From: skalra902@aol.com (SKalra902) Newsgroups: rec.music.indian.misc Subject: Was: No. of Lata songs Date: 21 Jan 1998 00:17:43 GMT Just read the very interesting (statistical) article by Ketan on the number of Lata songs. Very informative indeed. The immediate recollection that came to my mind was a letter in the India Abroad sometime in 1989 by Dr. Surjit Singh (the diehard movie fanatic) :)))), after a series of articles had been published in IA a few weeks earlier on Lata's 60th birthday. According to his letter, she had a total of 5,076 songs in Hindi, from the mid-40s to 1980, as per compilation done by him from the four volumes of the Harmandir Singh Giit Kosh. Now I am quoting this from memory, and I would like to invite Dr. Surjit Singh to join us in the discussion here, and verify the No. of songs. If the 5,076 number is correct upto 1980, the total songs by Lata would increase by three or four hundred, not a huge jump, but still significant. Taking Ketan's analysis further, if Asha sang, let us say, 250 songs every year, from 1948 to 1998, i.e., 50 years, that is a total of 12,500 songs. Include her songs in other languages, and the total could easily cross 20,000!!!! However, the average number of Hindi films released has been around 125 per year, going down to nearly a hundred each year in the recent decade. Thus, we can put the figure at a maximum of around 1,000-1100 in each 10 years. This would put the total number of films from 1948 to 1998 at between 5,000 to 5,500. And the average number of songs per film ranged from 10-12 in the 40's to just about 4-6 in the late sixties, and even more recently. The total number of songs can thus be estimated at about 40,000 in all. This includes all male and female solos, choruses, duets, etc., etc. It would, therefore, seem very highly unlikely that even Asha would reach the number of 20,000 songs, even if we inlcuded songs of all other languages and any and all songs recorded but never released. It appears to me that the numbers stated in the Guiness Book is exaggerated. Even back in the late seventies/early eighties, Lata was in the GB at about 25,000 songs, which we all know now was an incorrect number. Could this be a case similar to what Kumar Sanu bragged a few years ago of having recorded a whopping 28 songs in a single day which turned out to be a medley of songs for a total of 28 mukhdas and stanzas, combined!!!! (This from my recollections in various articles /interviews with Kumar Sanu, Abhijeet and Udit Narain, in the Filmfare magazine in the early 90's.) It seems to me that this should turn out to be a very interesting thread. What say RMIMers. Happy listenings. Satish Kalra