is radio -- well, that doesn't say they are
correct.
>Suppose , on that fine day, Asha sang for 14 hours out of 24 !!
>Even then, that means a song every 12 minutes.... impossible.
Note that it is possible to sing all lyrics in one take without
empty space -- music editors then put the voices to the correct
places.
So, if I sing an ten minutes; then somebody can make an half hour
song from it by adding other solo instruments between my voices.
(Probably not, because I don't have a good singing voice :-)
Song every 12 minutes -- why not?
Again from a radio program I recall that Lata (I don't know when)
did run from studio to studio and after 15 hour work he did go to home
with train. I think this was when she was young.
>The only logical explanation can be that she was singing songs that
>already had been sung previously.
At least there can be some allready made background music.
Hey, if somebody has magazines with film star/music star interviews
please type in to Net. What music or film magazines exists?
Juhana Kouhia
Ajay Divakaran
for the sake of brevity. Like Kr. for Kumar etc.
ajay
Girish Harshe
says:
>
>Mohd. is just an abbreviation for Mohammed. So Mohd. Rafi is used only
>for the sake of brevity. Like Kr. for Kumar etc.
> ajay
Thanks for your reply. However, you misunderstood my question.
I don't think, I said anywhere that I was confused since I didn't
know Mohd. is short for Mohammed. My question why it is always
(at least everywhere I have seen on records, album covers, cassettes
etc.) written as Mohd. and never as his full name Mohammed? Come to
think of it, the pronounciation of Mohd. comes very close to Mohammed
and may be for that reason, people copying it for printing purpose
never bother(ed) to spell it in full.
Girish