In his career, the popularity of Musiri and his name reached every corner of India. His 78 rpm gramophone records were successful to the point that the audience would sometimes demand he sing songs in the exact way as heard on the record. Beginning with the krithi "Nagumomu", everything Musiri recorded were best sellers. Nagumomu was a song that, previous to Musiri, was only sung in the Abheri raga, as India's Trinity composer Tyagaraja is thought to have composed it in Abheri. However, Musiri Subramania Iyer felt that the song sounded more emotional in the Karnataka Devagandhari raga, (a similar but subtly different raga) and he sang and recorded Nagumomu with "Karnataka Devagandhari". Carnatic music is an exacting music that places large importance on tradition. Therefore, Musiri Subramania Iyer's rendition of the song in a different raga than it was originally written caused outrage in many Carnatic musical purists. But Musiri stuck to his decision. Given that Musiri was a devotee of Tyagaraja, taking liberty with Tyagaraja's song was out of freedom of spontaneous expression and not out of irreverence. As a point of fact, Nagumomu sounded so suited to Karnataka Devagandhari raga that everyone began to perform it in the "Musiri Subramania Iyer way", artists such as Bangalore Nagarathnamma, M. S. Subbulakshmi, and Bhanumathi Ramakrishna. Other songs that became popular and became recognizable through Musuri's signature touch were "Enta vetukondu" in Saraswathi Manohari raga, "Enthu daginado" in todi raga, "Tiruvadi caranam" in Kambhoji, "Enraikki shiva" kripai in Mukhari, and "Vritta shenjadai ada", a ragamala.