Hitmakers at the Big Dome

Given the enduring popularity of covers of old songs these days, you can certainly say that the composers of the past can teach today’s kids a thing or two. I’d say a lot more when the writers in question are the ’70s hitmakers Paul Williams and Dennis Lambert. Their names may not instantly ring a bell but mention the titles of their works and you will see ears perk up and memories come flooding in.

Williams made a cute orangutan in Battle for the Planet of the Apes and that is how most people are introduced to him nowadays. They encounter him as the genius ape on video. Then in case you do not know, he also provides the voice for The Penguin in Batman: The Animated Series. Nice work but acting is really only a small part of his showbiz career. Williams is primarily a songwriter who has a catalogue of works that includes some of the most popular songs ever created. Don’t try holding your breath with this list:

We’ve Only Just Begun, Rainy Days And Mondays, I Won’t Last a Day without You, by The Carpenters; Evergreen by Barbra Streisand for the movie A Star is Born; The Rainbow Connection by Kermit the Frog from The Muffet Movie; I Know Him by Heart by Vonda Shepard for Ally McBeal; Stand Back by Joan Osborne for Raising Helen; You and Me Against the World by Helen Reddy; Just an Old-fashioned Love Song by Three Dog Night; What Would They Say by John Travolta from Boy in a Plastic Bubble, Theme to the Love Boat, Let Me be The One and many others.

I do not know of anybody around here, who would recognize Dennis Lambert if he met him on the street. Compared to Williams who appears in the movies and on TV, I’d say that there is nothing about Lambert that makes him an instantly recognizable figure to the public. That is even if he produced one of the most successful albums of all time, Rhinestone Cowboy by Glen Campbell. And it is still Dennis who? when you say that he also did Baby, Come Back by Player, the most cited example of a big-seller for a one hit wonder band.

Take note too of other songs by Lambert: One Tin Soldier (The Legend of Billy Jack), Unpretty by TLC, Do the Freddy, We Build This City, Ain’t No Woman Like the One I’ve Got, Don’t Pull Your Love, Nightshift, Don’t Look Any Further, Dream On by The Righteous Brothers; It Only Takes a Minute and She’s Gone by Tavares; Stormy by Santana; The Moment of Truth by Survivor; Sara by Starship; I Live for Your Love by Natalie Cole; Love Music by Sergio Mendez & Brazil 77; and many others. Lambert is also known as a reluctant pop star because in spite of his own hit recordings of Ashes to Ashes and Of All the Things, he chose to produce and write songs for others.

Pinoys will get the chance to find out how Lambert and Williams too fare as performers when they arrive for a series of shows around the country. Aptly entitled The Great American Songwriters Series, the concert tour kicks off on Feb. 10 at the Cebu Waterfront Hotel in Cebu City. It will also be held at the Central Bank Auditorium in Davao City on Feb. 11; the Limketkai Center Atrium in Cagayan de Oro City, Feb. 12; the Rose Auditorium-Central Philippines University in Iloilo City, Feb. 13; and the Araneta Coliseum in Cubao on Valentine’s Day, Feb. 14.

Tickets to the Araneta show are priced at P3,000, P2,500, P1,500, P800 and P300 and available at Ticketnet outlets at SM Department Stores and at the Araneta Coliseum box-office.

Incidentally, opening the show for Williams and Lambert at the Big Dome will be Faith Cuneta. Cuneta is best known as the singer of themes for Koreanovelas. I do not expect her to sing Pangarap Na Bituin at the Big Dome though. To suit the occasion, she will probably pick up cuts from her new album entitled Faith Begins, the Live Album.

Among these are Come What May, One in a Million You, Unbreak My Heart with Mark Bautista, In My Life, If Ever I Would Leave You with Arthur Manuntag, Sealed with a Kiss, L.O.V.E., No Other Love, What Kind of Fool and If, Am I The Same Girl.