Love promises from Raymond Lauchengco

Raymond is a sweet, but strong tenor who can sing anything

It has already been 30 years since he became one of the boys who made up the iconic Bagets. It has also been three decades since he introduced Farewell, the Odette Quesada composition, which became Pinoy’s favorite graduation song, plus So It’s You, Saan Darating Ang Umaga and other hits.  Between that time and now, Raymond Lauchengco had acted in films, TV and the stage, gone into photography and directing, gotten married, had kids and continued to sing the old songs.

His is not the matinee idol dream come true of Aga Muhlach’s or the political roller coaster that became Herbert Bautista’s. But Raymond nowadays is happy and fulfilled and just wants to do more of those things that he is good at.  And those are, act and sing. The acting is iffy, but the singing is always at his disposal and the production of a new album has given him the chance to once more enjoy the music and show off what his voice can do.

Raymond is a sweet, but strong tenor who can pretty much sing anything and he does just that in his album where he takes on different types of songs.  Titled The Promise, the theme is a happy love story.  Here is love, blissful and ecstatic and filled with the promise of lasting forever, while also staying together. Sourcing the materials was not easy, mainly because, what most people consider the most affecting and most enduring melodies are the broken-hearted songs.  Humans love to wallow in heartbreak and the album was not about to do that. Thankfully, Raymond finally found 10 happy, wonderful oldies and these make up The Promise.

The songs are a varied lot.  They span several decades and come from Broadway, from boy bands, from the Manila Sound era and from other sources. But now dressed up in new arrangements by Gino Cruz and unified in tone by Raymond’s singing, they have all been collected together in The Promise. The songs are a happy batch and Raymond, who never sounded better sings each one of them with a smile. 

The Promise is the album to listen to in affirmation of love fulfilled. You can now make that promise of forever again and again through Raymond’s songs. It is also great to listen to if you are among the broken-hearted. What these songs will do is make you want to remember just the happy moments and to make you finally smile at that love that you lost long ago.

Here now are those happy songs. Nothing’s Gonna Change My Love For You originally by George Benson; I’ll Never Break Your Heart by the Backstreet Boys; Can’t Help Falling In Love by Elvis Presley; Can’t Smile Without You by Barry Manilow; Till There Was You popularized by the Beatles; Langit Na Naman from the Hot Dog; Magmula Ngayon, a composition by Wency Cornejo; The Promise by Melissa Manchester; I Swear by All 4 One; and If Ever I Would Leave You, the love theme from the musical Camelot. 

If you want to share this happy loving mood with callers on your mobiles, you can have Raymond greet them with his songs. Simply text RAYMOND to 2910 and you will get the official ringback tone codes of The Promise. You can the

n pick out your favorite and use it as your ringback tone free for five days. Text now. It is only P2.50/sms.

Album topsellers & chart-toppers

Music sales maybe down nowadays but there are still releases that sell more than others.  Here are those titles as per the Astrovision/Astroplus chart from last week: Higher Love by Angeline Quinto; Pop Goes Standards by Paolo Onesa; Got To Believe, the soundtrack of the TV show by Various Artists; Acoustic Noel by Noel Cabangon; Jonalyn Viray by Jonalyn Viray; Djp by Daniel Padilla; XI/2nd Album by Xian Lim; Abra by Abra; Bossa Love by Sitti; and Your Story To Tell by Save Me Hollywood.

Out there on MYX, the music channel, here are the most requested, most viewed music videos from last week in the Pinoy MYX countdown: Tayo by Sarah Geronimo; Anting-Anting by Sponge Cola featuring Gloc-9 & Denise Barbacena; Kiss You by Karylle; Bawal Sa Gamot by Banda ni Kleggy; Paraan by Mayonnaise; Unshakable by Slapshock; Good by Sunday by 6Cyclemind; Sana 2x by Angeline Quinto; How Could An Angel Break My Heart by Charice feat. Alyssa Quijano; Lucky In Love by Paolo Onesa.

Almost Is Never Enough by Sabrina feat. Myk Perez; Ang Parokya by Parokya ni Edgar feat. Gloc-9 and Frank Magalona; Midas by Abra feat. Jaq Dionisio; Ayokong Tumanda by the Itchyworms; New Romancer by Sandwich; Pelikula by Bob; Ikaw Pa Rin by Kaligta; Electrified by MYMP; Di Ko Makontrol by The Moonflowers; and Kailanman by Dennis Trillo.