R. D. Burman

Biography

Rahul Dev Burman was born on June 27, 1939, in Calcutta, Bengal Presidency, British India. He was a composer and actor, known for Sholay (1975), 1942: A Love Story (1994), and Procession of Memories (1973). He was previously married to Asha Bhosle and Rita Patel. He died on January 4, 1994, in Bombay, Maharashtra, India.

Son of Sachin Dev Burman and Meera Dev Burman.

In the song 'O Manjhi Re' from the movie Khushboo (1975), he used soda bottles with water filled at different levels and created a "Phook" sound by blowing into them. This sound was used with the orchestra.

On his own submission, he used to get tunes in his dreams, and on the advice of his father, began getting up as soon as he "dreamt" of a tune and wrote it down. Songs such as "Mera naam Shabbo", and "Kanchi re kacnhi re" had come to him in his sleep.

He was the first to introduce the Brazilian bossa nova rhythm in Hindi film music - the song was "Maar dalega dard-e-jigar", sung by Asha Bhosle, in "Pati Patni".

Trio of Rajesh Khanna - R.D.Burman - Kishore Kumar worked together in 32 films.

His closest friends were Rajesh Khanna, Dev Anand, Gulzar, Kishore Kumar, and Gulshan Bawra.

Bollywood Freaks' song "Last Night Bollywood Saved My Life" sampled an old classic song of his.

The international album "Sacred Sounds" by Lion, the Uncommon Samurai sampled many of Rahul Dev Burman's music scores from films.

2 Kool album Classic Cuts (R. Burman's Hits by 2 Kool) remixed several of his hits. This was in 1996.

A song titled "R. D. Burman" was released in the international album, Ragged Atlas by Cosa Brava. It was done as a tribute to the legend.

ALI THE SON OF ABDUL song BLOOD JOURNAL sampled an old classic song by Rahul Dev Burman.

Iriscience, Malay Sparks & Last Emperor song Copenhagen sampled an old song by Rahul Dev Burman for the album Okayplayer Bollywood Remake - Deleted Scenes.

Talib Kweli's song Rock On from the album Okayplayer Bollywood Remake - Deleted Scenes, sampled an old song by Rahul Dev Burman.

Jay Electronica's song "Dimethyltryptamine" sampled an old song by Rahul Dev Burman.

Beat Gates sampled several of Rahul Dev Burman's songs for their album "Bangarang".

Was best friends with Pete (Ganesh) Gavankar. Pete was the nephew of sound recordist Mangesh Desai. Pete is also the father of actress, singer Janina Gavankar and famous journalist Sonya Gavankar. They use to visit Pancham whenever they visited India and Pancham stayed with them in Chicago when he visited America.

Rahul Dev Burman's Bengali song Mone Pore Ruby Boy was sampled WiseRap X song The London Saga.

Composers Jatin Lalit would often directly lift tunes from lesser known but good tunes of R.D. Burman s musical composition of the 70s for composing songs in the nineties. The interlude and antara of the song Hey Mujhe Dil Dey from Mr. Romeo (1974) composed by Rahul Dev Burman was lifted and made as a song Dil Mein Hai Tu Dhadkan Mein Tu in the 1997 film Paandav. Then the saxophone piece in the song Chahe Raho Door was lifted and pasted in Sason Ko Sason Mein from Hum Tum in 2003.

Rodin sampled an old Burman song for the song "Kamptown".

The public came to know of the RD-Asha wedding only after RD passed away. And that too after his relatives came for Assam and accused Asha of some financial gadbad.

The intro music of Rahul Dev Burman's song "Caminando" from his international album Pantera was later used as inspiration. The intro music of The Cosby Show Season 3, used a similar tune.