Counting TFM hits of IR - now @1776 - year 1996 is WIP - poll for "rAman abdullA"

The inputs from TN-ers (as well as current status on YT) are quite confusing about Sethupathi IPS (with the exclusion of the sAththu nadai song, of course).

Thus, I'm adding only two songs from the album (that are told by everyone)...

#1651 sAththu nadai sAththu (AB solo, Sethupathi IPS)
Never knew such a song existed until internet discussions pointed this to me - not a big fan of this number

#1652 vidiyum nEram arugil vandhadhu (Sunanda and children, Sethupathi IPS)
Nice song!

The other songs perhaps are enjoyed by IRFs for years - but not sure about the rest of the public.

Moving on to the next album, sevvanthi - I'm familiar with the semmeenE song right from those years (though I didn't think it was by IR those days )

aAthA malaiyarasi [Title Song]	Chorus
punnaivana poongkuyilE [sevvanthi sevvanthi]	Arunmozhi / Swarnalatha
ponnAttam poovAttam chinna poNNu	Mano / Swarnalatha / Chorus
semmeenE semmeenE unkitta sonnEnE	P.Jayachandran / Sunandha / Chorus
vAsamalli poovu poovu	Uma Ramanan
anbE AruyirE Asai poongkiLiyE	S.P.Balasubramaniam
yennudaiya poongkARRu [bit]	Arunmozhi

Semmeene and Punnaivana poonguyile are superhit numbers (most played/heard in the album).  

Vaasamalli, Anbe aaruyire and Ponnaattam are moderate hits (heard/seen quite frequently both on Radio and TV).  Good folk album by IR.

YouTube Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LYvJRqNCsqA&list=PLViUvV1AcMZCE4H4YIWcmdTB6Y_fr6VZH 

Album Jukebox on Mio: https://mio.to/album/Sevvanthi+%281993%29 

sevvanthi must be an interesting, one of a kind album IMHO. For a few reasons

-- Though I've heard some of these songs those days involuntarily, never thought they were by IR - esp. chemmeenE chemmeenE
-- Though "punnaivana" song is obviously IR (Arunmozhi connection) and I've heard it those days, never thought it was from Sevvanthi
-- Even IRFs are not very clear about the "hit status" of some of the songs in the album. For e.g. the SPB song has half a million views on YT but no one mentioned it to me in twitter.
-- Some songs sound like "done by Hindi MD"

Well, regardless, let us document the hits in this thread and move on.

#1653 punnaivana poonguyilE (SL-Arunmozhi duet, sevvanthi)
A delightful themmAngu, typical IR song from late-80s or early-90s style, in the "thakita-thakita" nadai - thoroughly enjoyable!

#1654 ponnAttam poovAttam (SL-Mano with chorus, sevvanthi)
Celebration song, little bit of northie feel, difficult to recognize as IR song.

#1655 chemmeenE chemmeenE (Sunanda - JC with chorus, sevvanthi)
Possibly the arrangements (were they by Uttam Singh?) made me think this was not by IR - wondered if this song were by Manoj-Gyan those days  A big hit nevertheless.

#1656 vAsamalli poovu poovu (UR solo, sevvanthi)
Nice song, possibly a moderate hit - as per TN-ers

#1657 anbE AruyirE (SPB solo, sevvanthi)
Including this song, though not many talked about it in twitter - appears to have a strong lasting value with TN-ers (going by YT comments and number of views)

Moving on to the next album, that will need a poll - thAlAttu - as I personally heard these songs only recently (for Pulavar Pulamaipithan thread)

kuzhanthai pAduREn kaNNumaNi	Malaysia Vasudevan / Chorus
methuvA thanthi adichchAnE	Mano / Minmini
yenekkena oruvarum illAmal pOnAlum	ilaiyaRaaja / Sunandha
paNNaipura rAsAvE kattina mettithu AththA	Malaysia Vasudevan / Chorus
AththA sonnatheppadi nadakkum appadi ooru	Malaysia Vasudevan / Chorus
yennOdu pOttiyittu jeyichavar yArum illai	Mano / Minmini / S.N.Surendar

Kozhandha paaduren, Medhuvaa thandhi, Pannapura raasaave and Enakkena oruvarum are superhits.  The other 2 numbers (Ennodu pOttiyittu and Aaththaa sonnatheppadi) are familiar ones, but not hits.  Nice folk album by IR.

Album Jukebox on Mio: https://mio.to/album/Ilaiyaraaja/Thalattu+%281993%29

Jukebox on YouTube:

Adding 4 songs from that thAlAttu movie - all with Pulamaipithan lyrics and got covered in his obituary thread.

#1658 kuzhandhai pAduREn kaNNumaNi (MV with chorus, thAlAttu)
Interesting (even funny) to see Aravindsamy in a role like this - first time listen for the pulavar thread (almost all songs, except may be medhuvA thanthi)

#1659 medhuvA thanthi adichchAnE (Minmini-Mano duet, thAlAttu)
Catchy duet!

#1660 enakkena oruvarum illAmal pOnAlum (Sunanda - IR, thAlAttu)
Nice themmAngu - I'm glad it had its popularity when arrived.

#1661 paNNaippura rAsAvE kattina mettu (MV with chorus, thAlAttu)
Could not understand why the first line had to be like that

Moving on to the next album - unknown to me and needs a poll - thanga kiLi

ninaikAtha neramillai [Duet]	Mano / S.Janaki
ninaikAtha neramillai [Female]	S.Janaki
yEikka varum peNgaLukku soodu koduppOm	Mano / Chorus
nAn dheva dhEvi yen pAthai vA vA	Mano / Swarnalatha
thAngAthadi manasu thAngAthadi	Mano / Sindhu / Chorus

Ninaikkaadha neramillai (duet version) is a superhit song.  The sad version, Thaangaathadi manasu and Naan deva devi are Tier-2 hits.  Yeikka varum was not a known number.

YouTube Jukebox:

Adding those 3 songs from thangakkiLi to our list...

#1662 ninaikkAdha nEramillai (Two versions - SJ/Mano duet and SJ solo, thangakkiLi)
Sweet song, first time listen for me! I'm glad TN-ers welcomed it when the album arrived!

#1663 nAn dEva dEvi (SL-Mano duet, thangakkiLi)
Another sweet & peppy song, enjoyable!

#1664 thAngAdhadi manasu (Sindhu-Mano duet, thangakkiLi)
Yet another sweet song in a somewhat subdued album - I liked the song!

Moving on to the next album that has to have a poll - udan piRappu, with that fantastic "nanRi sollavE unakku en mannavA"

sOzhar kula kunthavai pOl	ilaiyaRaaja / S.P.Balasubramaniam
puthusA oru pAttedu	Malaysia Vasudevan / Mano / K.S.Chithra / Chorus
yE sAmy varuthu sAmy varuthu	S.P.Balasubramaniam / Mano / Chorus
nadRi sollavE unakku yen mannavA	S.P.Balasubramaniam / Swarnalatha / Chorus
ammam mam mam mA rAthiri vanthathammA	Mano / K.S.Chithra
nAn poRanthathu thaniyA	S.P.Balasubramaniam

Nandri sollave unakku and Saami varudhu were superhits; Pudhusaa oru (same rhythm as Dilbar jaane of Kalaignan), and Naan porandhadhu were moderate hits (during that time), but now the tables seem to have turned!  Naan porandhadhu has 10M+ views, way more than the then-superhits!!

The album (to me) is special for 2 reasons: 

1. IR and SPB sing a duet after a long time - SoLar gula - Good melody with a beautiful charanam.

2. Same with SPB and Mano - Saami varudhu song, which back then was a quintessential song for Pillaiyaar Chathurthi at local temples. 

Album Jukebox:


3 individual songs are on IR-O:

Adding 4 hits from this album based on the input of various TN-ers (though personally only "nanRi sollavE unakku" is familiar to me).

#1665 puthusA oru pAttedu (KSC-Mano-MV group song with chorus, udan piRappu)
Holi song it seems - boring to me, surprised that this was popular in TN  Those were "changing times" definitely!

#1666 E sAmy varuthu sAmy varuthu (Mano-SPB with chorus, udan piRappu)
That "gaNapathing-ding-ding-ding" thing is quite catchy! Perhaps this was the time people were mentally switching to "one-hook-is-enough" thingy and no longer patient to enjoy a song as a "whole meal" with multiple melody movements / interludes etc.

#1667 nadRi sollavE unakku en mannavA (SL-SPB duet, udan piRappu)
What a lovely song! Unfortunately, I got introduced to this song much later (not part of my IR-SPB thread in the mayyam), Thoroughly enjoyable, especially for the golden voice and singing of SL!

#1668 nAn poRanthathu thaniyA (SPB solo, udan piRappu)
As pointed out by @ssanjeevi , this seems to be the most popular one on YT - despite the poignancy of the situation. Definitely catchy pallavi and a lovely "connector" from saraNam back to pallavi! 

Moving to the next album / poll - uththama rAsA - like many albums of this period, another album where "dOlak" dominated

nalla nEram yethai thottAlum ponnAguthu [Title Song]	S.P.Balasubramaniam / Chorus
pAvalaru pAttu ithu paNNaipura pAttu	Mano / Chorus
unnai mARRi kAttAma machchAnE	S.P.Balasubramaniam / S.Janaki
intha mAmanOda manasu	S.P.Balasubramaniam / S.Janaki
vAiyA vAiyA pAyai pOdu	S.P.Balasubramaniam / S.Janaki
nandRi unakku solla vArthai illai mAriyE	Malaysia Vasudevan / Chorus

Indha maamanoda manasu was/is a superhit number.  Paavalaru paattu, Onna maaththi kaattaama and Nandri unakku were Tier-3 hits.

Album Jukebox on IR-O:

Mixed opinions on songs other than the well-known one super hit from uthama rAsA   

YT numbers also do not support any other song, so adding one for now...

#1669 indha mAmanOda manasu (SJ-SPB duet, uthama rAsA)
The loud dOlak sound used to turn me off - despite the otherwise excellent ingredients of the song. Yes, this was covered in IR-SPB thread of mayyam those days as I was well-aware of the popularity of this number even those days!

The next album does not need a poll - I've observed the popularity on TV channels and otherwise, even though I wasn't impressed with this album as much as other IR albums for a Rajinikanth movie - uzhaippALi

#1670 oru mainA mainA kuruvi (KSC-Mano duet, uzhaippALi)
Different rhythm arrangement but I can't say it was very impressive. Otherwise, decent package!

#1671 uzhaippALi illAdha nAdu dhAN (Mano with chorus, uzhaippALi)
Boring song, IMHO - but this was getting top rating (even above the ARR chartbursters of that time period) on Sun TV

#1672 oru kOlakkiLi (two versions - SPB solo & duet with KSC, uzhaippALi)
Nice catchy melody - but somehow the overall package looked "sodhappal" - especially looking at how it aged now

#1673 muththirai ippOdhu (Kavitha K - SPB duet, uzhaippALi)
Possibly the best song of the album, if we remove the "bomb" sounds

#1674 ammA ammA endhan AruyirE (Two versions - Sunanda and SPB solos, uzhaippALi)
Nice emotional number!

Moving on to the next album, that had the phenomenal "ennuLLE" but needs a poll for other numbers. (Though Rajinikanth said this was by KR, KR himself has told much earlier that this was not by him, we need to account this in IR's kitty only)

santhanam javvAthu panneerai nee yeduthu	S.P.Balasubramaniam / S.N.Surendar
kukkukkoo koo koo koovum kuyilakkA	Latha Rajanikanth / Chorus
dingu dongu rappappO	Mano / Latha Rajanikanth / Chorus
yennuLLE yennuLLE pala minnal	Swarnalatha / Chorus
yennuLLE yennuLLE pala minnal [Pathos]	Swarnalatha
yenna yenna kanavu kaNdAyO sAmy	ilaiyaRaaja

Just like UzhaippaaLi album, VaLLi also does not require a poll!  Hit album, with EnnuLLe being crazy superhit.  It was also promoted more than UzhaippaaLi.  Superb album.

Album Jukebox on IR-O:

Adding vaLLi songs to the list:

#1675 sandhanam javvAdhu - vaLLi varappORA (SNS-SPB, vaLLi)
This song I clearly remember being used for radio promotions those days - frequently played in CBE radio (that had reception at Palakkad)

#1676 kukkukkoo koovum kuyilakkA (Latha Rajinikanth with chorus, vaLLi)
Nice song and I've listened to this many times during bus travels!

#1677 dingu dongu rappappO (Latha Rajinikanth / Mano with chorus, vaLLi)
Me not familiar with this prior to internet era  Not a favorite either!

#1678 ennuLLE ennuLLE (SL with chorus, vaLLi)
Phenomenal song (there's also a pathos version)! While the pallavi is awesome & interludes are nice, the saraNam takes it to another level!

#1679 enna enna kanavu kaNdAyO sAmy (IR solo, vaLLi)
Possible situational song - me not much familiar with this before! 

Moving on to the last album of this year, which needs a poll (even though it was for a KBR movie but he was a spent force by this time)

veetla vishEshanga

 

konjam sangeetham kaRRu thA	S.Janaki
intha bussuthAn ptc uLLathAn qmc pAru	Malgudi Suba / Chorus
malarE thendRal pAdum gAnam ithu [Duet]	Arunmozhi / S.Janaki
malarE thendRal pAdum gAnam ithu [Male]	K.J.Yesudas
jingAn jinukkuthAn inthA unakkuthAn chittukuruvi	Swarnalatha
poongkuyil reNdu oNNula oNNAi koodichAm	S.P.Balasubramaniam / Sunandha

Except Jingaan, the rest were superhits. 

Album Jukebox on Mio: https://mio.to/album/Veetla+Vishesanga+%281994%29 

Looks like the "veetla vishEshanga" album was a hit, though I've never heard it those days or not even in the internet era

The only song I've heard was quite recently for pulavar Pulamaipithan thread  Anyways, let me add the songs to the list!

#1680 konjam sangeetham katRuththA (SJ solo, veetla vishEshanga)
Melodious number, sounds much like late 80's song - enjoyable!

#1681 intha bussu thAn PTC (Malgudi Subha and chorus, veetla vishEshanga)
Fun song with all needed ingredients, sounds neat!

#1682 malarE thenRal pAdum gAnam ithu (Two versions - KJY solo / SJ-AM duet, veetla vishEshanga)
Situational number sounds better than the love duet IMO

#1683 jingAn chinukkuththAn (SL solo, veetla vishEshanga)
Terrific song, my pick of the album!

#1684 poonguyil reNdu onnula onnA koodichchAm (Sunandha-SPB duet, veetla vishEshanga)
As mentioned in the pulavar thread, soothing nice melody!

Overall, a nice album - deserved to be a super hit - surprised I didn't get to listen them all these days!

With that, 1993 is done and will follow-up with the summary post ASAP

Well, 1993 shows a sharp decline in numbers when compared to 1989-1992. 

It is possibly because of competition or IR not signing up smaller projects.

However, they weren't down too bad as one would have imagined. Personally, I wasn't listening much to TFM those days (because of busy family schedule) and thus missed many hit albums and wrongly thought that there was a "huge drop" in IR's market. That was actually not the case at all.

See the stats :

Year	Cat A (Super Hits)	Cat B (Hits)	Cat C (Moderate Hits)	Year Total
1976	7	4	2	13
1977	21	14	15	50
1978	25	15	10	50
1979	33	29	33	95
1980	40	6	10	56
1981	54	38	N/A	92
1982	77	33	N/A	110
1983	56	24	N/A	80
1984	62	35	N/A	97
1985	107	27	N/A	134
1986	77	37	N/A	114
1987	68	25	N/A	93
1988	47	13	N/A	60
1989	86	34	N/A	120
1990	113	52	N/A	165
1991	93	31	N/A	124
1992	117	30	N/A	147
1993	51	33		84
Total so far	1134	480	70	1684

While 84 is a smaller number compared to the previous 4 years, it is perhaps similar to the average of the "most famous 80's" actually

So, IR was still ruling the charts / hot in the market in 1993, despite the arrival of "puyal" and others.

app_engine wrote:Well, 1993 shows a sharp decline in numbers when compared to 1989-1992. 

It is possibly because of competition or IR not signing up smaller projects.

However, they weren't down too bad as one would have imagined. Personally, I wasn't listening much to TFM those days (because of busy family schedule) and thus missed many hit albums and wrongly thought that there was a "huge drop" in IR's market. That was actually not the case at all.
While 84 is a smaller number compared to the previous 4 years, it is perhaps similar to the average of the "most famous 80's" actually

So, IR was still ruling the charts / hot in the market in 1993, despite the arrival of "puyal" and others.

Your work is highly appreciated.

IR's quality of music never declined; quantity just came down between the (very short) period 1996-1998, but he still had the BEST albums in the country, even during those 3 years.

Whatever happened in those times was just a misconception because of various reasons: 

1. Advent of the Cable Television

2. Top-10 madness across TV channels - Channels playing those numbers repeatedly so people were made to "remember" those songs of others.  Like some school kids mugging up their lessons to get them by-heart just to clear the exams, repeated listening of anything makes people adhere to those for a "short span" of time.  They will eventually forget about it in the long run.

3. "Bollywood" mania - Other channels (that also became part of every household even in South India) like Star, Zee, Sony, MTV and Channel-V were also playing Bollywood songs.  

4. "Indie Pop" craze.  Those above-mentioned channels were also featuring these songs frequently.  So people were caught in a never-ending maze of QUANTITY.  There was so much to take in.  That is too much to process for an average human mind, and hence IR (for them all) became just "one amongst those run-of-the-mill musicians".

5. Some big directors shifting their loyalty thinking music means wherever the "market" thrives 

6. Too many of them jumping in, to get their share of the pie a.k.a. booming cassette sale and glamor of the showbiz industry

7. People made to believe / believed that the top-most songs: ones that were made to play the most (so-called chartbusters) are the ones by top-most composers as well.

         So, just like, even a handful of precious priceless diamonds (IR compositions) are NO MATCH to a vast landfill, IR's songs fell like diamonds in there, owing to non-stop dumping!  

Even IR's 1993 Symphony was made into a hush-hush story!  Whereas Arr signing up for his first Hindi/Bollywood movie was "big news"!!  Some crazy people were already comparing both, mindlessly.

Sadly, that is how things were.  Unfortunately, people were/still are so gullible that they will believe only in what is being fed to them and they will believe only in what they CHOOSE to believe, irrespective of what the actuality and reality are.

But, the wizardry of IR is BEYOND such trivial things.

So, he kept on proving that those minor impediments were just "passing clouds" and that he is the Sun which never bothered about any amount of cloudy days/fog/haze/storms (all of which are merely TEMPORARY) and kept on/keeps shining to this day.

Remember, phenomenal songs like "Thendral vandhu theendum bodhu" were swept under the carpet.  And even amazing albums like "Hey Ram" were not well-received by the same audience.  They did have their own "small" time in that period, but it took more than a decade and a half for those pieces of music to have their fair due of appreciation.

Nice observations, BC!

Now that the stats speak loud and clear, there's a personal satisfaction that the original conviction about conspiracies (and not performance issues) got ratified

Moving on to 1994, the first album on the list is "ANazhagan" and it needs a poll - me not familiar with this when it arrived!
(In recent years, heard " nillAtha veNNilA" and love that song!)

nillAtha veNNilA nillu nillu yen kAdhali	ilaiyaRaaja / Swarnalatha
AchchA pAchchA Asai vanthAchchA	Mano / K.S.Chithra
aruL kaN pArvai kidaikkAthO	K.S.Chithra
yelE machchi parakkum patchchi	Mano / Chorus
kaNNE indRu kalyANa kathai kELadi	Mano / Swarnalatha / Chorus
konjum puRA intha kOdai nilA	Mano / S.Janaki
poochoodum punnai vanamE [mangai ivaL angathilE]	Umaramanan / Swarnalatha / Chorus
vettai vittu thuraththi vittA sAmiyO sAmy	Mano / Chorus

Yele machi and Kanne indru were moderate hits (ones that got slots on Radio and TV channels).

Album Jukebox on IR-O:

Adding one song from that album for a Prasanth starrer...

#1685 kaNNE inRu kalyANakkathai kELadi (SL-Mano duet, ANazhagan)
Very sweet song, SL's voice is of course gold! Only this song appears to have some popularity from this album (ordinary quality RajsMed video got close to a million hits, definitely not for visuals but for IR

Moving on to the next album, adharmam, that needs a poll as well.

muththu maNi muththu maNi	S.P.Balasubramaniam / S.Janaki
thendRal kARRE ondRAi pOvOmA	Mano
nooRu vayasu vAzha vENum yen maharAsA	Shanmugasundari
dharman yendRa [nooRu vayasu vAzha vENum] [Pathos]	ilaiyaRaaja
indhiran pOlE chandran pOlE [thakathOm thAna thanthOm]	S.P.Balasubramaniam / S.Janaki / Chorus
vambukAra pAtti pAtthi	K.S.Chithra / Shanmugasundari
oru pakkam oru gnayam [Bit]	ilaiyaRaaja / Chorus

Muthu mani and Thakathom were superhits.  Thendral kaatre was a moderate hit.

Album Jukebox on IR-O:


Some songs are missing up there.  So, here is the full jukebox on Mio: https://mio.to/album/Adharmam+%281994%29

Adding the "muthu maNi" song to the hit list, the one most TN-ers confirm  I love the "thagathOm" misra nadai number very much (covered in the #IR_misrA thread), however!

#1686 muthumaNi muthumaNi (SJ-SPB duet, adharmam)
Though I wasn't introduced to this number when arrived, somehow it came to me prior to the IR-SPB thread activities  It used to play regularly in the car and became a personal favorite!

Moving on to the next album - athiradi padai - with that lovely "veNNilavil malligaiyil" !

yammAdi dhool dhool pArty	Chorus
yennAchu adi yennAchu	S.P.Balasubramaniam / S.Janaki
senthAzham poovin poovE	K.S.Chithra
kattazhagu pAppA hoiyArE hoiyA	S.P.Balasubramaniam / S.Janaki
jinjikkA jinjikkA pOdu	Mano / K.S.Chithra / Chorus
veNNilavil malligaiyil viLaiyadum	S.P.Balasubramaniam / K.S.Chithra
jAngurE jAngurE	S.P.Balasubramaniam / S.Janaki

Only one song gets added from athiradi padai as the album didn't reach masses that well

#1687 veNNilavil malligaiyil (KSC-SPB duet, athiradi padai)
What a lovely song! Of course, a personal fav. However, even this song appeared to have reached masses who watched TV for midnight masAlA songs only it seems. What a pity for such a nicely crafted song!

Adding poll for the next album, honest rAj

iLuththu pOththinAl padukka viduvanA	Mano / S.Janaki
kAtturEn kAtturEn ithai pAththukO pAththukO	S.P.Balasubramaniam
vAnil vidiveLLi minnidum minnidum nEram	Mano / S.Janaki
katti pudikkattumA metteduthu padikkattumA	S.Janaki
day by day yenna mARRam	Vijaya Thomas

The song Ada jaangure was a hit number in Adhiradippadai movie.

Album on IR-O:


In the movie Honest Raj, Vaanil vidiveLLi was a superhit.  The rest, except Day by day, were moderate hits.

Album Jukebox on IR-O:

Looks like honest rAj was a big hit (going by the IRF responses I got on twitter)...

Adding 4 songs from that album :

#1688 izhuththu pOththinAl (SJ-Mano duet, honest rAj)
Yet another bedroom song for SJ and she does it effortlessly - surprisingly without any mukkal munagals in this 

#1689 kAttuREn kAttuREn (SPB solo, honest rAj)
Fast paced song, got introduced to this only recently and I'm not a fan of it

#1690 vAnil vidiveLLi (SJ-Mano duet, honest rAj)
What a lovely number this one is! Thoroughly enjoyable & in inimitable Ilayaraja style!

#1691 katti pudikkattumA (SJ solo, honest rAj)
OK, there is a mukkal munagal SJ song anyways in this album, for account!

Moving on to the next album, kaNmaNi, which will need a poll :

lussilE J busilE	Mano / S.Janaki / Chorus
nERRu vantha kARRu	ilaiyaRaaja / S.Janaki
madisAru pudavai katti	Mano / K.S.Chithra / Chorus
Oh yen dEva dhEviyE	S.P.Balasubramaniam / Swarnalatha / Lekha
udal thazhuva thazhuva nazhuvi pOguthE	Mano / Minmini
Asai idhayam viriyum viriyum	Malaysia Vasudevan / S.Janaki
sariyAna paruppu podi sAmbArai pArungadi	K.S.Chithra / Chorus