The Golden Era of Dr.IR and Dr.SPB

[genesis]

I like the kAsi songs despite the gloominess they can throw one in ; but have the opinion that HH was a very poor choice for that album and he single handedly massacred the songs

Your criticism of HH is unfair (even though I am not a big fan of Kasi songs). HH is a good singer and he has sung few good songs for IR also.

Ennai Thalatta Varuvalo - Kadhalukku Mariyadhai
Nilavu Pattu - Kannukkul Nilavu

He has sung many more good songs for other MDs (Deva in particular). It is unfortunate the HFM does not use HH as much as they should.

If you have not noticed, almost all singers are very restrained when singing for Raja (including Chitra). It could be mostly out of respect or fear or a combination of two. IMHO, only SPB and SJ are able to take lot of freedom with Raja. (Even SPB is does less gimmicks when singing for Raja, you should listen him some non-IR Telugu songs).

It is not always the ingredients, some time fault is with the cook.