Mohammed Rafi, a Punjabi by heritage, was the second eldest of six brothers born to Allah Rakhi and Haji Ali Mohammad in a Punjabi Jat Muslim household. The household hailed from Kotla Sultan Singh, a village situated close to present-day Majitha within the Amritsar district of Punjab, India. Identified by the nickname “Pheeko,” Rafi’s musical journey started by mimicking the chants of a fakir who would roam the streets of his native village. In 1935, Rafi’s father moved to Lahore, the place he ran a males’s barbershop in Noor Mohalla, Bhati Gate. It was right here that Rafi studied classical music below the steerage of Ustad Abdul Wahid Khan, Pandit Jiwan Lal Mattoo, and Firoze Nizami. On the age of 13, Rafi had his first public efficiency, singing in Lahore alongside KL Sagal. And but this singer, having his roots in Punjab, might sing in Bhojpuri like a local. Ab aayi gavanwa kii sari, from a non-film album, is a primary instance of that. Songs like Nain lad jaiyen (Gunga Jumna, 1961), Mere pairon mein ghunghroo (Sunghursh, 1968), Sukh ke sab saathi (Gopi, 1970) from Hindi movies and songs like Sonwa ke pinjra mein (Ganga Maiyya Tohe Piyari Chadhaibo, 1963), Gorki patarki re (Balam Pardesia, 1979), Jaldi jaldi chal re kahara (Dharti Maiyaa, 1980) from Bhojpuri movies are testimony to that. Other than Bhojpuri, he has additionally sung in Konkani, Assamese, Odia, Bengali, Marathi, Sindhi, Kannada, Gujarati, Tamil, Telugu, Magahi, Maithili, and so on. Other than Indian languages, he additionally sang in some overseas languages, together with English, Persian, Arabic, Sinhala, Mauritian Creole, and Dutch.
Rafi didn’t simply sing for the lead stars. His songs for Johnny Walker are equally well-known. He gave all of it to lighthearted songs filmed on Johnny Walker, like Jaane kahan mera dil gaya ji (Mr and Mrs 55, 1955) Ae dil hai mushkil jeena yahan (CID, 1956), Sar jo tera sarkaye (Pyaasa, 1957), Suno re bhaiya (Paigham, 1959), Mera yaar bana hai dulha (Chaudhvin Ka Chand, 1960), Suno suno miss Chatterjee (Baharen Phir Bhi Aayengi, 1966) and lots of extra. In keeping with web sources, Rafi sang 155 for Johnny Walker, 190 songs for Shammi Kapoor, 129 for Shashi Kapoor, 114 for Dharmendra, 100 for Dev Anand and 77 for Dilip Kumar. If Kishore Kumar was the voice of Rajesh Khanna, then Mohammed Rafi may be stated to be the voice of Shammi Kapoor, although he sang effectively for nearly all the celebs from the 50s to the 80s and has even sung for Kishore Kumar.
