Golden Era of Bollywood: Mohammad Rafi

Mohammad Rafi was born on 24th Dec 1924 in Kotla Sultansingh village in Punjab, near Amritsar. Although music was not a part of his family background, there is no doubt that he was born with a gift for music in his heart.
Rafi Sahab had picked up the rudiments of music from a fakir while already possessing a God-gifted voice. At a tender age of about fifteen decided to become a singer, his elder brother encouraged him to become a singer. When he was barely seventeen years old and sang his first playback song for a Punjabi film, 'Gul Baloch' under the music direction of the late Shyam Sunder in 1941. The song became popular, he was invited by the same composer to sing in a Hindi film he was composing.
Rafi Sahab took the final big step in his life and ventured off to Bombay to realise his dreams of making singing his career. In 1942 he arrived in Bombay to sing, again under the music direction of Shyam Sunder for the movie 'Gaon ki Gauri'.
Following the success of his song, Rafi Sahab approached the renowned music director Naushad, confiding in him his admiration for the great Kundan Lal. Saigal, and how his ambition was to sing with Saigal Sahab. Naushad did not disappoint him, giving him two lines (Ruhi Ruhi Mere Sapnon ki Rani) with K.L Saigal for a song in the movie 'Shahjehan'.
Rafi saheb had a tough competition with singers like Manna Dey, Talat Mahmood, Hemant Kumar and Mukesh. He moved ahead of all of them after the success of Baiju Bawra under the music direction of Naushad Sahab. "O Duniya Ke Rakhwale" together with 'Man Tarpat Hari Darshan' left Rafi Sahab in a league all of his own.

With Naushad, he gave many immortal songs. Their collaboration produced some of the best and most memorable music of the Golden Era. His talent could not remain confined to just the classicism of Naushad. Many talented composers such as OP Nayyar, SD Burman, Shankar Jaikishan, Roshan, Ravi and numerous others gave their the best with Rafi and presented him in myriad colours.

He was notable for his voice, versatility and range; his songs were varied from fast peppy numbers to patriotic songs, sad numbers to highly romantic songs, qawwalis to ghazals and bhajans to classical songs. He was known for his ability to mould his voice to the persona and style of an actor, lip-syncing the song on screen in the movie.
He has recorded songs for over a thousand Hindi films and has sung songs in various regional Indian languages as well as foreign languages, though primarily in Hindi-Urdu and Punjabi over which he had a strong command. He has recorded as many as 7405 songs in many languages.
He received six Filmfare Awards and one National Film Award. In 1967, he was honoured with the Padma Shri award by the Government of India.
Mohammed Rafi died at 10:25 pm on 31 July 1980, following a massive heart attack, aged 55. The last song sung by Rafi was for the movie Aas Paas. One source says it was "Shaam Phir Kyun Udaas Hai Dost / Tu Kahin Aas Paas Hai Dost", recorded just hours before his death.
Some of my Fav Songs of Rafi