The Essential Gary Granada Collection

This album deserves a booklet so buyers can know more about the artist, or at the very least, a lyric sheet for them to better appreciate the amazing gift of words and melody that landed on Gary Granada. As it is, the box of the three-CD collection is made to look like the old tampipi, has a few production credits and a list of the songs with their respective downloading number for ringbacks and what looks like copyright registration numbers.

Copyright and downloading are now two very important words in the music business. Downloads, hopefully by music buyers are expected to take over the place once occupied by physical products. You know CDs, LPs, tapes or whatever form. Copyright is how writers and owners make their claim to a song, either as a composition or in its published version, as in print, on disc, live performance, etc. But businesswise, ownership only matters a lot if the song is saleable. Like how will you get a lot of downloads if nobody likes your product. So in the end, no matter how technology has progressed, the bottom line is still the song. And Granada has a lot going for him in this area.

Granada comes from a fishing family in Davao del Norte. He studied engineering at the University of the Philippines but ended up a singer and songwriter. Blame his father who taught him how to play the guitar and to sing while still a kid. Blame, too, the church choirs where he honed these skills. But while we may have lost a good engineer, what we got instead is an artist whose body of work will be celebrated for generations to come.

So while I do not understand the inadequate documentation that is in the box, I still commend Polyeast Records for coming up with The Essential Gary Granada Collection. There have been several Granada compilations in the past but this is the first one to include nearly all his works and these are very good. Come to think of it, where is his love song Sulat? Okay, why complain when I can get to listen to Saranggola Sa Ulan, Pag-ibig Lang and the ultimate loser song Mabuti Pa Sila in one album.

The collection is a three-disc set of 59 songs written and performed by Granada with guest artists. This is an album that you really have to sit down and carefully listen to. This is because although Granada composes pretty melodies that range from light lullabyes, Ang Aking Kubo to soaring anthems,Tagumpay Nating Lahat, the real enjoyment of his songs stem from the way he uses words. His lyrics are simple, casual conversational Filipino but they always pack a punch, Kahit Konti. It is in the way he creates phrases and how he finds poetry in both the mundane, Basurero Ng Luneta and universally relevant issues, Alay Mo, Buhay Ko.

He can be funny but filled with pathos, Babadap-badap; a chronicler of the times, Pag Nananalo Ang Ginebra by a spirited Bayang Barrios; sarcastic, Holdap; deeply religious, Dakilang Maylikha. He can also sing. Check out his version of Restie Umali’s beautiful Saan Ka Man Naroroon and of the Visayan standard Usahay. You also get a sample of his two pop operas, Ultimo Adios from Rizal and UP Naming Mahal, the version used in Granada’s musical Lean of the University of the Philippines anthem composed by the great Nicanor Abelardo.

Granada is one case of me regretting that the songs are in Filipino and will not be appreciated by foreigners. Too bad for them. But very good for us who can listen to these songs again and again and still enjoy them every time. 

OPM Greatest Hits

For those interested in other gift-boxed CD collections by Filipino artists, now also available are Greatest Hits albums by Rico Puno and Zsa Zsa Padilla. Aside from being all digitally remastered, what is interesting about these two releases is the fact that they contain new materials, Rico sings Granada’s Mabuti Pa Sila or in Zsa Zsa’s case includes the best of recordings from various labels. This means that if you want Rico’s Mabuti then you have no choice but to get this compilation or this is the first time ever that Zsa Zsa’s Kahit Na, her first recording with Jem comes with her hits from the later years.

Rico’s Greatest Hits also has other rarities like the kundimans Dahil Sa ‘Yo, Minamahal Kita, Buhat and Dating Tagpuan (Sa Lumang Simbahan), his own version of Sana Dalawa Ang Puso Ko and foreign standards like Didn’t We, Superstar and Try To Remember plus the Rico banner songs like Kapalaran, The Way We Were, Ang Tao’y Marupok, Macho Gwapito, Damdamin and others.

Zsa Zsa’s Greatest Hits has her landmark songs, Mambobola, Ikaw Lamang, her original recording of Sana’y Maghintay Ang Walang Hanggan from her first album, movie themes, Hiram, Kapag Puso’y Sinugatan and her famous covers, We’re All Alone, Feelings, Through The Years, Bridge Over Troubled Waters, Stuck On You and others.