The Greatest of All Time is the soundtrack album composed by Yuvan Shankar Raja for the 2024 Tamil-language film of the same name, which is directed by Venkat Prabhu and stars Vijay alongside Prashanth, Prabhu Deva, Ajmal Ameer and Mohan.
The album featured four songs, with all of them being previously released as singles. It was planned to be released with the film's audio launch event, before its cancelation. The album was released via T-Series on 3 September 2024, two days before the film's release.
Contents
Background
Yuvan shared a long-standing personal and working relationship with Prabhu; since the latter's directorial debut with Chennai 600028 (2007), he would score all of his films with the exception of Manmadha Leelai (2022) and the unreleased Party, composed by Prabhu's brother Premgi Amaren. Yuvan's only composition for a Vijay-starrer was Pudhiya Geethai (2003). In December 2021, he shared a picture with Vijay on his X (formerly Twitter) account indicating a possible reunion. On 21 May 2023, AGS Entertainment officially announced the film with Prabhu and Yuvan's involvement as the director and musician; This would be his second film with Vijay after two decades. The songs in the film were written by Prabhu's father Gangai Amaran, Madhan Karky, Kabilan Vairamuthu and Vivek. Initially, Arivu was signed to write on song, but was subsequently replaced with Vivek due to reasons unknown.
Production and composition
In September 2023, at the Panacea23 event at SRM Institute of Science and Technology, Chennai, Yuvan revealed about the first single which would be a dappankuthu number. The aforementioned song (later deciphered to be "Whistle Podu") was shot during the first schedule, and it was recorded during late-October 2023, commencing the music production, and vocals performed by Vijay himself.
The number "Chinna Chinna Kangal" was composed by Yuvan in January 2024 at Bangalore. At that time, he wanted the song to be sung by his sister Bhavatharini, but she died from cancer on 25 January 2024. Her vocals were generated via artificial intelligence by the music production company Pitch Innovations. The company's CEO, T. R. Krishna Chetan, recalled that the team assembled the singer's previous recordings at various pitches and styles, for the studio-quality AI model and a pilot version of the song was recorded with Priyanka NK's vocals which was then replaced with Bhavatharini's AI generated vocals. After listening to a snippet of her vocals, Vijay felt emotional and impressed, and agreed to perform the vocals for the male counterpart.
Yuvan commenced recording the film's background score during late-July 2024. Yuvan collaborated with the Budapest Scoring Orchestra for re-recording, where some of the cues had resembled the theme from Mission: Impossible.
Release
Singles
On April 14, celebrating the occasion of Tamil New Year, the first single, "Whistle Podu", was released from the film. Sung by Vijay with lyrics penned by Madhan Karky, its title was perceived by some media as an allusion to the Chennai Super Kings' anthem. The song received a mixed response from fans, although some felt its reception would improve with time.
The second single "Chinna Chinna Kangal" was released on 22 June, coinciding with Vijay's 50th birthday. Prior to its release, the song was leaked to social media pages, which leaded to the makers filling copyright notice to the accounts who were spreading the leaked footage throughout the platforms and officially releasing it earlier on 5:30pm (IST) rather than the initially planned time, 6:00pm. Despite this, the song topped the most-viewed video globally on YouTube in the past 24 hours with 4.5 million views.
The third single, titled "Spark", was released on 3 August. The song received mixed response from audiences.
The fourth single, titled "Matta" was released on 31 August, coinciding Yuvan's birthday.
Cancelled audio launch plans
In May 2024, it was reported that the film's audio launch would take place in Malaysia or Singapore. But an article from The Times of India, revealed that the event would be held in Chennai during mid-August; it further claimed that Vijay would skip the forthcoming event due to his political commitments.
Extended soundtrack
The film also features a couple of additional tracks, the theatrical version of "Whistle Podu," sung by Vijay, Yuvan, Premgi Amaren, and Venkat Prabhu, and "Lonely Lullaby," with lyrics penned by Vignesh Ramakrishna and sung by Haricharan. These tracks were officially released as part of the movie's OST Jukebox Vol. 1, one month after the movie's release on October 4.
Yuvan also remixed "Sorgame Endralum", a classic song originally composed by Ilaiyaraaja for Ooru Vittu Ooru Vanthu. This version features vocals by Ilaiyaraaja, Yuvan Shankar Raja, and S. Janaki and was officially released on October 21, 2024, via Sony Music South's YouTube channel.
Reception
"Whistle Podu" became the most-viewed song in the first 24 hours, amassing 25.5 million views on YouTube. It also topped the global chart on YouTube, becoming the most-watched video in the past 24 hours. By reaching this feat, "Whistle Podu" broke the record set by "Arabic Kuthu" (23.7 million views) from Beast. Additionally, the lyrical video garnered 1 million likes on YouTube, making it the fastest lyrical video to achieve this milestone.
Track listing
Controversy
Following the release of "Whistle Podu", a social activist filed a police complaint at Mylapore Police Station in Chennai to DGP Office, stating that the lyrical video did not feature any disclaimer on drinking or smoking and promotes drug addiction and rowdyism to the youth, demanding an action towards Vijay and ban to the song.