Tuesday, April 09, 2013

Twin songs in Hindi films

AK of 'Songs of Yore' makes a point that I am vaguely aware of but not so much detail:
"Now if you observe carefully you notice a very strange phenomenon. In all these songs the male version caught the popular fancy. The female versions lagged so far behind that many of them became extinct from public memory and it would be difficult to believe that they existed. ......
If you somehow block the memory of the male versions and listen to the female versions of the above songs, they are technically sound and quite melodious. Then why even Lata versions pale in comparison to their male counterparts seems inexplicable. Perhaps it has to do with something abstract in the way our senses respond to when the same song is sung by a male and a female singer, and we always seem to be favouring the former."
Here is a possible exception that proves the rule. Geeta Dutt's version of 'preetam aan milo' came after the famous version by C.H. Atma and seem to be popular even though it  comes in snatches against different backgrounds:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_LywY3L5CCM

There is also a short version by Asha Bhosle in 'Mardon Wali Baat' 
Offhand, this is the only example that I remember.
P.S. This topic intrigues me. I found a couple more posts on the same topic, again w.r.t. Hindi songs
http://anuradhawarrier.blogspot.in/2012/08/its-first-anniversary-of-my-blog.html
http://amvaishnav.wordpress.com/2012/08/13/version-song-a-song-rendered-by-two-or-more-different-singers-or-in-different-moods/
There is one about Tamil songs in TFM but no links http://tfmpage.com/forum/12586.11309.5.html

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