SPB: A Musical History - Part 4: Climbing to the Numero Uno spot in Telugu
Let us return back to the Telugu film music scene now. As I had mentioned in Part 2, with Ghantasala passing away in Feb 1974, the top slot for the male singer fell vacant. There were two competing singers at that time who had the opportunity to fill this slot. One of V. Ramakrishna and other was SPB. In the initial stages, of the two top heroes, NTR preferred the voice of SPB while Nageshwar Rao was using the voice of Ramakrishna. Ramakrishna depended on his voice being very similar to Ghantasala to take him to the top slot. SPB depended on his versatility and his ability to sing like the hero to take him to the top slot. Slowly and steadily, SPB captured the top slot in the Telugu film music industry.
SPB's voice fitted easily for the new heroes like Krishna, Shoban Babu, Chandramohan and so on. The problem was with NTR and Nageshwar Rao. This was because NTR and Nageshwar Rao's voices were closely associated with the voice of Ghantasala. This was the major struggle. SPB in one show says that the music director Chalapathi Rao told him, with respect to Nageshwar Rao, "Look, if you want people to accept your voice for Nageshwar Rao, either sing like Ghantasala or sing like Nageshwar Rao". SPB took the advice seriously. He says, "My voice did not have the depth of Ghantasala. My tone is different. I couldn't sing like Ghantasala. So I decided to sing as close to Nageshwar Rao's voice as possible". It was important to be the voices of these two actors for two reasons. One, they made lot of films. Two, other actors would also want the singer who sang for the top heroes.
In case of NTR, SPB adopted a base voice and in many places he mimicked NTR. It sounded comical but that was in keeping with the image of NTR of these. SPB was lucky that NTR had stopped making serious films and didn't depend too much on serious songs. Instead he wanted songs which had fast 'beats' and were fun. The two songs I will link here will are representative of NTR songs of the late 70s.
First, from the movie 'Adavi Ramudu', 'aaresukoboi paresukkunnanu'. Music by K V Mahadevan.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_PZfUxaNXDg
The need to be closer to NTR's spoken voice makes SPB's tone a bit uneven. The way he enunciate the words are close to how NTR spoke in his films. The song was a super duper hit. (The 'aha aha' in the middle are patented SPB nakras)
The other song in a similar mold was 'aakuchatu villa thadise' from 'Vetagadu'. Music by Chakravarthi.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aM4EKTiNEwI
Here also you can hear SPB's voice and enunciation being closer to NTR's spoken voice. This enabled acceptance from the listeners. You can now hear the confidence in SPB's voice. Gone is the earlier diffidence. Now he knows that he will be accepted for his own voice.
Nageshwar Rao was a challenge. According to SPB, the first song he tried singing closer to Nageshwar Rao's spoken voice was 'eraka poyi vachanu' from 'Aalu Mogalu'. Music by T.Chalapathi Rao, who had told him to try and sound like Nageshwar Rao.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oYeosNqSoQY
Slowly he would become the main singer for Nageshwar Rao as well.
During this time, SPB was gaining lot of confidence and the voice had also matured. Now he was ready to take on the world. He now had his own style of singing. This confidence is reflected in this song he sang for actor Krishna. Music by Sathyam from the movie, 'Anna Thammula Saval'.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YoMVofT65jo
This song has everything that people tended to associate with SPB. The high energy, the style and the nakras, which were unique to him. Ramakrishan did not have the same style or the originality and slowly SPB replaced him completely. It was important to sing these hero introduction or hero solo songs. In later days, SPB would be the first choice for many to sing those intro songs including for super stars like Chiranjeevi and Rajanikanth.
SPB ability to mimic also helped him to sing certain kind of songs like the songs for comedians or songs where the hero is drunk.
Here is a song from the film, 'Manushulantha Okkate' where he sang for the comedian Allu Ramalingiah. 'muthyalu vasthava', a remake of 'roop tera mastana'
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vbHaKdETdJM
Here he is singing for the comedian Mada for 'Chillarakottu Chittamma'. '
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7LL4A5LjKkI
Here the mimicry is much more obvious than the earlier song.
While both the songs display the versatility of SPB, it also led to the accusation that he SPB was taking away the chances of other singers, who used to traditionally sing for comedians. During Ghantasala's times Ghantasala mostly sang for the heroes and other singers like Madhavapeddi Sathyam and Pitapuram sang for the comedians. Now SPB sang for both the hero and the comedian. (I am not sure that SPB himself wanted to do this. It could have been the request of producers or directors. Anyway, it is true that you will hear such accusations)
Of course there were songs like this one in 'Manavuri Pandavulu', where he mimics a drunkard singing a song and it fits perfectly with the movie's requirements. 'sitralu seyaro sivuda sivuda' . Music by K V Mahadevan
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TeCFoGOMQu0
Reading till this point you may be under the impression that all SPB did was to mimic voices. That is very far from the truth. He sang some amazing melodies in the second part of the 70s. One of the directors who gave him great melodies regularly was K.Vishwanath, who was related to him. Let us look at a few of the melodies he sang for Vishwanath in this period.
The first one from 'O Seetha Katha', 'malle kanna thellana'. Music by K V Mahadevan
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZeAZ0K0oAY
This was a 1974 movie. So you can hear the young SPB in this.
In 1976, K Vishwanath gave the humongous hit in the form of 'Siri Siri Muvva'. Music as usual was by his court musician, K V Mahadevan. While all the songs from this movie were popular, the most popular one was 'jummandi nadham'. This played almost every day on AIR. Susheela and SPB. SPB enters after the first charanam. In this he is his own confident self.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vo5JvdxK3pg
The soft as a rose petal, 'kanchiki pothava krishnamma' from 'Subhodayam'. K Vishwanath - K V M combination. SPB is now confident in executing any kind of song. The softness of the tune suits his voice to a 'T' and he delivers perfectly. ( The entry of the female voice at the end is also superbly done)
MSV used this aspect of SPB's voice in this hit song from 'Guppadi Manasu'. 'nuvena sampangi poovuna nuvena'
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EIelgd5pmYA
It was not for those NTR songs that SPB was loved by people. He was loved for his silky smooth voice in songs like these. In the late 70s, Telugu film music produced lot of mediocre songs. In this scenario entered Rajen Nagaendra with their fresh sounding music. Thought they were just remaking their Kannada songs in Telugu, these songs became major hit songs in Telugu. The song, 'sirimalle neeve' from 'Pantulama' would be put in any SPB solo top songs list in Telugu.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rw99Be_Wia8
The soft voice of SPB works perfectly for this song. The wonderful rhythm and a mesmerizing tune by Rajen Nagendra. Even to this day it is seen as one of SPB's best solos, even though this song came in late 1970s.
Ramesh Naidu was another music director who gave SPB some wonderful evergreen numbers during the late 1970s. First let us hear this popular song from 'Toorpu Padamara', 'sivaranjani navaragini'
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ieb2Xtr_jY4
This was from 1976. Here again is a younger SPB singing. This movie was based on K.Balachandar's 'Aboorva Ragangal'. Directed in Telugu by Dasari Narayana Rao. The song was based on the ragam Sivaranjani.
The song was such a big hit that producers may have requested Ramesh Naidu to tune another song in same raga. Ramesh Naidu obliged in the movie which was called, 'Sivaranjani'. He called SPB for singing the song. The SPB here is more confident in singing this ragamalika, which starts in Sivarnajani raga. 'abhinava tharavo'
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YrrIh-bZzwY
This too became a stupendous hit with the radio playing it almost on a daily basis.
Let us look at SPB's versatility by looking at two more ragamalikas that he sang during these years. The first one we will hear was created by his close friend, Chankravarthy. (During the late 70s and early 80s Chakravarthy gave a large amount of eminently forgettable songs. This was not one of them). The song was 'cheekati velugulu' from the movie with the same name.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jAp8Nyd00zU
The orchestration and the tune are top class in this song. SPB and Susheela do a great job in this song. Since the music is by a friend and since he is singing for actor Krishna, SPB was in his elements.
Another top class ragamalika was from the movie, 'Pantulamma', music by Rajan Nagendra. With Susheela in top form and SPB having found his voice, the song became an everlasting classic.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ToqvVETTSb0
We have seen how SPB progressed in the second half of 1970s. From being a singer trying to find his voice to an extremely confident singer who had found his voice, the transformation was amazing. All this can be attributed to SPB's hard work and devotion to music. Not only SPB became confident, he also started showing people the versatility he had by singing songs of various hues.
In 1980, his cousin K Vishwanath would make a movie, which almost everyone felt was non viabe at the box office. Vishwanath somehow was able to release it and that movie would show another facet of SPB's world to listeners. We will look into the songs of that song in the next post.
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