His songs ranged from classical numbers to patriotic songs, sad lamentations to highly romantic numbers, qawallis to ghazals and bhajans, and from slow melancholic tunes to fast masti-bhare geet.
He was the voice of Rajendra Kumar and Jeetendra, the tragedy heroes, Dilip Kumar and Bharat Bhushan, and comedian Johny Walker. His voice personified the rebellious image of the star, Shammi Kapoor and also gave expression to smaller and younger heroes like Biswajit and Joy Mukherjee.
Rafi has also sung for singer-actor Kishore Kumar in a few movies like 'Raagini', 'Baaghi Shehzaada', and 'Shararat'.
In 1965, Rafi was honoured by the Indian Government with the Padma Sri award.