Tamil Songs of Evergreen 80’s

Melodious voice of S Janaki resonated through every nook and corner and became inseparable part of Tamil cinema of 80’s era…!

Love songs, Sad songs, Semi classical numbers, motherly lullabies, romantic duets, Sensuous & sizzling songs, folk, western -> what not every genre was explored in her expressive vocals by music directors. It was a period when Ilayaraja, Shankar Ganesh were at peaks of their respective careers and MS Viswanathan was still churning out hits. Other composers like Chandrabose, T Rajendar, Shyam, Hamsalekha, Devendran, Raveendran etc.. also occupy a permanent place in annals of Tamil film music, mainly because of their popular melodies during this period. Songs of Janaki were extremely popular in the music direction of the genius composers. If for some she was the most sought out singer, she sang rare gems for others. Rare or regular, her presence was very much felt and her renditions enhanced beauty of their compositions..

Directors like Bharatiraja and K Bagyaraj introduced new heroines to Tamil cinema during this period and it was Janaki who would be singing their first songs almost always to give a kick start to their careers with super hit songs! In fact, she became a regular voice for Gen-X heroines of those days. Her voice suited like a second skin and her melodies became career best hits for Sridevi, Radha, Ambika, Radhika, Suhasini, Bhanupriya, Nadiya, Revathi and others in their Tamil film career during this period.

Her duets with S P Balasubrahmanyam, Malaysia Vasudevan, K J Yesduas, Jayachandran (Same order in terms of number of songs) were regularly played in radios and continue to enthral us in new generation Jukeboxes and podcasts!

Listing here her solos, chorus backed songs and duets from evergreen eighties of Tamil cinema.

PS: This in no way is a complete list of her 80’s Tamil songs but the best that could be provided from memory and different sources in internet and available cassettes/cds/LP records. This list will be constantly updated with newer discoveries from the treasure of her melodies..