Kishore Kumar never took a formal music lesson, and for roughly a decade and a half no male voice in India mattered more. Actor, director, comedian, yodeller, and ultimately the defining playback singer of the 1970s: Kishore is the rare artist whose eccentric legend and actual recorded output are equally oversized. On vinyl, his catalogue offers collectors three distinct hunts.
The turning point pressed in our crates
Collectors of Hindi film music treat 1969 as a hinge: Aradhana made Rajesh Khanna a phenomenon and made Kishore, after years in the industry's second rank, its unquestioned leading voice. Our Odeon first pressing of Do Raaste, from that same golden Rajesh Khanna moment with its Laxmikant Pyarelal score, is the most valuable record in the shop, and Kishore's voice is central to why the era it comes from is so hunted.
The three Kishore hunts
The soundtrack era. From 1969 through the early 1980s, Kishore fronted an astonishing share of the industry's hits, especially with R.D. Burman writing for his range. Original pressings from this run are the core Kishore shelf, and because the era coincided with vinyl's Indian peak, supply exists; clean copies are the challenge.
The anthologies. Collections like our Melodies To Remember, a first-pressing-verified anthology, curate the filmography by mood. As with Rafi and Lata, the anthology is the right first purchase, and the catalogue number separates 1970s originals from the many later represses.
The live albums. The treasure. Kishore on stage was a complete entertainment: songs, mimicry, comedy, the yodel deployed like a special effect. The Live at Los Angeles records in our crates, one of them a verified first pressing, document the touring Kishore of the emigrant-audience era, and they trade at a premium because they capture what studio discipline filtered out, the performer his contemporaries actually described.
Various Artists (Lata Mangeshkar, Mohd. Rafi, Mukesh, Kishore Kumar)
Do Raaste
₹36,000
Kishore Kumar
Live At Los Angeles
₹7,200
Collecting notes
- Pair him with Pancham. The Kishore and R.D. Burman catalogues overlap so heavily that collecting one builds the other; our Burman guide maps that side.
- Check both eras of his voice. The bright 1970s Kishore and the darker, heavier 1980s Kishore are different instruments; anthologies drawn from each sound like different singers. Know which you are buying.
- Live records first when you see them. They surface rarely and sell fast, ours included.
- The comedies are sleeper material. His own zany star vehicles of the 1950s and 60s produced soundtracks that trade cheaply and contain some of his most inventive singing.
The paradox worth collecting
The industry's most untrained voice became its most imitated; the clown became the voice of romantic melancholy. Vinyl is where the paradox resolves, because across a shelf of his records the range stops being a curiosity and becomes the point. Whatever Kishore we currently hold is in the shop, and the first pressings carry their documentation on each listing.
