The Elusive Bollywood 10” Angel Records - The Adventures In Collecting Indian Records

It was in the early 60s that the Gramophone Company of India released the first set of 10” LPs featuring the Soundtrack of Hindi Movies. These records are generally considered to have a very high quality of recordings.

Since the vinyl resurgence, these 10” albums have become the Holy Grail of Hindi Movie record collectors as far as Soundtracks of Hindi Movie is concerned. This is no surprise as the original Angel pressings of 10” and even later in 12" records have marked differences in sound quality compared to later reissues.

The first pressing Odeon or as it is called by a few collectors “Double Ring” or simply “Ring Odeon” is also well respected by collectors for its sound quality.

There were 43, 10” records that were published in the early to mid 60s. There was no mention of any dates in the first few records but all of them are considered to be between 1960 and 65, as some collectors have pointed out.

These were released by GCoI under the Cat No. 3AE/3AE C series. All were either a single movie soundtrack or a combination of soundtracks of two different movies. [Over and above, the 43 records there was one exception in the 3AE series bearing Cat No. 3AE 501 which was a compilation record of Hits of Tamil Movie] The other significant aspect of these records apart from brilliant sound quality was their packaging.

They came with beautiful Cover Art and track listing mostly with short sleeve notes on the backside. The notes contained a short description related to the movie or a brief note about the music directors.

There were translations of the song titles in English in some records, indicating that these were also meant to be enjoyed by listeners across the world who may not be familiar with Hindi.

An interesting example is a classic song from Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam, “Bhanwara Bada Nadan” which was translated as “Oh! How ignorant is the Wasp!”

The record also mentioned a small paragraph on the large landholders (Zemindars) culture of Bengal which was the backdrop of the movie.

The first record in the series was Kohinoor (3AE 1001) with music composed by the legendary music director, Naushad. Though the date of release was not mentioned anywhere in the record or sleeve, it was considered a 1960/61 release.

The first record to mention the year was the combination of Aarti & Shadi (3AE 1020) with music by Roshan and Chitragupta respectively which mentioned the year 1962.

There was only one record, the combination of Nazrana & Ghunghat which had a Cat No 3 AEC rather than the usual 3AE most likely C being added due to the Columbia Record connection for the rights of these movies.

Shankar – Jaikishan, who were the greatest hitmakers of that era contributed to the maximum 16 records among these releases. These included hit soundtracks like Junglee, Rungoli, Humrahi, Aai Milan Ki Bela, Jab Pyar Kisi Se Hota Hai and April Fool among others.

Ravi or Bombay Ravi as he later came to be known as the next most prolific with 5 movies that included memorable titles like Chaudhvin Ka Chand, Gumrah & Door Ki Awaz.

S.D Burman‘s compositions included the evergreen soundtrack of Navketan’s Tere Ghar Ke Samne, the two other being Bandini & Meri Surat Teri Aankhen.

Other popular releases included Phir Wohi Dil Laya Hoon and Ek Musafir Ek Hasina by the “inimitable” O.P. Nayyar, Laxmikant-Pyarelal’s super hit Dosti and a young Kalyan Ji Anand Ji‘s lovely compositions for Chhalia & Dil Bhi Tera Hum Bhi Tere.

Some records are harder to find most likely due to the limited number of pressings and thus considered rare by collectors. Geet Gaya Patharonne and Ek Dil Sau Afsane are just two of the examples of relatively difficult to find Angel 10” though the experience may vary if one is lucky in locating them.

The last 10” published in 1965 was Madan Mohan’s Gazal (3AE 1043). Later the size of the record was switched to 12 “LP records which are still prevalent to this date.

The first Angel 12” pressings are also highly valued among record collectors. Although it is not easy to get these 10” records in good condition always, one can still find them through the used record marketplace.

There are a few private sellers in India also who deal in selling decent copies of these records but that obviously comes at a premium price. The advent of the Record Collectors Community like the Bombay Record Club has also helped collectors in increasing their awareness of these records.

The Recordwala initiative by The Revolver Club is another marketplace where one can look for Angel pressings though the listings can be very occasional for these records.

A word of caution needs to be exercised to check the records carefully and be completely satisfied as there have been cases of Bootleg versions of Angel records under circulation being pressed recently reportedly at European Pressing plants.

List Credit: Discogs

Written by: Sujit Sinha (TRC Community Member)

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