Music has no language it relies solely on feelings. I had been to Thrissur, Kerala last week; we hired a cab for site seeing. Our driver Mr. Sabi Cheriyath is a big Yesudas fan…he played only Yesudas songs. We don’t understand Malayali language, but, that hardly mattered. Yesudas’s voice is heavenly, all songs which Sabi played, were superb. No wonder, Yesudas is considered amongst one of the world’s ten greatest singers of all time.

It is said there was no song that Yesudas could not do justice to – be it fast paced numbers, melodies, semi-classicals, pure classicals, Carnatic music, Ghazals, anything. He has sung most of the songs that classify under ‘evergreen classics’ to this day. Malayalis don’t wholly accept the modern music; they respect the classical music even today. Yesudas was fortunate enough to have entered the music scene at a time when some of the best composers existed: he sang for Salil Chowdhary, Raveendran, Devrajan, Johnson, Khayyam and Ravindra Jain and many other leading composers. Most of his songs were heavily based on classical music and his velvety voice literally melted hearts of people. Every song he sang was huge hits. He won all the yearly music awards year after year. As a person, he is humility personified.

I liked his songs from 60s, 70s and 80s – the period when Yesudas was at his professional zenith. This is the time when the most beautiful and melodious songs were composed in Malayalam music and so it’s only natural that people associate him to all those songs that they have grown up loving and holding close to their heart.

We grew up in Pune in one of the housing societies (chawl systems) where our neighbors were Nambiar, Swami, Shashidharan, Pillai, Menon, Panikcker, Iyer, Sheshadris and few more. Our next door neighbors were Menons. Mr. Menon whom we fondly called mama (uncle) had a incredible sense of music; he used to play the LPs of movies such as Chemmeen, Murappennu, Kuppivala, Adimakal, Bhargavi Nilayam etc. We grew up listening to lovely songs most of which were sung by Yesudas. Menon mama used to play the heavenly songs early in the morning at 6 am and they were played till 8 am when he left for his work. I therefore have a kind of subconscious reverence for Yesudas’s voice. As a kid, I have heard older men whistling and singing Yesudas songs in our neighborhood. Hence, after so many years when I heard Yesudas songs I felt nostalgic.     

Yesudas is blessed with a voice which is out of this world; it is in true sense celestial. Our driver Sabi told me that he remains the most-loved Malayali. It is through his voice the Malayalis have loved, celebrated and grieved. And there are thousands of songs of him. He has sung so many great melodies that it is difficult to make a list of even a Top 100. Yes, it is so difficult to choose which songs should go in Top 100 chart.

Playback singer K S Chithra feels that she is lucky because she has been able to sing umpteen songs with legendary singer Yesudas. She considers it as a great musical experience with Yesudas, spanning over four and a half decades. Chitra says that Yesudas follows a strict food regimen and eating habits. All singers should learn from him. She considerers him her role model; it seems Yesudas says that a singer should take care of his body like he takes care of his voice. Our body is God’s gift; we should take care of it.

Kattassery Joseph Yesudas, born 10 January 1940 has turned 80 this year! Yesudas has recorded over 30,000 songs and has won scores of accolades including the coveted Padma Shri (1975), Padma Bhushan (2002), Padma Vibhushan (2017) and eight National Awards for Best Playback Singer. He is the only singer who has been accorded the title Asthana Gayakan (official singer) of Kerala State.

I give here below some of his romantic Malyali songs which I like till date.