Clicking on the following links or images will take you to the Binaca Geetmala song collections of the playback singers covered in this section:
Ameen Sayani is truly a national treasure of India. His mellifluous and supremely engaging voice has charmed radio listeners for decades, starting from the time he created the Binaca Geetmala program on Radio Ceylon in 1952. Beginning in 1954, he introduced a Hindi film song hit parade based on popularity rankings (the first of its kind); this created a sensation with the listeners and the show quickly became the most popular radio program in India. This, despite the fact that the program was broadcast on short-wave radio from Radio Ceylon and the reception was erratic in many parts of India that were far away from Ceylon (now Sri Lanka).
Listening to the Binaca Geetmala weekly program with its countdowns was one of the greatest joys of my childhood and played a huge role in inculcating a love of Hindi film songs in me, which continues to this day. This joy is shared by countless other Indians of my generation, and I hope the song collections listed here will take visitors back to the golden days of yore, when access to quality Hindi songs was limited and broadcast radio was the only medium through which most people could listen to them.
Sadly, most of the original Binaca Geetmala program recordings are no longer available (as far as I know). Fortunately, Ameen Sayani in collaboration with Saragama (formerly HMV) recently created a 50-volume revival of Binaca Geetmala called Geetmala Ki Chhaon Mein which is available only on Saregama’s Carvaan device. Ameen Sayani’s voice in the new collection is as enchanting as ever, along with the added perspective of events that comes with time. The Geetmala Ki Chhaon Mein programs include reviews of the original programs, a lot of history, commentary on various notable Bollywood personalities, and lively excerpts of interviews with nearly all the luminaries of Hindi film music.
The song lists compiled on this website are based on these Geetmala Ki Chhaon Mein programs. Note that there may be some discrepancies versus Binaca Geetmala lists found elsewhere (e.g., hindigeetmala.net), and in such cases I have deferred to Ameen Sayani, who is after all the creator and soul of the program. Also, there are a few songs in the annual countdowns which you will find missing because I did not consider them worthy of inclusion based on my own subjective criteria. Finally, a small number of songs are duplicated, because they made the hit parade in two consecutive years.
In its later years, Binaca Geetmala shifted to the Vividh Bharati Service of All India Radio, but by then the quality of Hindi film music had deteriorated greatly, so those programs are best forgotten. I have chosen not to include any lists beyond 1980 on this website. My lists are grouped into three separate periods: 1954-1960, 1961-1970 and 1971-1980, following the nature of Hindi songs which changed greatly from one period to the other. There is also a complete list of all ranked songs from 1954 to 1980, as well as countdown lists for every year in this range. Enjoy the journey down memory lane!