SPB: A Musical History - Part 7 : Non Raja Tamil songs of SPB in late 70s
Raja's coming to the scene happened at the right time. M S Viswanathan who was the dominant music director in Tamil was slowly losing his form. Let me say, his form became uneven in those time. If you look at the list of films that MSV did between 1976 and 1979, you will surprised that you have never heard of many of movies. The songs too were middling and forgettable. The other upcoming music directors at that time were Shankar Ganesh duo and Vijaybhaskar. V. Kumar too scored music for some films. Of these Shankar Ganesh would go on to score for lot of films. Like Chakravarthy in Telugu, they too would churn out tune after eminently forgettable tune.
MSV though gave some amazing numbers in this period. What I was talking earlier was the percentage of good songs that he gave, which was getting lower. His combination with Balachander produced some melodies which are popular to this day. Many were sung by SPB. MSV during those times made both Yesudas and SPB sing many songs. Yesudas also has some lovely numbers with MSV during this period. MSV also gave singing opportunity to singers like Jeyachandran and Jolly Abraham.
Let us now look at some MSV SPB melodies of the late 70s.
K Balachander - MSV - Kannadasan - SPB combination gave this song from 'Avargal' (1977). The extremely popular 'Junior, Junior'.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UMl_P6ijWEY
In this song you can observe a SPB who is quite sure of himself. You can hear him doing all the voice modulation required for what is essentially a sad song. And all that laughing in the middle was clearly his territory. To me though, that voice modulation also means a change in tone but that does not affect the song.
The other famous song of the same year from the same combination was 'vaan nila' from 'Pattina Pravesham'
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uKDtXNrm8vM
This was a major hit song and is still sung as one of SPB's best. MSV' tuning, Kannadasan's words ending in 'la' in each line and the violin, all combined to make this a song loved by everyone. In this song you can see SPB taking some freedom with the sangatis, especially when he finishing a charanam or pallavi.
In 1978 came another movie of K Balachander, which had music by MSV. Two songs went on to become all time hits and are even today considered amongst the best songs sung by SPB. The lyricist as usual was Kannadasan. The songs were 'kamban emandhan' and 'ilakanam marudho' . Let us listen to 'kamban emandhan'.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M4CEgbcM8Fk
This was also a song in SPB territory proper and with MSV allowing him to improvise, SPB makes this song his own. He brings all his voice modulation to play in this song.
In 1979 came 'Ninaithale Inikkum'. MSV wanted to prove he could also do 'new' music and Balachander wanted to make a thriller or a musical (if you see the film you will understand that Balachandar was confused). This movie songs were big hits and SPB was the main singer in most of the songs. MSV sang one song. The opening song was the most famous one, 'engeyum eppodhum'.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gEoeMnPYzqg
One more Kamal with a mike song. This song needs high energy and SPB gave it that energy. It also had to be stylish as Balachander was trying to make a stylish movie. By slightly slurring some of the words SPB brings in the required style.
The other song from the same movie was also loved by people. 'barathi kannama'
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ib8q133TOVs
A lovely melody and it suits SPB's soft voice very well.
It was not only MSV who gave SPB some great melodies during this time. There were other MDs who gave him some wonderful numbers.
From Kerala came V. Dakshinamurthy, aka Dakshinamurthy Swami. He gave this all time classic, 'nanda nee en nila' from 'Nanda En Nila' (1977). Lyrics by Palanisami
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VTxqj4GBI6o
Observe how the pallavi is a complex one, unlike the MSV songs. The pallavi seems almost unending. Also the twists the tune takes in pallavi is amazing. Maybe we should call that anupallavi? Not sure but songs like these prepared SPB for singing the complex tunes of later day Raja. This is the early SPB voice that you hear. The softness is loved by so many people. This Madhuvanthi ragam based song is a marvel. The song also covers a decent voice range and SPB sings it effortlessly.
Salil Chaudhary was a music director who rarely composed for a Tamil film. He had been composing for Malayalam films. Balu Mahendra asked him to compose for his feature film, 'Azhiyadha Kolangal'. This film had two amazing melodies, 'poo vannam' and 'naan ennum pozhudhu'. Of these, 'naan ennum pozhudhu' was sung by SPB
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tr0URM0DJhY
Salil Chaudhary was recycling his 'naa jiya lage na' of his Hindi film, 'Anand', which in turn was recycling of his 'na mon lage na' from a Bengali movie, We need not complain for the melody is so good that it needs to be available in all languages.
You can hear the Bengali version here.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QplWL6_p_8s
The orchestration for prelude and interlude are different. There is a nice contrast between the Lata and SPB version. SPB venerated Salilda and would have been thrilled to sing this song. (The melodic quotient in the voice of a young Lata is amazing)
Another tune which was recycle and became a hit in SPB's voice was 'poonthenil kalandhu' from 'Enippadigal' (1979). This was a remake of K Vishwanath's Telugu film, 'Seethamalaxmi'. K V Mahadevan was the music director in both Tamil and Telugu. 'seethalu singaram' in Telugu became 'poonthenil kalandhu' in Tamil.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=78uSUEOo324
This was 1979. By this time SPB had found his real voice and you can see a more matured and confident SPB here. The voice has more 'strength' now. The softness has reduced a bit as a compensation for the added 'strength'. This would be the SPB voice which we would hear all through 80s and 90s. Listening to this song alongside 'nanda en nila' will give you a clear idea of what I have been saying.
Let us hear one song of V.Kumar and VijayBaskar who used SPB a lot in those days.
'vaazhvil sowbhagiyam vandhadhu' from 'Thoondil Meen' (1977)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2hTp8rzOfzg
SPB was becoming the voice of Kamal and Rajni. Here he singing for Rajni. 'ennada polladha vazhkai' from 'Thappu Thalangal' (1978). Music by Vijayabaskar
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qES1KdnvXPM
SPB brings in a stylishness in his singing keeping in line with the image that Rajni was creating for himself.
If you examine the period between 1976 and 1980, you will see that Illayaraja probably had as many amazing and classic songs with SPB in this period as all other composed combined together. This would continue in the 1980s, where Raja would dominate almost all of SPB's great output. We will see that in a later post.
In the next post, we will talk about SPB's progress in Telugu films in the first part of 1980s.
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