A.M.Raja's first Tamil film was Samsaram (1951), he sang all the songs. His first Hindi film was Bahut Din Huye, the next year he started singing for Telugu films also.
His first film as a playback singer in Telugu was 'Adarsham'. He was married to the famous playback singer Jikki (G. Krishnaveni).
He has sang about 10,000 songs in different languages and has directed the music for about 100 films. He died in a train accident on April 8th 1989 at Valliur in Tirunelveli District.