The Golden Era of Dr.IR and Dr.SPB

[genesis]

Most of us who visit tfmpage / hub frequently are familiar to the fact that IR wasn't the first to use SPB in TFM (or any FM). Specifically in TFM, SPB's first few songs were with MSV / KVM and for big stars Sivaji / MGR.

Despite that, SPB wasn't in the numero uno slot for a decade or so as TMS was the #1 choice for Sivaji / MGR. With the progressive kozha kozha of MGR's voice after being shot and also possibly because of the 'nAttukkAran' connection, KJY got to sing lot more songs than SPB during the 70's for MGR. (avaL oru navarasa nAdakam / idhazhe idhazhe thEn vENdum notwithstanding). In Sivaji's case, it was mostly TMS for Sivaji with SPB typically thrown in to sing for some son / younger brother kind of character in his movies in 70's.

Also, till the arrival of IR, MDs were not typically in-charge of the matters for biggie movies and SPB had to mostly sing for Sivakumar / Vijayakumar level of stars and often for the then-coming-up Kamal. Interestingly, the #1 MD, MSV, wasn't his biggest promoter but there were a variety of others who used him prominently - like V Kumar / Vijayabhaskar / Shankar Ganesh (before IR became #1 in my books, my most fav SPB song was 'unnai nAn pArththadhu veNNilA vELaiyil' by Shankar-Ganesh, movie pattikkAttu rAjA).

The reason for giving the background above is to emphasize how, in a way, the rise of IR helped SPB to get into that formidable position in TFM. The rise of Kamal / Rajini obviously helped but if one looks closely at SPB's curve, it was more of "IR erA" that helped his top position more than that of the rise of these two stars as some of the Mohan starrer songs had more phenomenal reach than that of KH-RK.

Starting today, I'm planning to post about one specific song each day, in the IR-SPB combo, in chronological order as much as possible. Obviously, it will be one of a personal experience rather than musical analysis. Music-savvy hubbers are welcome to add further details as much as possible to the song I pick each day.

I'm sure I can go on for 100's of days

What is missing from this analysis is, TMS and IR had a tussle. From what I heard TMS made some bad remarks about IR which IR heard himself by accident. Since IR was indispensable at that time, TMS was dispensed from TFM. (Moreover TMS had already lost MGR's favor for a similar reason earlier).