SPB: A Musical History - Part 15: SPB's domination down South for a decade and half

 (You can read the earlier parts here: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6 , Part 7, Part 8, Part 9,  Part 10, Part 11, Part 12, Part 13 & Part 14)

Starting the beginning of 80s and all the way to the mid 90s, SPB dominated the musical landscape of Tamil, Telugu and Kannada. In case of Malayalam, Yesudas was the immovable legend and as with Hindi, SPB's Malayalam diction wasn't as good as his Tamil or Kannada diction.

Even with the three languages, SPB's domination was complete in case of the Telugu film industry. In case of Tamil, though SPB sang the most songs by a male singer during those years, the man dominating Tamil film music was Illayaraja. We had lots of famous films in which SPB's voice did not feature. Others like Yesudas, Malaysia Vasudevan, Jayachandran and later Mano, also featured in Illayaraja's songs prominently. In case of Kannada, Dr.Rajkumar sang for himself. For everyone else, SPB was the preferred voice. 

I will write separate post about SPB's songs in Kannada films. Starting from 1980 till about mid 90s, the best songs that SPB got in Tamil and Telugu were under the baton of Illayaraja. We have seen how Illayaraja exploited the complete range of SPB's voice in the last few posts. In this post we will look at how SPB sang for other music directors. Though the most memorable of SPB's songs of this period are the Raja tuned songs, he does have some very good songs with other music directors as well.

MSV's magic started to wane slowly in the 80s. Even in that period he kept giving some nice melodies for K Baachander. Here is the famous song from 'Thillu Mullu', 'raagangal padinaaru'. The usual combination of MSV, Kannadasan and K Balachander

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J5CbqHxMLd0

A simple and a charming song, which is well suited for SPB's voice. 

Another MSV song from the period (1982) which is popular even today, is the Sindhu Bhairavi based, 'unakkenna mele nindrai' from 'Simla Special'

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ENhuYaRQ3ys

This required SPB at his emotional best and he did not let down MSV. The range of emotions and the change in pace are something which any singer would have loved in a song. MSV had given SPB some wonderful songs of this kind. 

Shankar Ganesh in Tamil and Chakravarthy in Telugu gave a lot of songs to SPB. Both of them were prolific composers and both of them gave huge number of eminently forgettable melodies. The problem with Shankar Ganesh was that unlike MSV before them or Raja after them, they did not have a distinct style. Even a music director who was not too prolific, like V Kumar had his own distinct style.

Here is one song of Shankar Ganesh which was a hit. Here they try to sound somewhat like Illayaraja.

'Oru Kadhal Devadhai' from 'Idhaya Thamarai'

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CLmeeeDFcdg

The song depends so much on the voices of SPB and Chitra. The song needs the softness of touch of SPB's voice. That caressing voice is used effectively in this song. The value add that SPB does to this song is clear for us to hear. 

Hamsalekha was a hit music director in Kannada film world. For the movie, 'Kodi Parakkudhu', Barathiraja moved away from his close friend and that movie had music by Hamsalekha. 'sellai kattum pennukoru vasamundu' was a hit song

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GJU3S9juAwo

Once again the SPB and Chitra combination. This is a wonderful tune. The orchestration shows the influence of Illaiyaraja. SPB and Chitra are melodious as always and the song gains a lot from these two superb singers

After collaborating with him was some amazing films like 'Sindhu Bhairavi', 'Rudraveena', 'Pudhu Pudhu Arthangal', Punnagai Mannan' and other films, K Balachander moved away from Illayaraja due to some reasons. He then chose Maragathamani (aka as Keeravani in Telugu) to compose for his film 'Azhagan'. The song 'sangeetha swarangal' was a major hit.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWihAJPAHg0

The tune is simple and nice. I think the situation in the film, of the hero and heroine talking on the phone throughout the night, was also responsible for the hit status of this song. The Doordarshan music is a wonderful touch. The song per se does not challenge SPB's vocal chords.

Bharathiraja used Devendran as the music director for his movie, 'Vedham Pudidhu'. The biggest hit from this movie, the Shanmukhapriya based 'kannukul noor nilava', is mistaken by many to be Illayaraja song.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PxjE8Ty6alo

SPB and Chitra deliver with their perfection. 

The music director who started making an impact in Tamil film music towards end of 80s was Deva. Initially he was seen as a poor man's Raja and later as a poor man's Rahman. To his credit, he does have quite a few hits in that era and for him SPB was the main singer most of the time.

'neela kuyile neela kuyile' from 'Vaigasi Porandachu' 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJb4lIBUXEg

This was the movie which gave Deva his break. SPB, I feel, was a bit too energetic in this song, sounding a bit harsh sometimes. 

Coming to Telugu film songs, SPB was the dominant force there throughout the 80s and atleast till the mid 90s. Unfortunately, the music scene in Telugu films was not anywhere close to that of Tamil films, except those films where Illayaraja scored the music. Music directors like Chakravarthy, J V Raghavulu, K V Mahadevan, Raj Koti could not really come up with everlasting melodies. In some cases, like in 'Megha Sandesham' where the songs were good, SPB's participation wasn't warranted. So most of the best songs of SPB in Telugu films from 1980 to 1995 were mostly those composed by Illayaraja. Unlike Tamil, in Telugu Illayaraja did not have much of choice when it came to the male singer. It was predominantly SPB who was called to sing the songs. 

With Keervani coming in, the scene changed a bit and SPB did get some good songs from him. This song from 'Kshana Kshanam' is a nice one. 'jamu raatiri'. Superb words by Sirivennela.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XG6fhfHk9zg

The song's setting calls for a voice like that of SPB's. It is a lullaby and SPB as usual brings that softness of touch and his velvet voice does its magic. 

SPB continued being the voice of Chiranjeevi. Here he is with 'bangaru kodi pitta' from 'Gharana Mogudu'. This was a major hit song.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hxvUiz6s4Gk

SPB gets to do all the nakhras in this song and it suits the song well.

SPB was in such demand in Telugu that he was not affected when the popular hero Krishna had a fight with him and Krishna declared that SPB will not sing any of his songs. (It was an unfortunate fight because Krishna was one of the heroes who promoted SPB when all heroes wanted Gantasala to sing for them). Anyway, this fight did not make a dent in SPB's reputation and he was the No.1 singer in Telugu films. Later Krishna and SPB patched up and SPB sang for Krishna later. 

Whoever be the music director in Telugu, their main choice for the male lead singer was always SPB. SPB had sung for various music directors like Chakravarthy, Rajan Nagendra, Ramesh Naidu, Sathyam, J V Raghavulu, Raj Koti, K V Mahadevan, Keeravani and others. This is apart from Illayaraja. All the music directors loved SPB's voice and he was their favorite. Similarly in Tamil, other than Raja, be it Deva, Maragathamani, Hamsalekha, Shankar Ganesh or others, SPB was their preferred singer. He dominated these two industries for around 15 yrs.

Let me close this post with a song SPB composed and sang. A song which people associate very closely with SPB. 'vannam konda vennilave' from 'Sigaram'. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ykE6UzW7SJc

After SPB died, this song has become even more closer to people's heart in Tamilnadu. If you don't believe me, check the youtube comments.

In the next post, let us talk about SPB in Kannada film music.