Mohammad Rafi was one of the greatest playback singers of India. He is considered the “man with the golden voice”. 

He was India’s best and most versatile playback singer and is known for singing songs of different moods and variety. His songs ranged from classical to patriotic, sad to romantic, and qawwalis to ghazals to bhajan. 

He was one of those rare singers whose voice would suit all actors and stars. He had the ability to become the voice of every generation. 

Rafi sang maximum number of duets with Asha Bhosle, Lata Mangeshkar and Manna Dey. The government of India honored him with the Padmashree award in 1967.

Mohammad Rafi was born in December 24, 1924. Mohammad Rafi’s father Hajji Ali Mohammad and family lived in Kotla Sultan in Punjab. He began singing by imitating the chants of Fakir since his earlier age. 

He learnt classical music from Ustad Bade Gulam Ali Khan, Ustad Abdul Wahid Khan, Pandit Jiwanlal Matto and so forth. His first public performance came at the age of 13 when he sang in Lahore. Rafi was married twice. He died on July 31, 1980, following a heart attack. 

Career of Mohammad Rafi Rafi was a tremendously blessed singer. He was India’s best and most versatile and gifted playback singer. He is known for singing songs of different moods and variety. His songs ranged from classical to patriotic, sad to romantic, and qawwalis to ghazals to bhajan.

He is best known to sing romantic and duet songs. He was one of those rare singers whose voice would suit all actors and stars. He had the ability to become the voice of every generation. Rafi was influenced by singers like GM Durrani and KL Seigal. 

He is noted for his songs in Hindi-Urdu. He sang several Indian languages including in Punjabi, Bengali, Konkani, Bhojpuri, Oriya, Marathi, Sindhi, Kannada, Guajarati, Telegu, Assamese tec. He had also recorded songs in English, Persian, Spanish and Dutch.

His first public performance came at the age of 13 when he sang in Lahore. Rafi sang some of the classical songs of his career with the music directors like Naushad, OP Nayyar, Shankar Jaikishen, Roshan, SD Burman, Madan Mohan and Laxmikant Pyarelal. 

OP Nayyar was once quoted as saying, “If there had been no Mohammad Rafi, there would have been no OP Nayyar.” 

sang maximum number of duets with Asha Bhosle, Lata Mangeshkar and Manna Dey. In 1941 he made his debute in Lahore as a playback singer in the film “Gul Baloch”. His earliest debut in Mumbai was in the film “Gaon ki Gori” in 1945. While in the film industry Rafi also did brief roles in the film “Laila majnu” and “Jugnu”. 

In 1962-63 Lata Mangeshkar raised the issue of royalty of playback singer’s shares. There occurred a contradiction of views between the two singers regarding the royalty issue. 

After the song “Tasveer teri dil me” in the film “Maya” Lata decided not to work with Rafi. Later at the insistence of SD Burman the two decided to sing. 

Rafi lent his golden voice for several films. A mention of a few include “Baiju Bawra”, Mohammad Rafi“Mughal-E-Azam”, “Pyasa”, “Kagaz ke phool”, “Tere ghar ke samne”, “Guide”, “Aradhna”, “Abhiman”, “Basant Bahar”, “Professor”, “Junglee”, “Brahmachari”,“An evening in Paris”, “Love in Tokyo”, “jab pyar kisi se hota he”,“Chaudhvi ka chand”, “Neel kamal”, “Naya daur”,“Kashmir ki kali”, “Parasmani”, “dosti”, “Maya”, “pagla kahi ka” and so forth. 

Rafi has sung innumerous songs that have attained the repute of classics. Some notable songs of Rafi are “Tum bin jau kaha”, “Cura lia he tum ne jo dil ko”, “”Kya hua tera wada”, “O dunia ke rakhwale”, “Man tarpat hari darshan ko aaj”, “Ae mohabbat Zindabad”, “Baharo fool barsao”, “Dil ke jharoke me”, “Yahoo ! chahekoi mujhe jungle kahe”, “Chaudhvi ka chand”, “tum jo mil gaye ho”,“teri ankhon ke siva”, “Yeh duniya yeh mehfil”, “Babul ki duaen leti ja”,“Ye he Bombay meri jaan”, “Tareef karu kya uski”, “Chahoonga me tujhe sanjh savere”, “ Tasveer teri dil me”, “Tum mujhe yu bhula na paoge”.