How Many Takes To Record A Song?

hOW Can someone tell.... on an average how many takes Rafi Saab recorded to please the MD’s? In Rafi Saabs era did singers have to record the entire song again when minor error’s occurred e.g. Musicians missing tunes etc.

Co’s nowadays singers record their vocals here and there and then MD’s apply the vocals to their ready made Tracks or tailor their compositions to the vocal's using state of the art technology, adjusting Pitch, Tone, Beat Matching etc.

Evoked... another incident which pertain to the BAAP RE BAAP song. That song is the Asha-Kishore duet PIYA PIYA MERA JIYA PUKAARE....where a mistake occurred during the final recording and the music director did not have the heart or stamina or the stomach to go through full song recording once again since those were not the days of high-tech recording. So what happened? That mistake was covered up nicely and naturally by showing one character (hero Kishore Kumar) putting his hand over the mouth of the heroine's (Chaand Usmani) mouth on the screen (or vice-versa since I don't exactly remember).

Lastly, coming to the MUGHAL-E-AZAM song, PYAAR KIYA TAU DARNA KYA where echo effect was recorded for the line: CHHUP NA SAKEGA ISHQ HAMAAR CHAARO TARAF HAI UN KA NAZAARA... (and chorus) was done in a bathroom, I heard the same thing. To top it, even the recording studios of the era were hardly sound-proof. Naushad Sahaab had related how they used to plug the holes and openings of the studio doors by putting plain cotton to make it sound-proof. Such were the days. Difficult indeed.

The composition Tasveer Teri Dil Mein is indeed difficult to sing because you have to go to a very high pitch AND sing fast. However, seeing Rafi Sahab render many songs requiring even greater vocal acrobatics (Dil Ke Jharoke Mein immediately springs to mind) I don't believe that the song required 18 retakes BECAUSE of Rafi Sahab himself. I have other theories (especially after hearing the song) but nevermind that at all. What an excellent composition by Salil da, a very clever and novel idea, and one of my favorite Rafi - Lata duets.

The duet Deewaney Hai Deewano Ko Na Ghar Chahiye, Lataji due to her unparalleled standards requested takes after takes after takes until she was satisfied.