Mukesh – The Best Of Mukesh – 3AEX 5014 – (Condition – 75-80) – Cover Reprinted – LP Record

Singing career

Mukesh’s voice was first noticed by Motilal, a distant relative, when he sang at his sister’s wedding. Motilal took him to Mumbai and arranged for singing lessons by Pandit Jagannath Prasad. During this period Mukesh was offered a role as an actor-singer in a Hindi film, Nirdosh (1941). His first song was “Dil Hi Bujha Hua Ho To” as an actor-singer for Nirdosh. He got his break as a playback singer for actor Motilal in 1945 with the film Pehli Nazar with music composed by Anil Biswas and lyrics written by Aah Sitapuri. The first song that he sang for a Hindi film was “Dil Jalta Hai To Jalne De”. Mukesh was such a fan of singer K. L. Saigal that in his early years of playback singing he used to imitate his idol.In fact, it is said that when K. L. Saigal first heard the song “Dil Jalta Hai…”, he remarked, “That’s strange, I don’t recall singing that song”.

Mukesh created his own singing style with the help of music director Naushad Ali, who helped Mukesh to come out of his Saigal style and create his own style. Naushad gave him songs for the film Andaz. Initially Mukesh was the ghost voice of Dilip Kumar in this movie and Mohammed Rafi sang for Raj Kapoor. He delivered many Hits for Naushad in films like: Anokhi Ada (1948), Mela (1948), Andaz (1949). Other composers who used Mukesh voice for great Dilip Kumar in Hit songs like Jeevan Sapna toot gaya were Anil Biswas in Anokha Pyar, Ye Mera Diwanapan hai, Shankar-Jaikishan in Yahudi and Suhana Safar and Dil Tadap Tadap ke, Salil Choudhary in Madhumati. However, later Dilip Kumar choose Rafi as his ghost voice and Mukesh became the ghost voice of Raj Kapoor. In 1974, Mukesh received National Film Award for Best Male Playback Singer for the song “Kai Baar Yuhi Dekha Hai” from Rajnigandha (1974), and Filmfare Awards for the songs “Sab Kuch Seekha Humne” in the movie Anari (1959), “Sabse Bada Naadan Wahi Hai” in Pehchaan (1970), “Jai Bolo Beimaan Ki” in Beimaan (1972) and “Kabhi Kabhie Mere Dil Mein”, the title song of film Kabhie Kabhie (1976). A total of around 1,300 songs were sung by him. This number is less than those sung by some of his contemporaries, but the fact is that Mukesh emphasised on quality rather than quantity. The comparatively fewer songs sung by him in the 1970s can be attributed to both the Kishore wave and his failing health due to his worsening heart problem. Mukesh sang many songs for Kalyanji Anandji music director duo.