Last night I was listening the song "Jalte Hain Jis ke Liye" sung by Talat Mahmood from the film Sujata. One interesting point I noted that this song has no sound of Tabla, Dholak or any other percussion instrument.This made me curious to research those songs which do not have any rhythmic instruments.
However, you may be surprised to learn that some of the most popular songs of the Golden era (mostly 50s and 60s) do not have any percussion instrument. Yes, you read that right. There are no percussion instruments in some of the most popular songs.
We all know that Melody and Rhythm are two essential elements of any Hindi film song. Melody is mostly identified with the vocals or the singable part and rhythm is identified with accompanying percussion instruments like Tabla or Bongo or Drums.
You may say that the songs that do not have percussion must be sad or slow songs. But it was not like that.There are some bright, cheerful songs as well that have Nothing but melody.
It is possible to create the rhythm for a song without using percussion instruments. Most composers created rhythm by using guitars, banjo or some other stringed instrument like a Double Bass or a Piano. In film songs, guitar can be played in three ways – as a lead guitar, bass guitar or rhythm guitar.
In the above mentioned song the composer of the song SD Burman usesd Piano to provide rhythm.Similarly SD Burman’s another masterpiece song from Pyaasa – Jaane woh kaise log in which piano supplements guitars and double bass for rhythm.
Hemant Kumar too seems to have a penchant for composing songs without percussion. His lively Bekarar karke from Bees Saal Baad, surprisingly does not have any percussion instruments, very unusual for the situation in the movie.
Here are few songs where the rhythm is provided by a variety of stringed instruments like Double Bass, Guitars and so on. I hope you enjoy these extremely popular Nothing but melody songs.
Song of Pyaasa 1957
Song of Chalti Ka Naam Gaadi 1958
Song of Dilli Ka Thug 1958
Song of Sujata 1959
Song of Kagaz ke phool 1959
Song of Lal Qila 1960
Song of Jhumroo 1961
Song of Bees Saal Baad 1962
Song of Woh Kaun Thi 1964
Song of Waqt 1965
Song of Anupama 1966
Song of Khamoshi 1969
