But David will be with us in spirit. Throughout the season, in fact, he’s very audible because of the Christmas album, his very first, entitled The Eyes of Christmas, which he recorded here (his second, after the pop album Born For You) for MCA-Universal, with an accompanying TV Christmas special to be shown on GMA. Some of the spirit-lifting Christmas songs (Christmas Star, Toyland, My Grown-Up Christmas List and rearranged versions of Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas and the Gary Valenciano original Pasko Na Sinta Ko, among them) you hear on the radio these days are those by David, or didn’t you notice?
Since his Valentine concert at the Folk Arts Theater (with Michael Johnson and Stephen Bishop) in 1998, David has been coming and going, shuttling between L.A. and Manila, as if the two cities are only between Cubao and Quiapo, that he has become virtually a resident, "one of us." It’s in the Philippines, according to David, where he and his wife have made some of their dearest friends (among them Ramon Chuaying, MCA-Universal big boss). David has been here more than a dozen times in the past two years, mostly for work but also for pleasure.
So what made David come up with a Christmas album only now?
"MCA-Universal asked me what I wanted my next album (after Born For You) to be," said David in a phone chat from L.A. (three days after he arrived from Manila). "I didn’t want to do a pop album right away. Then I remembered I had some Christmas songs written over the years that I never recorded. So I told Ramon, ‘I like to do a Christmas album’."
Some of those songs are Christmas is the Time of the Year (composed two years ago with Oscar winner Al Kasha), Somebody Must Be Grinning Down on Me (an expanded version of a song he wrote for a US TV show, converted into a Christmas song "with a wintry feel to it") and Old Home Town (about Christmases he knew way back when and which his father loved so much). The 14-selection album also includes Gary V.’s Pasko Na Sinta Ko which David first sang during his December concert at the Araneta Coliseum last year.
How was he able to identify with the feeling and message of the song?
"At first," said David, "although I was singing it right, I didn’t feel the lyrics. So I asked Chito Ilagan to explain everything to me, word for word, line for line, and I perfectly understood what the song was all about. In effect, my performance got even better. It’s really very good because now I was singing it from the heart, and that’s the version that you hear on the album."
But the album won’t be complete without Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas (from the Judy Garland starrer Meet Me in St. Louis) which happens to be David’s favorite Christmas song. (For the album, David sings it with Ima Castro).
"It’s one of the most beautiful Christmas songs I’ve ever heard, one of the best-written. It always moves me no matter how many times I listen to it. It makes me feel nostalgic and warm. It gives me a beautiful feeling."
His other favorite Christmas song is Silent Night (by Bing Crosby) which David described as "pure and simple."
He added, "That’s why it has lasted for years and years and continues to touch people around the world. It has a perfect melody and it captures the essence of Christmas."
Asked what his favorite Christmas movie is, David named It’s a Wonderful Life, starring Jimmy Stewart, because of its message of hope.
"I love that scene where Jimmy, thinking that things have turned very bad, tries to kill himself by throwing himself into the water. And then an angel comes and fishes him out and shows him what the world will be like without him. At the end, Jimmy runs through the streets, just like what Scrooge does in A Christmas Carol, transformed in spirit and knowing that he’s had a worthwhile life, thankful for his wife and his children and his friends."
A Jewish, David and his relatives spend Christmas just like the way Catholics do – with the family.
"Christmas is a 12-day event. In Jewish, we have an eight-day event called Hanukkah, spent at the same time as Christmas. We have family gatherings, exchange of gifts and meals together. Like Christmas, it’s a celebration of God and the human spirit, a very family-oriented occasion."
And what does Christmas mean to a Jewish like David?
"It’s a state of heart, a state of mind. It’s something I talk about in the song The Eyes of Christmas. It’s an attitude that can be created anytime, not only in December during Christmas. It’s not just a bunch of sentimental hogwash or something nice to say. It should be a year-round attitude and state of mind and heart."
David’s Christmas wish?
"It’s one that I wish not only during Christmas but everyday of the year – that people treat each other well, that people listen to what one another have to say, that people accept one another. And also, that we work together in taking care of the air and our environment and constantly remind factories to stop dumping waste into the water so that our waterways will be again swimmable, so that the air can be clean and breathable again.
Wish your wish will come true, David!