Who else? It is indeed Mohammed Rafi.  The best quality male voice that Indian Music has ever produced – it is Rafi Sahab’s voice. His voice was pure as crystal, with high quality tone & texture and his singing was flawless. He could sing any type of song effortlessly and with great emotion & ecstasy.

Mohammed Rafi got his classical training from Ustad Abdul Vahid Khan and Ustad Bade Gulam Ali Khan. Rafi got a break in playback singing through music director Shyam Sundar. However, he became a popular singer after Naushad Sahab signed him for film Baiju Bawra. O duniya ke rakhwale, Mana tarapat hari darshan ko aaj became the hit songs. Soon, he became a favourite singer of popular music directors like O P Nayyar, S D Burman & Shankar Jaikishan of that era and created great hits with them. Rafi became voice of Shammi Kapoor, Dev Anand and major heroes during those times. He also gave his voice to Singer Kishore Kumar who started his career as an actor.

Rafi’s speciality was that he could sing classical based songs very smoothly, I mean, without compromsing on his texture of voice. The variations he sang were with ease and he maintained the softness of his voice while singing them. He had tremendous range of voice and hence he could maintain his voice quality while singing high notes and even low notes.

Rafi is the only singer who has sung some of the longest songs in hindi films such as ‘Ye duniya ye mehfil mere kaam ki nahi’, ‘Mere Mehboob tujhe meri mohabbat ki kasam’, ‘Rang aur noor ki barat kise pesh karoon’.

Some of his songs which I like the most are ‘Zindagi bhar nahi bhulegi vo barsat ki rat’, ‘Tumhari zulfa ke saye me shaam’, ‘Teri aakhon ke siva duniya mein rakkha kya hai’, ‘Tere mere sapane ab ek rang hai’, ‘Ye zulfa agar khulke bikhar jaye to acchha’, ‘Mai nigahen tere chehre se hataoon kaise’, ‘Chhoo lene do nazuk hothon ko’, ‘Ek haseen shaam ko dil mera kho gaya’, ‘Achal mein saja le na kaliya’, ‘Man re tu kahe na dhir dhare’, ‘Dard e dil dard e jigar’..the list will go on.

Some of his duets that I like are ‘Deewana hua badal’, ‘Isharon Isharon mein’, ‘Aaja Aaja mai hun pyar tera’, ‘Abhi na jao chhodkar’, ‘Chura liya hai tumne jo dil ko’, ‘Phir miloge is baat ka vada kar lo’ (Sung with Asha) & ‘Ye dil deewana hai’, ‘Dil Pukare’, ‘Tasvir teri dil mein’, ‘Teri bindiya re’ (sung with Lata).

Rafi’s voice was made for any kind of song be it a romantic song, a patriotic song, a classical based song, a comedy song, a fast hindi pop song. Rafi sang each song with great ease and perfection. Unfortunately he lived only for 55 years and after him the film industry struggled to find another voice like him.

Today you may find singers who imitate Kishore Kumar but you won’t find another Mohammed Rafi. Rafi truely was a complete singer!