Jagjitji’s First Devotional Album
When you say “JS’ first devotional album”, it can be interpreted in a number of ways:
(a) the first devotional album composed/sung by him;
(b) the first devotional album containing all songs sung by him but composed by somebody else; or
(c) the first devotional album which had some songs sung by him besides other singers. Of course, the word “devotional” includes bhajans, shabads, shloks, naats etc.
Here is my information on these:
(a) The first devotional album composed/sung by JS along with Chitra was SAMARPAN, which was released on audio cassette by the ISKCON Temple in 1983 — it contained the songs you’ve listed under KRISHNA but there are some shloks which were edited out of KRISHNA. KRISHNA was later released by CBS in 1983 on LP and cassettes obviously because ISKCON could not market it on a scale that a music company could. It is said that JS fully donated his royalties from this album to ISKCON. When CBS went out of business in the late 1980s or so, they sold their catalogue to PAN Music which also eventually went out of business and sold their catalogue to BMG Crescendo sometime in the early 1990s. (It’s another matter that BMG Crescendo does not exist today).
(b) The first devotional album containing all songs sung by JS (including his duets with another singer) was in the 1970s — these were shabads and shloks released on LP, which RPG published in the CD format some years ago under the name BABA SHEIKH FARID (see link below). On the CD, the female singer is wrongly credited as Chitra Singh — she is actually Neelam Sahni who was also an accomplished ghazal singer in her own right.
http://sikhsangeet.com/albumid462-Jagjit-Singh-Baba-Sheikh-Farid-(Shabads-Shloka…
(c) The first devotional album which had some songs sung by JS besides other singers was again from the 1970s, released on LP, when JS and Chitra sang shabads composed by S. Mohinder. Other singers included the who’s who of the playback world at that time — Lata Mangeshkar, Asha Bhosle, Mohd. Rafi, Manna Dey and Mahendra Kapoor, to name a few. All these shabads were released in the late 1990s by RPG as a 5-CD pack titled 50 GLORIOUS YEARS OF RECORDED SHABADS.
Between (b) and (c), I don’t know which one came first. But both of them were definitely many years before SAMARPAN/KRISHNA of 1983.
PS: Seeing the success of this album, EMI/HMV asked JS to do a bhajan album for them. JS made BHAJAN in 1984 with Chitra, which was also a hit. The resemblance between Chitra’s “Muraliya baaje re jamuna ke teer” and A R Rehman’s composition “O paalanhaare” in LAGAAN is striking.
Here is some information i found on Samarpan.
The Samarpan tape had incredible history since 1983, when the bhajans were first rendered. It was originally recorded for ISKCON’s Golden Avatara tape collection in Mumbai.
It featured Prabhupada pranama mantras, Vaisnava pranama, Radha and Krsna pranam, Panca Tattva pranam, and the harer nama verse for the “sloka” track. The songs featured were
He Govinda He Gopala (Nanak),
Jaya Madhava Madana Murari* (trad.),
Sabse Unchi Prem Sagai* (Surdas),
Raga Puriya Dhansri Kirtan*,
Yasomati Nandana* (Bhaktivinoda Thakura),
Jaya Radha Madhava* (Bhaktivinoda Thakura),
Bhaja Hu Re Mana (Govinda Das Kaviraja),
Raga Bhairavi Kirtan*.
The asterisk(*) songs feature mahamantra.
This is the cover image of the CD available now from Krishnaculture.com
Later, in 1993, a music company bought rights to these songs and to give more “all-rounder Hindu appeal”, they cut Prabhupada, Radha, Panca Tattva pranams, as well as many many mahamantras. The songs from the CD originally come from Jagjit and Chitra Singh’s recording for ISKCON (Hare Krishna movement). The unedited version has shlokas glorifying the founder of ISKCON, Srila Prabhupada, prayers to the Vaisnavas, prayers to Radha and Krsna, prayers to Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu and His associates. The “fade” that appears in songs like Jaya Madhava Madana Murari, Sabse Oonchi Prem Sagai, Hare Krishna tracks, Yasomati Nandana, Jaya Radha Madhava, and Bhaja Hu Re mana have more music left or beautifully sung Hare Krishna mahamantras taken out.
An interesting fact on the bhajan Jai Madhav Madan Murari -
A traditional Brajabhasa was introduced in ISKCON in 1975 by Acytuananda Swami through his album “Hindi bhajans.” Ever since then, in small home programs and recordings, “Jaya Madhava Madana Murari” is sung. It is also important to note that this song is actually a Yaman raga song, rather than the misrepresented Asavari song. Many devotees take the Ga of the original Yaman raga and make that Ga into Sa of the Asavari raga. This way, the notes get distorted. There is also a Khamaja version of this song, which was popularized by Jagjit and Chitra Singh through their 1983 album “Samarpan.”
