Shankar was born in Punjab and got trained under Husnlal Bhagatram.He later settled down in Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh. JaiKishan hails from Panchal, Gujarat. Jaikishan strangely enough was a carpenter before the duo met and paired up. In the beginning of their career they assisted the then-famous Husnlaal-Bhagatraam.

Their career started as music director from Raj Kapoors Barsaat in 1948. From then on , Shankar- Jaikishan have done more than 250 films together.They were then the most successful pair of music directors and probably are the most famous . Such was their passion for music that they were honored with the maximum number (nine) of Filmfare awards in the Indian film industry.

Shankar - Jaikishan made a great impact right since they started. Their tunes range from pure Indian classical based (O Basanti pawan paagal, dil ek mandir hain..) to more westernised tunes (Raat ke hamsafar, sukoo sukoo..). They had a distinct style of music and they used it very well for different stars making the right choice of music and singers. Much of Raj Kapoor's and Shammi Kapoor's success was because of shankar - jaikishan's music. Along with Raj Kapoor they have given us some excellent films which will be cherished forever.

Both Shanker and Jaikishan worked independently of each other.After the initial couple of years Shanker tuned lyricist Shailendra’s songs and Jaikishan tuned Hasrat Jaipuri’s songs only, with very few exceptions, the most noteworthy of which are, Shailendra's ‘Oh basanti pawan pagal’ and ‘Mera naam Raju’ from Jis Desh Mein Ganga Behti Hai and ‘Jeevan ke do rahe par’ from Choti si mulakat tuned by Jaikishan and Hasrat's Jab ishq kahin kho jata hai from Arzoo, ‘Taron se pyare’ from Deewana, ‘Kaise samjhaoon’ from Suraj and ‘Dekha babu ched ka maza’ from Shararat, tuned by Shanker.

They suddenly became the most sought after duo after composing music for Raj Kapoor’s Barsaat in 1948. Songs like ‘Jiya bekaraar hai’ and ‘Barsaat mein humse mile tum’ became a rage. ‘Barsaat’ also became a starting point of the pair’s long and successful association with the R.K. Banner. Superhit music in films like Aah, Aag, and Awara followed in the early fifties. The song ‘Ghar aaya mera pardesi’ went on to become a benchmark in composing and picturising a dream song. The music in R.K. films was outstanding anyway but two films really are in a league of their own, Shree 420 and Sangam. ‘Pyaar hua ikraar hua’ and ‘Ramaiyyaa vasta vaiyya’ from Shree 420 and ‘Dost dost na raha’ and ‘Har dil jo pyaar karega’ were musical masterpieces.

Later on their relationship was not the same as before .Jaikishan took to the bottle and work got neglected . It was Jaikishan’s death that physically separated the duo but towards the end of their careers they were not on talking terms.