Mohammed Rafi, a Punjabi by heritage, was the second eldest of six brothers born to Allah Rakhi and Haji Ali Mohammad in a Punjabi Jat Muslim family. The family hailed from Kotla Sultan Singh, a village located near present-day Majitha in the Amritsar district of Punjab, India. Known by the nickname “Pheeko,” Rafi’s musical journey began by mimicking the chants of a fakir who would roam the streets of his native village. In 1935, Rafi’s father moved to Lahore, where he ran a men’s barbershop in Noor Mohalla, Bhati Gate. It was here that Rafi studied classical music under the guidance of Ustad Abdul Wahid Khan, Pandit Jiwan Lal Mattoo, and Firoze Nizami. At the age of 13, Rafi had his first public performance, singing in Lahore alongside KL Sagal. And yet this singer, having his roots in Punjab, could sing in Bhojpuri like a native. Ab aayi gavanwa kii sari, from a non-film album, is a prime example of that. Songs like Nain lad jaiyen (Gunga Jumna, 1961), Mere pairon mein ghunghroo (Sunghursh, 1968), Sukh ke sab saathi (Gopi, 1970) from Hindi films and songs like Sonwa ke pinjra mein (Ganga Maiyya Tohe Piyari Chadhaibo, 1963), Gorki patarki re (Balam Pardesia, 1979), Jaldi jaldi chal re kahara (Dharti Maiyaa, 1980) from Bhojpuri films are testimony to that. Apart from Bhojpuri, he has also sung in Konkani, Assamese, Odia, Bengali, Marathi, Sindhi, Kannada, Gujarati, Tamil, Telugu, Magahi, Maithili, etc. Apart from Indian languages, he also sang in some foreign languages, including English, Persian, Arabic, Sinhala, Mauritian Creole, and Dutch.
Rafi didn’t just sing for the lead stars. His songs for Johnny Walker are equally famous. He gave it all to lighthearted songs filmed on Johnny Walker, like Jaane kahan mera dil gaya ji (Mr and Mrs 55, 1955) Ae dil hai mushkil jeena yahan (CID, 1956), Sar jo tera sarkaye (Pyaasa, 1957), Suno re bhaiya (Paigham, 1959), Mera yaar bana hai dulha (Chaudhvin Ka Chand, 1960), Suno suno miss Chatterjee (Baharen Phir Bhi Aayengi, 1966) and many more. According to internet sources, Rafi sang 155 for Johnny Walker, 190 songs for Shammi Kapoor, 129 for Shashi Kapoor, 114 for Dharmendra, 100 for Dev Anand and 77 for Dilip Kumar. If Kishore Kumar was the voice of Rajesh Khanna, then Mohammed Rafi can be said to be the voice of Shammi Kapoor, though he sang well for almost all the stars from the 50s to the 80s and has even sung for Kishore Kumar.