Monday, April 8, 2002		Music Beat

JAGJIT Singh’s name is synonymous with ghazal singing in India. Born on February 8, 1941, at Sriganganagar, Rajasthan, to Sardar Amar Singh Dhiman, a government servant, and Sardarni Bachchan Kaur Jagjit Singh was fondly called is called Jeet by his family members. And he did win many hearts with his first album The Unforgettables in 1976. The other voice was of Chitra Singh, Jagjit’s wife. They met each other in 1967 and got married in 1969. This album set new sales records and since then there was no looking back. Jagjit Singh changed the course of ghazals making them more ear-friendly, melodious and mass oriented without damaging the purity. After the success of ‘The Unforgettables’ many albums were released. ‘Ecstasies’, ‘A Sound Affair’, and ‘Passions’ are some of his albums. All albums were hits and sold like hot cakes. Sarakti jaye hai rukh se naqab aahista aahista, Aah ko chahiye, Dhai din naa jawani naal chaldi, Charkha mera rang laa, Baat niklegi to door talak jayegi and Woh kagaz ki kashti are some of the memorable ones.

Jagjit Singh is a successful name in Bollywood’s music world too. ‘Arth’, ‘Saath Saath’ and ‘Prem Geet’ bear witness to his calibre. Apart from singing, Jagjit Singh composed the music of a few films too. He composed music and also sung for the TV serial, ‘Mirza Ghalib’. ‘Beyond Time’ released in the early nineties was a big success. Around this time the duo was struck with grief as their only son met with untimely death. ‘Someone Somewhere’ became the last album by the duo together and subsequently Chitra Singh stopped singing. Other major hits of Jagjit Singh are ‘Marasim’, ‘Face To Face’, ‘Cry For Cry’ and the latest ‘Aaeena’.

It is the official Website of Jagjit Singh that has the biography of the singer. The goal of the site is to provide samples of the entire Jagjit Singh’s collection. One has to register to access the whole site. Only registered member can access song listings, audio samples, lyrics, and purchase CDs. Other features available in the site are chatrooms; free e-mail, photos and videos are available.

It is the favourite site of music lovers as it provides a big database to search from. Hollywood, bollywood, MP3 music, spotlite, beauty tips, recipe, horoscope, e-cards, cricket, games and shopping are few topics covered by the Website. In the ghazal category, the singers whose MP3 songs are available are Jagjit Singh, Chitra Singh, Mehndi Hassan, Pankaj Udhas and Mohammad Rafi. Jagjit Singh’s page provides us nearly 84 songs. There are around 26 songs sung by Chitra Singh available on this site.

This link provides us a list of albums sung by Jagjit Singh. Almost all albums released by him are available in the list, which is spread in two pages. We can listen to the songs online but the site does not permit downloading of the songs.

— Amit Puri