♪♪♪♪♪♪♪ Thirty six thousand songs under his Vocal chord ♪♪♪♪♪♪♪
The boy eloped off with his girl from his home and eventually married her. He was born in Nellore District to a Hari Katha exponent with an in born singing talent.
Music was his first love for his lifetime
This boy went on to sing for Ek Duje Ke Liye his first venture into Bollywood which became a run away hit.
An Engineering student, he excelled in all competitions which brought him to the attention of S.P.Kodandapani who gave him the first entry into Telugu. However M.S.Vishwanathan, Mellisai Mannan gave him the most important break in Tamil. Illayaraja went on to nurture him as the undisputed Male singer in Tamil for nearly two decades.
He is S.P.Balasubramaniam-the voice of South India
Today, there are thirty six thousand songs under his vocal chord, a Guinness Book of world record sung in Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, Oriya and Punjabi and various other languages.
Fondly called SPB in tamil and Balu in telugu, if you want to pick the best songs of him, then you need to write a book of 1000 songs. Ask him to come out with his best numbers in any of his music shows, he will come out with them without any paper in hand, in a much different vocal tone from the original and highly modulated by his own musical concoction.
Master of Modulation
Slow or Fast, melodious or coarse, Rajni or Kamal, he could just get into it into an unequivocal fashion with his greatest asset, Voice modulation and laya variation. If you want the same singer to sing according to the whims and fancies of the Director, then it is SPB.
The Beginning
Glorious years of reeling song after song, hit after hit in the 70s when there was no Cable TV or FM Radio, people thronged to listen to him. I remember going to one in open air where 10000 had gathered in my School days in Tirupathi. He sang all the numbers of Shankarabaranam a classical masterpiece of K.V.Mahadevan, K.Viswanath and SPB combine that the crowd got hysterical listening to his high pitch rendering.
This movie fetched him National Award.
From Ayiram Nila Ve Vaa to Vaa Venila SPB was very popular for moon lit songs. ♪ Illaya Nila Poyigirathu ♪( Payanangal Mudivathilai- SPB’s voice and Illayaraja’s guitar) was one of the best moon lit songs ever by SPB. His voice gave a mediocre Hero Mohan stardom of Singer Hero for five good years.
Some of my Golden collection of SPB songs are as follows.
♪ Ithu Oru Ponmalai Poyuthu ♪-Nizhalgal- Illayaraja, Lyrics Vairamuthu captivating Nature song
♪ Kootathile Kovil Pura♪- Idhaya Kovil-Illayaraja –semi classical song which was one of the most difficult song by SPB. He has sung two other beautiful songs in this movie ♪ Idhayam oru Kovil and Vanuyarntha solaiyile. ♪
♪ Ilamaiyenum Poongatru ♪-Pagal Nilavu-Illayaraja Very youthful song from SPB in his golden young years.
♪ Thogai illamayil adi ♪-Payanangal Mudivathile-Illayaraja Even the beautiful peacock will dance to this song.
♪ Pani Vizhum malarvanam ♪-Nizhalgal-Illayaraja & ♪ Kadhal Rojave ♪-Roja-ARR are two songs which take you to the snow.
♪ Neethane Enthan Ponvasantham ♪-Ninaivellam Nitya-Illayaraja SPB’s golden year for Illayaraja 1982 has some 13 great songs to listen.
♪ Sangeetha Jadi Mulai ♪-Kadal Oviyam-Illayaraja The song that made the Director Barathiraja weep with the kind of emotional rendering that Balu gave. He has sung three beautiful songs in this movie including ♪ Poovil Vandu Kudum. ♪
♪ Thakita thathimi ♪- Sagara Sangamam(Tel)-Illayaraja Balu’s jewel in the crown song for Kamal in that tantalizing dance on well ends with Beautiful Jayaprada running and stopping the song and fall. Balu has several great songs in this movie.
♪ Kadalin Deebam onru ♪-Thambiku endha ooru-Illayaraja One for Rajni here, one of the best that he has sung for him.
♪ Nanjai undu, punjai undu ♪-Unnal Mudiyum thambi-Illayaraja a rare difficult song in sudha danyasi raga
♪ Manram vandha tenral ♪-Mouna Raagam-Illayaraja Beautiful song under the back ground of Taj Mahal.
♪ O papa lali ♪-Geethanjali (Tel)-Illayaraja Maniratnam’s super hit movie had this lullaby song from Balu.
♪ Sundari Kannal oru seidhi ♪-Thalapathi-Illayaraja for Manirathnam again with breathtaking background score-composed in Mumbai with R.D.Burman’s orchestra, the fitting tribute came ,” Please Raja and your self don’t come to Mumbai,It is too challenging for us.
♪ Kalyana malai,Gooruvayoorapa and Keladi Kanmani ♪-Puthu Puthu arthangal-Illayaraja all masterpieces for K.Balachandar.
♪ Malai oram veesum katru ♪-Padu Nilave-Illayaraja The breeze song that takes you to celestial heights
♪ Anjali Anjali Pushpanjali ♪-Duet-ARR On High note in nice cohesion with Kadri’s Sax. If you want rapturous delight, you have ♪ Mettu Podu ♪
Other Damaka songs from SPB are
Anathe aduran & Rajah kaivecha-Abborva Sagotharargal
Hey Atha –Alaigal oyvathile
Engeyum epothum-Illamai Unjal adukirathu-M.S.Viswanathan
Illamai idho Idho-Sakala kala Valavan-Illayaraja
Megham Kotatum-Enakul Oruvan-Illayaraja
Otakara Marimuthu-Indira-ARR
Thanga tamarai magale-Minsara Kanavu-ARR
The Movies that have several scintillating songs of SPB are
TELUGU- Swathi Mutyam, Alapana, Rudraveena, Bobilli Raja, Swarnakamalam, Thyagaih
TAMIL-China thambi, Kiyaku Vasal, Singaravelan, Punagai Mannan, Udhaya Geetham
My apologies for not including more songs especially in Telugu as I have missed out 100s of good numbers due to lack of space.
Awards- Not testimonial to SPB
Unfortunately he won only 5 National awards whilst he deserved more than 10.
They are
Sankarabharanam (Telugu) 1979
Ek Duje Keliye (Hindi) 1981
Sagara Sangamam (Telugu) 1983
Rudra Veena (Telugu) 1988
Gaana Yogi Panchashari Gavai (Kannada) 1995
Minsara Kanavu (Tamil) 1996
He has a doctorate from Andhra Pradesh Government and Kalai Mamani award from T.N.Govt but the best remains 20 plus awards from Film fans association, Chennai.
He has also sung without stopping breath for the movie Keladi Kanmani. He has not had proper training in music and singing came to him naturally which made him sing even semi classical songs with aplomb. A versatile and talented man that he was he has tried his hands in music direction, production of movies and has also acted in some memorable roles in Movies like Guna, Kadhalan, Sigaram & Keladi Kanmani.
Very emotional by nature, he was accepted very well as an actor because of his sweat voice.
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