Prabodh Chandra Dey was born in a Bengali family to Mahamaya and Purna Chandra Dey on 1 May 1919 in Calcutta (Now Kolkata).
He started doing stage shows in school in 1929. He attended Scottish Church Collegiate School and Scottish Church College. He participated in sports events like wrestling and boxing in his college days, taking training from Gobar Guha. He graduated from Vidyasagar College.
In a career spanning over five decades, Dey recorded a total of 3,047 songs, though most primarily in Bengali and Hindi; Dey also sang in 14 other Indian languages, including Bhojpuri, Punjabi, Assamese, Gujarati, Kannada, Malayalam, and Chhattisgarhi.
The Government of India honored him with the Padma Shri in 1971, the Padma Bhushan in 2005, and the Dadasaheb Phalke Award in 2007.
