Songbooks

Long before a song was familiar, it could be bought folded into a few small pages. The Hindi-film songbook was cheap, portable and made to be handled. It sat on stalls near cinemas and markets, travelled home in pockets and was passed between friends. For a reader today, it is one of the clearest records of how a song was first presented to its public.

What a booklet holds

Booklets vary a great deal, but most are built from the same few parts. Reporting on the National Film Archive of India’s 2016 acquisition of songbooks described booklets that combine song words, credits, a short version of the story, artwork, and advertisements for films that had not yet been released (The Indian Express).

• The cover. Colour, a central image and the film title, often lettered by hand. It is the part designed to be noticed from a distance.
• The song list. An order of songs, sometimes with the names of singers beside each title. It turns a soundtrack into something you can point to and talk about.
• The credits. Music director, lyricist, singers and production names set in smaller type. They separate the making of a melody from the writing of its words.
• The story page. A compressed synopsis that sets the scene without giving everything away.
• The advertisements. Space sold or given to forthcoming attractions, so one printed promise makes room for another.

Reading a booklet, not reprinting it

Booklets often printed song words in full. We do not. This site is not a lyrics library and hosts no recordings. When we discuss a booklet, we look at its design, structure and credits, and quote only a short passage when the discussion needs it and the law allows it.

The booklet drawings on this site are original schematics. They show how the parts of a booklet relate to one another. They are not photographs of real items and do not stand in for any particular film.

Questions we ask of a songbook

• Which part of the cover is meant to be seen first, and why?
• How does the song list order the music, and who is named beside each title?
• Where do the credits sit, and how large is each name?
• What else shares the fold, and what does that tell us about the stall where it was sold?

Sources and further reading

The Film Heritage Foundation describes non-film archive material as including posters, lobby cards, song booklets, magazines and photographs (overview of the foundation’s work). An archive listing shows that an item exists. It does not give permission to reproduce it, so any historical image we show will carry its source, creator, date and licence.