The list was so bad that I was forced to respond with:
***
- I am surprised that the list has no songs from great composers like
Anil Biswas, Husnlal Bhagatram (her early mentors), Shyam Sunder, SN
tripathi, K Dutta, Jamal Sen, Sailesh etc who composed some
extraordinary songs for Lata.
- It also has very few songs from composers who did a great job with
her like CR, Roshan
- Too many songs from LP, KA, RDB etc. SDB gets a good number but none
from the 50s when he did his best work with Lata.
- More than one song from many movies when the choice could have been
a bit broader.
- Most disappointingly, the list focuses on the popular to very
popular songs/soundtracks leaving out lesser known and rare gems. 2
songs from Azaad and none from Yasmeen, Khazana, Parcchain, Sipahiya,
Shagufa is surprising.
****
Needless to say, my comment was deleted. I do feel that RMIMers will
do better and should try sometime. And I am all for considering
popular/rare gems from the 60s and 70s as well.
Cheers,
Kalyan
One 70s song that has been running in my head for
some days now is Jaidev's "tumhe.n dekhatii huu.N to
lagataa hai aise".
The line where she goes "piyaa aur tum se mai.n
kyaa chaahatii huu.N" is of particular delight. Any
other singer-composer would have chosen to break that
as
"piyaa aur tum se
mai.n kyaa chaahatii huu.N"
but Lata-Jaidev come up with
"piyaa aur tum se mai.n
kyaa chaahatii huu.N"
shifting the emphasis to the "kyaa" and dwelling upon
it for a micro-second longer and all the longing comes
out in that one word. Scintillating.
Vijay
These are not 'creme-de-la-creme Hindi film songs' These are just
popular songs, popular as thought by today's listeners.
The probable reason is that he is not even aware that such songs
exist. Of course, such lists always reflect one's personal choice and
need not be considered as universal.
>
> The probable reason is that he is not even aware that such songs
> exist. Of course, such lists always reflect one's personal choice and
> need not be considered as universal.
>
I agree that is the likely reason. That's why I was curious how better-
informed and more knowledgeable RMIMers would do in a similar exercise
(probably a surveykshan by Vinay). I am sure there will be a lot of
disagreements but we would surely be casting the net wider and deeper.
Kalyan
>
>
> > Needless to say, my comment was deleted. I do feel that RMIMers will
> > do better and should try sometime. And I am all for considering
> > popular/rare gems from the 60s and 70s as well.
>
> > Cheers,
> > Kalyan- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -
Here is a list and songs from 3 Lata fans
http://hindi-movies-songs.com/films/index-listen-20091201.html
Look for the phrase Lata is 80
Such lists of favourite/best songs will always remain an individual's
compilation and it will keep changing at different points in time for
the person concerned (even Lata Mangeshkar has changed her list of
favourites many times down the years).
No survey/exercise would be perfect either. To list 'all' the songs
and asking for participants to check/tick the best 50/100/whatever
songs would be a mammoth task. Worse, the participants are bound to
get lost while navigating through such a gigantic list.
Regards
Sukesh
I was thinking of people picking their top 20-25 (on their own or
guided by a jury nominated list of 4-500) and the weighted sorting
should give you a top 80/100 etc.
Kalyan
Alternatively, we could get folks to pick 8 songs from each of the
years 1950 through 1959 (inclusive). That should keep out most of the
chaff, albeit at the expense of a few grains. Then we sort the top
picks from each year and voila! we have the top 80!
C
The "few grains" we let go may be key ingredients in the dish! I can't
imagine a "best of Lata" list that doesn't contain songs from Anokha
Pyar, Bazar, Lahore, and Barsaat at the one end, or from Anuradha,
Bhabhi Ki Chudiyaan, Chitralekha, and Mamta at the other. While I
agree that the bulk of the songs must come from the 1950s, I think a
quota for before and after these years must be there too!
Warm regards,
Abhay
The 'few grains' may not few. Other than the films mentioned above,
the songs from the following films could be contention too.
Dil Apna Aur Preet Parai (60), Mughal-e-Azam (60),Anpadh (62), Bees
Saal Baad (62), Bandini (63),
Kohraa (63), Mujhe Jeene Do (63), Woh Kaun Thi (64), Guide (65),
Amrapali (66), Anupama (66),
Mera Saaya (66), Raat Aur Din (67), Ek Kali Muskayee (68), Dastak
(70), Pakeezah (71), Sharmilee (71),
Annadata (72), Chhoti Si Baat (75), Mehbooba (76), Swami (77), Dard
(81), Bazaar (82), Rudaali (93), etc.
So about 30+ out of 80 cannot be few grains.
Regards
Sukesh
I don't think many of the films mentioned by you (Sukesh) will end up
in my top 80, but that is a personal opinion. You can modify my
framework to suit your needs. My aim was to merely provide a more
tractable method than asking everyone to pick 80 songs and sorting. So
you can take your period of interest (say 1949 to 2008 or whatever - I
am sure someone will think the list will not be complete without Rang
De Basanti), divide it into 10 equal parts, perform 10 surveys and ask
respondents to pick top 8 songs. Then sort locally or globally (your
choice). If the number of respondents is high enough you have a
reasonable list of songs based on public opinion. You can then proceed
to tear down that list and ask why Anokha Pyar is not there (Abhay, I
am sure it will not be there :) ) and why Guide is there (Abhay, I am
sure it will be there :) ).
C
Any methodology used to short list the songs is fine with me. I just
mentioned a few more films, whose songs 'may' be in contention. My
personal list (not necessarily Lata's songs) would have a majority of
the songs from the 50s. I keep postponing compiling such a list. Once
I get around to do it, I would put it up on my blog.
Regards
Sukesh.
Your approach also seems fine. Just one clarification - given the
diversity/breadth of tastes, choices and exposure, to get the top 80
you don't need to have everyone pick their top 80 but top 10 or 20 or
25 from everyone and a weighted sorting will do.
Kalyan
It looks like an interesting exercise to do. Just thinking out loud
some ideas.
A rough search on giitaayan gives me about 2300 odd songs of Lata.
Divided by decades, the numbers are like this:
40s - 106
50s - 912
60s - 570
70s - 403
80s - 198
90s - 199
00s - 20
These are not accurate numbers because the search I have used is not
meant for that. But it gives one a good idea of what we are dealing
with. If we assume -- and I think for an exercise on RMIM it should be
a fair assumption -- that at least 90% of known good-to-great Lata
songs are already in giitaayan/ISB, it could serve as a good starting
point/short-list.
We can create a second-level short-list of say 500 songs by a
selection from the giitaayan set. To make it easier:
* We could go by decades and take one decade at a time. Fifty's and
Sixty's would need to be broken up further of course.
* We could consider only Lata solos?
Once we have that short-list, we can go for a SurveykshaN like
exercise with everyone selecting their 40 or 50 favorite Lata songs
out of the shortlisted 500. We can also have an option for including
songs other than from shortlist. From the voting, we can come up with
a 100 or 200 RMIM Lata favorites or something like that.
These are merely ideas and I don't even know I will be able to do it
except for the SurveykshaN part very easily. But may be we can come up
with better ideas to make it manageable and then actually do it.
Vinay
Is it possible ? I very much doubt.
how many will include " o ganga maiya" or "Tumhe Dekhai Hu.N to lagata
aise' ?
you can choose popular ones but not good ones.
We RMIMers pride ourselves of our allegedly elite collective taste.
This would be an acid test for such a claim. Basic question is - will
the popular-among-RMIMers songs be good as well?
To be sure any survey-based list will not be identical to your (or my)
top-80. After all, tastes are subjective. As a telling example of
this, "tum kyaa jaano tumhaarii yaad me.n hum kitanaa roye" was in a
top-5 list I had picked a while back and it was immediately shot down
by Shalini, whose tastes I respect immensely.
C
Just go on listening and enjoy...
I am hearing the 3 SDB composed Lata songs, on a loop, for the last 1
month :
Jeevan Ke Safar Mein Raahi ( Munimji ), Mehfil Mein Aaye & Chanda Ki
Chandni ( both from Sitaron Se Aage )
Mindblowing melodies and compositions and singing !!
Dear Kaustubh-bhai,
I have not heard the 2nd song that you have mentioned. Can you please
share a link?
Also, is 'chanda ki chaandni' not sung by Asha-tai?
Regards.
The youtube link is not of good quality. Will go to some PC and email/
upload it. One of the best songs of Lata ever.
>
> Also, is 'chanda ki chaandni' not sung by Asha-tai?
Yes ofcourse !! The eternal beauty. Mukhda by Guru in the same film ;)
I meant "Aa Khilte Hai Gul"
>
> Regards.
I believe both songs are available on Professor Surjit Singh's
website. Search Kalraji's collection. I am surprised to see KCP
immediately agreeing to send you the song. I never got anything from
him :-(
>
> I believe both songs are available on Professor Surjit Singh's
> website. Search Kalraji's collection. I am surprised to see KCP
> immediately agreeing to send you the song. I never got anything from
> him :-(
Asif-saab, I guess KCP chooses beneficiaries in descending order of
deprivation.
Thanks for the pointer. I do have both the songs (now that KCP
mentions that the mukhda is 'aa khilte hain gul')
KCP. I though Kishore's version of the tune that became 'chanda ki
chaandni ka jaadu' was from an antara of a song in Funtoosh (denewaala
jab bhi deta' - (apna to dard is jahaan mein'))
Then Asha-tai sang it again in the 70-s in Chala Muraari Hero Ban-ne
(do pal ki hain zindagani).
To bring the topic back to Lata, the first post in this thread
comments about how Lata for SD in the 50-s was the best in terms of
output.
I'm not so sure. I think the output in the 60-s (and even the early
part of the 70-s) of Lata for Old Monk was incredible.
Regards.
>
> KCP. I though Kishore's version of the tune that became 'chanda ki
> chaandni ka jaadu' was from an antara of a song in Funtoosh (denewaala
> jab bhi deta' - (apna to dard is jahaan mein'))
Right you are. It happens when you are awake late nights for days
together, travelling, doing office works and at the same time
listening to hundreds of songs ( its a good exercise BTW, instead of
only collecting ) and forget all the film names and details !!
One chance to correct you :-) ( its a fresh morning you see ) - its
"apana bhi (a)gar is jahaan mein"
Vinay, that sounds like a great idea. I do think that having a
shortlist from a knowledgeable jury will be helpful as it will
encourage voters to listen to songs they may not have heard and
benefit from the exercise (they could still vote from outside the
shortlist)
Others have pointed out the futility of this exercise as there would a
great divergence of views. I would think that there will also be a lot
that people will agree on (based on my discussions with others).
Regardless of how similar or divergent the choices are, the important
thing is that the list that comes out will be based on a larger base/
sample size and hence will be more credible than the efforts of Mr.
Vijaykar or similar ignorant efforts one comes across in magazines
like Filmfare and Outlook.
Kalyan
Thanks for your input. I was just trying to see if it even makes sense
to others or if they see any value in it. Also wanted to gauge the
general interest.
Vinay
Hi Vinay, it definitely makes sense. However, I have some reservations
about doing a single survey for all the songs. How much work is it to
do a survey for 4 eras:
up to 1955
1956-1965
1966-1975
1976 and later
or pick the cut-offs that would put roughly the same number of songs
in each one. Then you don't need to short-list the songs from
giitaayan.
Also, let users pick only 10 songs per era.
Finally, do the ranking by absolute number of votes, not by ranking
within the era.
This should land us with a reasonable most popular N songs
C
>Hi Vinay, it definitely makes sense. However, I have some reservations
>about doing a single survey for all the songs. How much work is it to
>do a survey for 4 eras:
There are a total 3292 solos from 1945-1989, according to Nerurkar's book for
which the release years are know and another 49 solos for which the release
years are not known bringing the total 3292.
The breakout in the eras you mention below is as follows:
>up to 1955
1009 solos
>1956-1965
996 solos
>1966-1975
768 solos
>1976 and later
519 solos up until 1989. Add another 100 from 1989 to 2010 and we have approx
619 solos.
Going thru a list of 1000 songs in each era(even 500) is too huge a number. I
think the sample size should not exceed 300-350 songs so we may need to divide
the 1945-1955 into
1945-1950 : 241 solos
1951-1953: 440 solos
1954-1955: 328 solos
and something similar for the 1956-1965 period and so on. I forsee atleast 8-10
eras given the sheer number of songs IFF we are planning on going thru a
comprehensive list of the songs. If not, then 4-6 might suffice.
>or pick the cut-offs that would put roughly the same number of songs
>in each one. Then you don't need to short-list the songs from
>giitaayan.
>
>Also, let users pick only 10 songs per era.
Too less. Are you saying you would allow people to pick just 10 solos from a
sample size of 1009 for the 1945-1955 period? You want riots? I would say it
needs to be 10% of whatever the sample size is, so if the era under review has
500 songs one can vote or write in 50 songs.
Ketan
The full breakout is as follows:
The breakout is as follows:
1945: 0
1946: 4
1947: 3
1948: 39
1949: 104
1950: 91
1951 160
1952: 135
1953: 145
1954: 148
1955: 180
1956: 153
1957: 113
1958: 96
1959: 130
1960: 103
1961: 91
1962: 85
1963: 62
1964: 92
1965: 71
1966: 109
1967: 65
1968: 58
1969: 67
1970: 82
1971: 78
1972: 88
1973: 98
1974: 71
1975: 52
1976: 54
1977: 60
1978: 49
1979: 37
1980: 44
1981: 48
1982: 42
1983: 38
1984: 35
1985: 41
1986: 23
1987: 11
1988: 22
1989: 15
Why this restriction? IMO, it is not fair. If a participant picks up
10/18/22/whatever from a particular period, so be it.
Regards
Sukesh
Defeats the purpose of a survey. Are people allowed to vote for more
than 1 candidate in an election? Why?
C
Wrong answer I am afraid. You are asking people to vote for their top
10 in a given era. You *have* to pick only your top 10 songs. Unless
you are looking for Lata's top 500-600 songs (if you are, you are the
only one on this thread who is doing that). This is somewhat like
democracy. Just because you have a long ballot paper does not mean you
allow people to pick 5 candidates instead of 1.
(can of worms alert)
And frankly I don't know what all the noise is about. If there is an
artist who has more than a 100 great, I mean truly great, music pieces
to his/her credit, s/he needs to go down in history as a genius. I
assumed we are looking for those 100 songs of Lata.
C
We are not selecting one song. In many elections for managing
committees of clubs/organisations, one is allowed and does vote for
more than one candidate.
Restricting number of songs per period assumes that Lata's best are
uniformly spread over her singing career, which is incorrect.
Regards
Sukesh
Yes, when there are multiple seats to be filled. That is why you can
pick 10 songs here. If you do not restrict the number of songs picked,
there is no way to differentiate between the top N and the next N
unless you give a ranking. Executing a survey with ranking is a
nightmare. Hence the proposed simplification. If you don't like the
number 10 you can give users 9 choices or 11 choices or whatever. I
like 10 because it is manageable. If I ask users to pick 50, most of
them will not fill the entire list and you will have lopsided results.
For example, if the average user picks only 30 songs, the results will
be biased towards the picks made in the bottom 20 of the users who do
pick 50.
> Restricting number of songs per period assumes that Lata's best are
> uniformly spread over her singing career, which is incorrect.
Not at all. I had said in my original proposal that you can choose to
rank locally or globally. Globally => if song #11 in period A gets
more votes than song #1 in period B, pick the A#11 over B#1.
I do agree that asking people to pick 80 songs and then ranking is the
best solution in the ideal case. However, there are problems with
this. Most people will not be able to pick so many. A lot of people
will shrink away from such a massive survey. Assuming that the
respondents do the survey in 1 or a few sittings, the quality of
selections will degrade after the first 10-15 songs (caveat: this is
based on gut feeling, with no scientific basis).
C
A RMIM-only survey will kill hopes for all songs of 70's and later :-)
In that case it would not be due to the limitation of the structure of
the survey, but of the collective taste of the RMIM community.
C
Why should it be limited to RMIM? Vinay has already posted about it in
Facebook and we can also encourage knowledgeable friends outside RMIM
to vote. There are music groups in FB and elsewhere and sites such as
Hamaraforums (where all to advertise will probably be Vinay's call).
IMO, the only issue is that the voting will be meaningful if the
voters have decent breadth and depth of exposure and are prepared to
listen to songs they haven't heard. I am sure most RMIMers will and I
certainly will even if the song is from 70s and 80s. It should also be
noted that most RMIMers have been born/grew up in the 70s and have a
good exposure to songs from that period, even rare ones.
Kalyan
I think it's not about lack of exposure to 70s songs. It's perhaps
more about the distaste towards songs from the 70s and beyond (and in
particular, Lata's songs from 70s and later, or perhaps even 1965 and
later) that is prevalent on this forum.
Picking 10 songs per era m to me , dies not look good idea.There maybe
more in one
era than other ,So picking 10 per era may include Bad (I am sorry no
lala song is bad) because no, in that era is less than 10 and leaving
some good song because era has more than 10 good song.Good song is
good song whether sung in this era or that , under this MD or
other.When the list of common fongs chosen will be published one will
automatically know in which Era or under which MD Lata sang the best,