Manna De was very talented. Contrary to coo impression he was equally and definitely more adept at faster tunes than Mohd. Rafi, he was better in classical songs than rafi, has sung some most memeorable romantic duets, . Manna de was better in quawallis than Rafi, and Manna de voice had more depth than Mukesh. He also worked as assistant to S.D. Burman. Unfortunately no music composer was his godfather. He suufered due to gropupism and pilitics played by producers and composers like Naushad, , O.P Nayyar, producer Kardar, coposers shyamsunde etc.Shanker Jaikihan(SJ), Salil Chodhary, Kalyanji Anandji(Ka), Rahuldev burman, made best use of his voice.
Unforunately s.D burman did not give him much scope. The history of bollywood music in fifities and sixties would have ben more melodious, full of ore depth, had composers given equal if not more chance to Manna de, Kishorekumar and Hemanta rather than using Rafi, Mukesh combination. kishore could finally climb to the position of the leading singer of India with backing by Burman senior and junior but Manna De remained unfortunate. there eis no song of any type which is not sung by Manna de, . he could sing western song, comic song, classical song, bhajan, romatic duet, sad song, patriotic song, all with equal ease and finness and perhaps was much more gifted than his contemporaries. he was always called when the song. was difficult . his carrear spanned all four decades . he sang in 1947 and one can recollect a po;ular song y Manna de in saaransh in 1989 apoular song by manna de in massom 1983.! he was truly gret and only destiny can answer why he could not get the due recognition inspite of having all the talent!
Here are some of the finest numbers. I have tried to selct numbers from all decades and all types.
1 Kasme wade pyar wafa ke upka composer KA beautiful singing
2 Ae mere pyare watan kabuliwala -Salil chowdhary - best patriotic song
3 Ae meri Joharajabi sj light classical
4 Tu pyar ka sagar hai Sj one of the most beautiful bhajans
5 Aaja sanam madhur chandani me hu with lata best romantic duet
6 Pyar hua Ikrar hua best romantic duet SJ
8 Zindagi kisi hai paheli - anand Salil chodhary
9 Pucho a kaise aine rain bitayi beautiful serious classical S.D. Burman
10 Zanak zanak tori baje payaliya - vasant desai
11 Ek chatur nar - duet with kishore padosan very funny
12 Mud mud ke na dekh ud mude ke with Asha SJ simply awesome!
13 Laga chunari me daag - Roshan - classical number
14 Yaari hai iman era -Zanzir KA one of the best quwwalis
15 Aao twist kare bhotbangala -Western hit rahuldevBuran
16 Huzur is kadar bhi na itara ke chaliye(1985 semi classical duet with Suresh Wadkar -masom
17 Jeeven ke lambe hai raste - under Vasant desai serious sad song
18 Ae bhai zara dekh ke chalo - a paheli song -Mera nam joker -SJ
19 aayo kaha se ghanshyam - bhuddha mil gaya -rahuldeo burman
20 andhiara ujiyara suna pan bhar aaya - Saaransh in 1989