SPB: A Musical History - Part 2: Initial years of struggle
In Part 1, we saw about the legend called Ghantasala who dominated the Telugu film industry. As I had mentioned, SPB had to be sing in such a way that people who were so used to Ghantasala's voice would accept his voice as well. His voice was in direct contrast to Ghantasala's voice. He had a 'soft' voice, a voice that was closer in tone to P B Srinivasa than to Ghantasala. Ghatntasala was well trained in classical music while SPB was a self taught singer and did not have any formal education. It was a formidable challenge that SPB had to overcome.
SPB started his career singing for S P Kodandapani. Having heard him sing in some function, S P Kodadandapani approached SPB and told him that he would give him a chance to sing in films. SPB was skeptical since he didn't know who Kodandapani was. S P Kodandapani kept his word and in the year 1967 SPB recorded his first song for the movie, 'Sri Sri Maryada Ramanna".
This is the first song that SPB sang. First listen to this song and then read further
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9EGLpovC_Ks
In this song, the male voice you hear is that of SPB. It is quite difficult to make out that it is SPB. To me it sounded more like a combination of Ghantasala and P B Srinivas. The typical SPB voice is missing in this song. It was probably because it was his first song and either SPB or the music director felt that he must sound closer to Ghantasala. (The other singers in the song include P.Susheela, P B Srinivas and Eelapata Raghuramaiyya)
He sang for another film which was dubbed from Tamil that year. Around this time he took a decision not to pursue his studies and to concentrate on singing in films. In 1968, he sang some popular songs. He was getting to sing for upcoming heroes and comedians. S P Kodandapani gave him the song, 'medante meda kadhu' in 'Sukha Dukkalu' (Telugu version of the Tamil movie, 'Major Chandrakanth')
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_7FfxDyq18
This is the early SPB. If he were to sing this song later, he would have sung it with more energy and more emotion. Here you can hear that he is not yet ready to let himself go. The SPB style is still forming. The hero here is Chandramohan, an upcoming actor then.
At this time, music directors other than S P Kodandapani started giving SPB a chance to sing under their baton. In 1968 he sang for K V Mahadevan, Sathyam and S. Rajeshwar Rao. Sathyam would become a good friend of his as he was the youngest among those music directors. The song that became extremely famous that year was not by Sathyam but by K V Mahadevan. SPB's cousin, K.Vishwanath, directed the movie, 'Undamma Bottu Pedatha'. KVM, known as Mama in the Telugu film music circles, made SPB sing, 'ravamma mahalakshmi raavamma'. It was wonderful song and big hit.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eX2EjElWxnk
In this song he sounds more assured but when you compare it with how Susheela sings you can still make out the difference in their experience but you can hear the individuality in SPB's rendition in this song.
Whereas in this song from 'Aggi Meeda Guggilam' you don't find the individuality you find in 'ravamma mahalakshmi'. He sounds closer to P B Srinivas in this. Music is by Sathyam. The other singer is P.Susheela
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2FnnoJl--s
This initial phase reminds me of the initial phases of Mukesh and Kishore Kumar, both of whom tried to imitate Saigal, before developing their own unique voice.
1969 would be an important year for SPB because he got to sing along with Ghantasala. In an interview SPB says how scared he was to sing with Ghantasala. The song is well known to everyone, 'prati ratri vasantha ratri' from the movie, 'Eka Veera'. Music was by K V Mahadevan. While Ghantasala sang for NTR, SPB sang for Kantha Rao. In fact it is SPB who opens the song with a humming. He acquits himself well in this song.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=En0rloBPEuE
In the same movie, 'Eka Veera', he got to sing this wonderful poem. 'ye parijathamulu'. Though the influence of Ghantasala and PBS can be heard, you can also hear the SPB you came to love later.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7FOPHyAXdd8
In 1970, he sang along with Ghantasala again for the movie 'Alibaba 40 Dongalu' The music was by Ghantasala himself. L R Eshwari also sings along with them.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MDEB3LHef6o
SPB was starting to get more movies and more music directors gave him a chance to sing.
A song released in 1971 would throw the spotlight again on SPB. Once again it was a K Vishwanath film. Once again the music director was K V Mahadevan. The movie, 'Chellali Kapuram' and the song, 'adave mayuri'. SPB sang for Shoban Babu.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O1eLpAho95o
In this you hear a SPB who is confident and who style is visible, yet there is a bit of rawness in his rendition. For this song, that suits perfectly. The fast portions towards the end captivated all listeners and made everyone sit up and take note of SPB. His ability to be dramatic helps him towards the later part of the song. That would become his signature in later days. The diffidence is gone and you now hear an extremely confident youngster.
This year also had SPB singing another popular song, 'rim jhim rim jhim hyderabad' for the actor Chalam, who encouraged him a lot. Music by Sathyam for the movie, 'Mattilo Manikyam'. The tone is not uniform but the energy is high.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gh7bWriMZy0
In this 1973 song from the movie, 'Kanne Vayasu', 'ye divilo virisina', we start hearing the SPB we love. The tender and amazingly sweet voice. The more well rounded tone would come later but there are a lot of people who love this voice. Music by Sathyam. This song was also a big hit.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dHL7IJm2ZVM
There is a female version of the same song sung by Janaki but it was SPB's version which became famous. Sathyam was bringing in a new sound into Telugu film music, inspired by the music of R D Burman. SPB's voice would suit his style perfectly. They would go on to produce some lovely songs together.
SPB was singing for all upcoming stars but the top most stars, NTR and Nageshwar Rao, were out of reach. For them, Ghantasala was the only option. Ghantasala died in February, 1974. The competition for that place was between SPB and Ramakrishna, who was more a Ghantasala clone. Ramakrishna also had some hit songs but the public, producers and music directors unanimously voted for SPB. In the next few years, all the effort SPB put in would come to fruition and he would start dominating the Telugu music scene for more than 2 decades.
In the next part, we will see how he fared in the Tamil film music world.
Here is the link to Part 1: https://sureshs65music.blogspot.com/2020/10/spb-musical-history-part-1-legend.html
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