Feasting on memories

I think that all recording artists should, even if at least once in their careers, do an album with an annotated line-up of their hit songs. This is so much better than those kilometric thank yous they like to write and which I believe, should not be repeated in every album. But remarks about the songs, no matter how brief, give historians the facts and allow fans to feast on the memories. Of course, it is also always best to have things on record before age or something worse overtakes you.

Muli, made up of original compositions by Ramon Jacinto, could have been just another compilation album. But Ramon or should I say RJ as he is popularly known, took the trouble to write notes about every song. So we listen to the music and we read what he wrote and come up with a better understanding of the sentiments expressed and of how the songs came to be.

RJ’s remarks also provide us with an idea of his story as a musician, dating from his early days with his band, The Riots, Advertising Man, to songs he did for other artists, Don’t Let Go, to compositions written while he was in exile in the US during martial law, Sugat ng Puso, to a love song for his wife, Fran, and other interesting bits.

The other songs are Muli, Hele-hele, Hirap Makatulog, Balikbayan, Bolero, Freedom in the Sun, Matud Nila, One and Only, Bulacan, Sum of It All, Stopped It Just in Time, Makati Avenue and Giliw.

But while RJ has indeed already made his mark as a songwriter, us stubborn Pinoys will still continue to associate him most with the rock and roll hits of the ’50s and ’60s. RJ was only in his early teens when he started performing with his own Ventures style instrumental band, The Riots. He mostly played lead guitar but added the singing later.

His early attempts were mostly imitative. You want the Beach Boys, RJ and his Riots will sound like the Beach Boys. You want Ricky Nelson, RJ will sing like Ricky Nelson. But as the years passed, RJ acquired his own style and this is what we hear now. He maybe doing Elvis Presley or Chuck Berry but the voice will be unmistakably RJ’s and his performances are what we hear in another recently released album, RJ Rock ‘n Roll Classics.

Fans of RJ know all of these songs by heart. They are what gets the joint jumping and are the most requested ones during his shows. Johnny B. Good, Hound Dog, All Shook Up, Jailhouse Rock, Wholatta Shakin’ Goin’ On, Good Golly Miss Molly, Surfin’ USA, California Dreamin’, Party, Jessica, It’s Now or Never, Wonderful Tonight, Don’t Leave Me Now, Sleepwalk, Somewhere in Time, You Don’t Know Me, Can’t Help Falling in Love and That’s All.

But that is not all that we got from RJ last year because there is another album. The Main Man is constantly on a music blitz and seems to be most enthusiastic with the tunes that he and other baby boomers grew up with. The third CD that he released late last year for Warner Music is RJ 100 Greatest and Rarest.

Regular listeners to the RJ 100 radio station are familiar with the way the DJs proudly say that they play the greatest and the rarest. Those words refer of course to the classic recordings of the rock and roll era and those are the 21 cuts that make up this album. All of these are by the original artists and were proclaimed by RJ as among the greatest and the rarest.

Great indeed are: All I Have to Do is Dream by The Everly Brothers; Beyond the Sea by Bobby Darin; I Say a Little Prayer by Aretha Franklin; I Can’t Help Myself by The Four Tops; Build Me Up Buttercup by The Foundations; Love is a Many Splendored Thing by The Four Aces; Mona Lisa by Nat King Cole; Only You by The Platters; Rhythm of the Rain by The Cascades; Happy Together by The Turtles; I’m a Believer by The Monkees; Cherish by The Association; Earth Angel by The Penguins; Love is All Around by The Troggs; Stand by Me by Ben E. King; Save the Last Dance by The Drifters; and others.