List of songs recorded by Rajkumar

Dr. Rajkumar has sung approximately 300 songs in movies and an excess of 400 devotional (non-film) songs in Kannada. Rajkumar trained in classical music when he was with Gubbi Veeranna's theatre troupe. The track Om Namaha Shivaya from the 1956 film Ohileshwara, which he also starred in, was his first song for a film. He subsequently sang "Thumbithu Manava", a duet with S. Janaki, for the movie Mahishasura Mardini (1959). However, he became a full-fledged singer only in 1974 when he sang in place of P. B. Sreenivas for Sampathige Savaal, who had till then sung for most songs picturized on Rajkumar, fell ill. Rajkumar sang the energetic Yaare Koogadali for the film which became widely popular during the time and is considered one of his best songs.^[1]

Rajkumar has been credited for having sung across various genres and each rendition according to the mood of the scene in the film. In "Yaaru Tiliyaru Ninna" for Babruvahana (1977), a prosodic form of Kannada poetry that required the tone to be a combination of sarcasm and anger, he blended the twin skills of theatrics and music.^[2] For Nee Nanna Gellalare (1981), he sang two songs—"Jeeva Hoovagide" and "Anuraga Enaytu"—beginning both with the refrain "I love you", that is full of Carnatic gamakas. After the same tone in the refrain, they take on a life of their own with the form according to love and happiness in the former and love but a discord in the latter. He is known widely for his rendition of "Nadamaya" for Jeevana Chaitra (1992), a song based on the raga of Todi and with complex graces and strings other ragas as it progresses. He switches ragas with ease, and sings complex swara patterns like a professional classical artiste.^[3] For the rendition, he was awarded the National Film Award for Best Male Playback Singer.^[4]