Ritchie Street has music from as early as 1940s in Hindi, Tamil

Standing in front of a microphone with headphones on, playback singer T.M. Soundararajan smiles brightly. Next to him is Mohammed Rafi, immersed in his song. P. Susheela stands on the other side, humming one of her hits – the sight of neatly arranged MP3 albums at one of the music stores on the busy Ritchie Street tells a story - that of classics.

Old film songs, from movies made as early as in the 1940s to the ones that came out in the late 1980s, have clearly survived the test of time, if the current demand for those numbers both, in MP3 or CD format is any indication.

Akbar Basha, manager of Super Sound, a showroom, says much of his store's business comes from the sale of classics.

“We have songs from MKT's period till Illayaraja hits. Increasingly, we find younger people asking for these songs,” he says.

The stores have collections grouped according to singers, music directors, actors, lyricists and even themes such as “Sad songs of Sivaji Ganesan.”

The range in Tamil is quite huge, with classics of P.U. Chinnappa, Tiruchi Loganathan, T.R. Mahalingam, P.B. Sreenivas, Sirkazhi Govindarajan, A.M. Raja, Jikki, L.R. Easwari, Vani Jairam and Chandrababu. Music directors such as G. Ramanathan, Viswanathan- Ramamoorthy, Illayaraja and lyricist Kannadasan are among favourites.

A collection of P. Susheela hits with songs such as the lilting lullaby ‘Kaalamidu Kaalamidu…' looks rather irresistible.

Similarly in Hindi, Mohammed Rafi, Kishore Kumar or Mukesh hits have perennial demand, say music store managers. The price ranges from Rs. 40 to Rs. 100.

S. Syed of Metro Electronics says many customers come asking for a particular actor's songs, too. “For instance, some want M.G.R hits or Gemini Ganesan hits. MP3s have up to 150 songs and they are very popular,” he says.

‘Ponnondru kanden' that brings out the contrasting beauty in TMS and PBS' voices, or the particularly catchy ‘Senthamizh thenmozhiyal' of T.R. Mahalingam, or the most mellifluous ‘Mayakkum Maalai' by A.M. Raja and Jikki can be really addictive.

Trends in CDs

It is not only collections in MP3 format that do well. There are a good number of takers for audio CDs as well. Apurv Nagpal, Managing Director of Saregama India, says collections of classics accounts for about 60 to 80 per cent of the company's sales.

“The trend is true in the case of Hindi or Bangla music, too. Even in English music, you see how the music of the Beatles or Elvis Presley is still in great demand. Classics never die,” says Mr. Nagpal.

That is the prevalent sentiment among listeners as well. Lawyer Harishankar Mani has an enviable collection of old Hindi numbers, which is largely music made in the S.D. Burman to R.D. Burman period. “These days, film songs are all sound and little music. I almost stopped listening to film music made after R.D. Burman passed away,” says the die-hard Kishore Kumar and Asha Bhosle fan.

His playlist, he says, is incomplete without the hit Kishore–Lata hit ‘Tere bina zindagi se koi.' Understandably so, for such voices tend to enchant every single time.