Ninety-year-old playback legend Manna Dey was Wednesday conferred with the Dadasaheb Phalke award, the highest honour in Indian cinema, by President Pratibha Patil to a standing ovation at the 55th National Film Awards ceremony here.

Born as Prabodh Chandra Dey May 1, 1919, to Purna Chandra and Mahamaya Dey, the singer was a name to reckon with in the Hindi film industry from the 1950s to the 1970s. He has recorded more than 3, 500 songs over the course of his career.

He started his career in playback singing with the movie "Tamanna" in 1943. The song was an instant hit and later he sang a solo, "Upar Gagan Vishal", in the 1950 movie "Mashal".

His all-time hits include "Ae mere pyaare watan", "Zindagi kaisi hai paheli", "Sur na saje kya ga-oon main", "Na to karawan ki talash hai na to humsafar ki talash hain", "Puchho na kaise maine rain bitayee", "Laga chunari main daag", "Aaja sanam madhur chandani mein hum", "Dil ka haal sune dilwala", "Ye raat bhigi bhigi, ye masta fijzayen", "Jhanak jhanak tori baaje payaliya", "Tu pyar ka saagar hai", "Chunari sambhal gori udi chali jaye re" and "Ay meri Zohara".

He also teamed up with Kishore Kumar for hit numbers like "Yeh dosti hum nahin todenge" ("Sholay") and "Ek chatur naar" ("Padosan").

How can one forget "Yaari hai imaan mera yaar meri zindagi" from the film "Zanjeer"? He also sang for the Bengali film industry, sometimes teaming up with Hemant Kumar.

He sang a duet "Ke prothom kachhe esechi" with Lata Mangeshkar for the Bengali movie "Sankhyabela".