 "Legendary singer, Manna Dey, passes away at 94")
Legendary singer Manna Dey breathed his last on Thursday in Bangalore after a prolonged illness. He was 94.
Dey, known for his melodious numbers, has been ailing for a while. He was admitted to a hospital in Bangalore on Wednesday and died early morning.
Dey, who epitomised the golden period of Hindi cinema with his unique singing style, started his playback career in 1942 with the film, Tamanna. He collaborated with over 100 music directors from the Indian film industry and also turned into an independent music composer in Hindi films with Maha Poojaa in 1954.
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The master of melody gave his voice to over 3,000 songs in Hindi, Bengali, Gujarati, Marathi, Malayalam, Kannada and Assamese films. Along with Mohd Rafi, Mukesh, and Kishore Kumar, Dey was the last member of the famous quartet of singers who dominated the Hindi music industry from 1950s to 1970s.
His career got a leg-up when he recorded 95 Hindi songs in a single year (1957), and 64 in 1958. His peak period in Hindi film industry is taken as1953-1969 when he recorded 758 Hindi songs of which 631 came between 1957-1969. His last recorded song in Hindi films was for the film Umar in 2006 composed by Shamir Tandon - Duniyawaalo Kee Nahee Kuchh Bhee Khabar which he sang with Kavita Krishnamoorthy, Sonu Nigam
The golden voice has gone silent, but Dey leaves behind thousands of melodious magical numbers. According to a former MD of a music company, the rights sold for an artist such as Dey would be very handsome. "The agreements for each artist is different but royalty for an artist of the stature of Manna Dey, it would be somewhere in the range of 5-10% of the total sales via various sales methods,” he said.
Dey's association with Saregama, part of RP Sanjiv Goenka group, is illustrious to say the least. The Dadasaheb Phalke Award winner sang 2264 songs with Saregama out of which 1260 were in Hindi while 741 were in Hindi.
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His all-time hits include Zindagi kaisi ye paheli, Puchho na kaise maine rain bitayee, Laga chunari main daag, Aaja sanam madhur chandani mein hum, Dil ka haal sune dilwala, Ye raat bhigi bhigi, ye masta fijzayen, Jhanak jhanak tori baaje payaliya, Tu pyar ka saagar hai, Chunari sambhal gori udi chali jaye re and Ay meri Zohara.The Dadasaheb Phalke Award, the country's highest honour in cinema, was awarded to the veteran singer in 2007. The Indian government also honoured him with the Padma Shri in 1971 and the Padma Bhushan in 2005. He is survived by his two daughters.
| Total songs sung by him till date: 3,043 |
First Hindi Film Song from the movie RamRajya
His last recorded song in Hindi films was for the film Umar in 2006 composed by Shamir Tandon
He gave his voice to 129 Geet Gazal Bhajans and also to 14 hindi rabindro sangeet