Of All The Things: A love song for all time

I thought I’d do Eminem’s new hit album Encore this Monday but I remembered that it is Valentine’s Day and I doubt if anybody or let’s just say any Pinoy will ever think of Eminem as romantic let alone have a favorite love song that the rapper recorded. So I switched instead to Dennis Lambert. The guy is no big pop idol and his name I am sure, does not even ring a bell to the present generation. However, Lambert is the man behind Of All the Things. This song has remained a big favorite among Filipinos all these past 30 years and that feat certainly makes him very important.

We are big suckers for love songs and when we find one that many of us like and can relate to, we continue to keep it around season after season. That is what we have been doing with Of All the Things, which was first released in the Philippines in 1972. It created nary a ripple in the US of A but became a very big hit here. To this day, we request radio stations to play it, which is why it has remained in their play lists. We ask singers to do it in their live shows. I do believe that almost every male singer around has at one time or another sang the song. Think Jun Polistico, Basil Valdez, Hajji Alejandro, etc. etc., Anthony Castelo even did a cover version and there must have been several others. Of course, it is now also a favorite in the karaoke joints whenever men want to show off their baritones.

I believe that the massive appeal of Of All the Things centers on the way Lambert and his co-writer Brian Potter were able to say "I love you" in new interesting ways. "Of all the kites I ever flew/ most came tumbling down/ except the one I sent up with you." Nice. Or how about "I would never trade the tears/ the conversation no one hears/ the learning how to walk before we run." And the coup de grace in the final verse, "So in this world of odds and ends/ I’d rather have a part of you/ then all of my so-called friends/ you have taught me how to feel/ what is false and what is real/ of all the things I ever want to do/ I think I’ll start and end with loving you."

Despite its big popularity though, the song has not been available in the stores for many years now. That is, until recently. And I did hear sighs of "finally," when Lambert’s album Bags & Things hit the shops on reissue from Alpha. At long last, fans of Of All the Things can now own a copy of the song on CD. Some still have it on vinyl 33s. I am very sure that this album will sell very well on the strength of just one song, but today’s buyers will be pleasantly surprised about a lot of things that makes it worth every cent they paid.

Bags & Things is actually a well-made album that has stood against the various music trends of three decades. It is easy-listening pop with strong hints of country and folk. Lambert has this expressive, masculine voice that is a good mix of Michael McDonald and Kenny Loggins. And best of all, it has other beautiful songs that many of us doubtless remember like the original versions of Bags and Things, Ashes to Ashes, I Didn’t Sing (In the New York Subway, So Little Time and Somebody Found Her (Before I Lost Her). Lambert and Potter wrote all the songs in the album save for one, Rock and Roll Mood which is by Kenny Loggins and Michael Omartian.

Given an output like Bags & Things, I am sure that all that Lambert needed was a little push and he would have become a big pop star. The guy though got sidetrack by songwriting and record producing where he turned out to be very, very good. Among those that he and his friend Potter took to the top of the hit charts were Rhinestone Cowboy by Glen Campbell, Baby Come Back by Player, One Tin Soldier by Coven, Cameo by Dusty Springfield, Keeper of the Castle by Four Tops and many others.

That is why we never heard from Lambert again. But with Of All the Things, he has already given the romantic Pinoys more than enough.