The Golden Era of Dr.IR and Dr.SPB

[V_S]

Thorougly enjoying your posts App Please continue.

[genesis]

Your aim seems to be discrediting IR while mine is trying to see what +ve contributions he made to TFM.

b) IR's rise, in a way, helped SPB get into a formidable position (this is what I've told and I didn't say IR was 100% responsible for SPB's success or something like that. That SPB enjoyed IR's patronage / friendship is a fact he himself will acknowledge)

While there are many folks around here to credit and over-credit IR, we need a auditor around here, to keep the accounts good.

b) Before IR came in SPB had sung for all big MDs, big stars and big directors of that time. It is very easy to compile at least 50 all times (about 6 years?!!) hits of SPB that came before IR's entry in to TFM. SPB was formidable even before IR came in. As you rightly pointed out SJ was the only big benefactor of IR's rise at PS's expense.

[app_engine]

SPB of 1969-1976 can be compared to any male singer of today - singing for all big MDs, big stars, big directors but who among the current boys can be thought of having a "formidable" presence Any YSR/ GVP fan can list easily 50 songs for current singers too

** Please take honest statistics of SPB numbers for MGR & Sivaji between SPB's entry and 1976. (One has to really search around like a treasure hunt among the tons of TMS / KJY songs)
** Kamal was mostly co-starring those days and even his songs didn't have SPB as an "automatic first choice", possibly KJY scored over him. List Kamal hits - few as such - between his arangEtRam & 1977 and you can see for yourself the % of SPB.
** MSV was busy composing for MGR-Sivaji with TMS as his mainstay. He used SPB a lot only AFTER IR's entry
** KVM was hardly a force in TFM after mid-70s, still look at his TFM numbers for SPB's % till 1976. His sole MGR movie - pallANdu vAzhga- had KJY monopoly
** Rajinikanth's first film advertised as a solo hero had to have TMS & no SPB (bhairavi), IR was the MD but had less clout at that time
** Smaller MD's - Vijayabhaskar / V Kumar kinds & second level heroes - Sivakumar / Vijayakumar kinds only used SPB more.

Formidable presence? Hardly!

[app_engine]

SPB no doubt was sought after for some "niche" kind of songs during pre-IR days, like "those with English words" (on a hottu summeru morning), "club dance" (nAn oru mEdaippAdagan), "sexy" (idhazhE idhazhE / eththanai azhagu kottikkidakkudhu).

Yes, in some niche stuff, he did have strong presence

[genesis]

SPB no doubt was sought after for some "niche" kind of songs during pre-IR days, like "those with English words" (on a hottu summeru morning), "club dance" (nAn oru mEdaippAdagan), "sexy" (idhazhE idhazhE / eththanai azhagu kottikkidakkudhu).

Yes, in some niche stuff, he did have strong presence

ஆயிரம் நிலவே வா
தென் சிந்துதே வானம்
கம்பன் ஏமாந்தான்
இயற்கை என்னும் இளைய கன்னி
பாடும் போது நான் தென்றல் காற்று
நந்தா நீ என் நிலா நிலா
மார்கழி பனியில்
திருமகள் தேடி வந்தாள்
பொட்டு வைத்த முகமோ
சம்சாரம் என்பது வீணை
ஜூனியர் ஜூனியர்
கடவுள் அமைத்து வைத்த மேடை

You call this niche?!!

"on a hottu summeru morning" - what a choice!!

You remember all good stuff when it is associated with IR. If it is not, you remember all bad stuff. Selective Amnesia?

[KV]

A_E, interesting stuff, please carry on! (Doesn't matter if your perspective is biased; this is after all the IR section! Genesis will anyway plug in and counter-attack when the 'need' rises!)

[Sureshs65]

genesis,

I am sure everyone has all the songs you listed of SPB in their favourite list, no doubt about that. While that is true, you must also check out how many songs TMS sang in the same era (or same years(s) ) when these songs happened to Balu and later compare how many songs TMS sang when Balu was in his ascendency with Raja. That is probably a better way of comparison. Given that by end 70s, Raja had started dominating TFM and he had started using Balu for majority of his songs meant two things: that the TMS era was over and second Balu's rise as the top most TFM singer did coincide with Raja's rise. This is not to say that SPB would not have risen without Raja (Telugu FM will easily disprove it) but whatever be our likes / dislikes the fact remains that SPB and Raja rose at the same time and Raja did contribute a lot to SPB being the leading singer of those times.

[PARAMASHIVAN]

ahaaa naa irukum pothu intha thread oru adi kooda nagarala , 4 naala holiday la irunthu vanthu pathaa 2 pages vara posting nadanthiruku

[PARAMASHIVAN]

In Telugu it is a bit more complicated. To be honest, I would say even today the shadow of Ghantasala looms large and SPB has not been able to erase that as he was able to come out of TMS's shadow in Tamil film music. .

Suresh
I am not sure about this, as far as I know SPB is on Par with Ghantasala amongst the Telugu audience, and as far as the north Indians singers SPB is respected as much as Rafi and Kishore.

BTW, I did not find Ghantasala and Rafi as versatile as SPB , and IMHO Kishore kumar is the 'Only singer' who comes after SPB in versatility!

[Sureshs65]

Paramashivam,

I don't want to give you links where the Ghantasala vs SPB fights happens at a level which is even higher than that of Raja vs Rahman and spoil your mood Just believe me when I say that even today there are a huge number of folks who cannot accept SPB as a replacement of Ghantasala and who think that only person who can sing better than Ghantasala is GOD himself (No, I am not referring to Raja but to the religious GOD )

SPB being on par with Rafi and Kishore (as per NI audience) can only be told by a staunch SPB fan. The truth is very different I would say.

Anyway SPB is someone whose voice and songs I love as well. At the same time I am not interested in any comparisons. All I can say is that whatever I told earlier I told from a very objective POV.