Grandson number two is now 13 weeks old. He is proof that we sprouted a new branch in our family tree; and our tree is growing strong and robust. I cannot believe how the years have flown by, but I am reminded of that by the music I listen to. Listening to music is like revisiting the past. It brings a string of good times that still keep the heart well nourished, and the spirit jumping with joy. However, you can’t avoid music that makes you puffy-eyed with tears. One crooner called it “those somebody-done-somebody-wrong” songs but since they are old hurts, they’ve lost their sting. You can flick it like lint off a jacket, look back with nostalgia and call them your days of wine and roses without the hangover.
Randomly, they are:
• Distant Shores by Chad and Jeremy — They sang about the stirrings of young love although the lyrics referred to “songs of tomorrow from yesterday.” At that time, I was only beginning to make sweet memories and I picked a special someone and went “steady” with him. We sealed that pact by exchanging rings. I wore his big, oxidized school ring with a synthetic colored stone on my middle finger. Since my finger was too tiny, I had to melt candle wax in order for it to fit. Aha! It was the most beautiful ring in my possession.
• Honey Don’t by Carl Perkins — Its crispy tone of the dancing guitar can’t keep anyone still. We just had to get up and dance but if no one had asked, it was so frustrating to have to trace the steps while glued to your chair. You felt on top of the world when your dancing partner lavished you with praises, “I like the way you wear your clothes…everything about you is so doggone sweet.”
• Mon coeur s’ouvre a ta voix (My heart opens itself to your voice) — Composed by Camille Saint Saens, a popular aria from the opera Samson and Delilah. My favorite is the version sang by soprano Maria Callas. She always sang from the heart and the more broken it was, the more mesmerizing her voice.
• The Beatles Ballads — Do You Want to Know a Secret, And I Love Her, Till There was You, She’s Leaving Home, In My Life, and many others. These songs moved puppy love to something more enchanting with an added promise of bright tomorrows. Of course, there was more to life than the Beatles and thank goodness, we survived the scars of Yesterday.
• Cause I Love Her by Laurindo Almeida — He is a guitar maestro from Brazil. The other bossa nova master was Antonio Carlos Jobim. Even without lyrics, the tender melody would lead you to wax poetic and sing it to the one you love. Music always finds the words that are etched in your heart.
• You’re Sensational — Sung by Frank Sinatra to an incredibly elegant Grace Kelly whom he called the “the fair Miss Frigidaire” meaning she was beautiful but aloof and frosty. “You need a proper squire to fire your heart,” sang Sinatra. The witty lyrics and Sinatra’s singing style were carefree and smooth.
• Meglio Stasera (Italian) — It’s a rumba sung by Fran Jeffries, who must have been born dancing on her crib. The bonus is the inimitably clumsy but hilariously crazy Peter Sellers as Inspector Clouseau in the hit movie Pantera cor de Rosa (The Pink Panther). Italy was so romanticized that I wanted to be reincarnated as an Italian princess.
• Rainy Days and Mondays by the Carpenters — I tucked this long-playing album in my arm when I bade adieu to my roommates in Washington DC. The song made me ambivalent. Should I stay or should I embark on a new life, turning the page to a new chapter? I chose a new chapter and thus celebrated a momentous event as a bride.
• Singing in the Rain by Gene Kelly — I’d love to see anyone dancing, singing and giddy with love and celebrating nature at its wettest, with clouds ready to burst for a downpour of good wishes. Shoes soaking wet, why not?
• It’s Impossible by Perry Como — He is known as the man with the velvet voice. In the album cover, Como looked beyond the horizon unmindful of a couple sitting on a rock and enjoying the rush of the shore on their feet. “Should you ask me for the world, somehow I’d get it, I would sell my very soul and not regret it.” In the 1970s, no one minded the exaggerated words. Love in exchange for your soul? No way.
• Can’t Take My Eyes Off You by Frankie Vallie and the Four Seasons — The all-time hit in the 1960s, singing about young endearing love. Every girl was called “Baby” and she was raised on a pedestal, “too good to be true,” he swoons. The Broadway musical Jersey Boys was based on this group and Baby Boomers packed the theater singing and dancing to their hearts’ content.
• Barcarolle from Tales of Hoffmann — Composed by French composer Jacques Offenbach. The timeless music hasn’t lost its magic no matter how many times this opera was performed. When you listen to the string section of the orchestra filling the hall with music, you’d instinctively sway your head humming the tune. Smiling with your eyes shut close will enhance the pleasure.
• Rock with You by Michael Jackson — This was the infectious song and dance rock with rhythm to match. Michael sang, “Close your eyes, let that rhythm get into you, relax your mind, feel that beat and we can ride the boogie share the beat of love….” His face was still untouched by anything artificial and chemical. He was pure energy and all that was good about it.
• The Dying Swan — Composed by French composer Camille Saint-Saens and performed on stage by Russian prima ballerina, Natalia Makarova. I swear when I saw her arms rippling like they’ve turned liquid on stage and the violin played of wretched pain, I gripped my chest heavy with sympathy for her final act of love.
• Misty sung by Johnny Mathis — This was down memory lane big time for me. It expressed that limp, powerless feeling of surrendering to love, a thousand violins playing just because she walked his way? How can you not fall in love again? The poor guy had lost his compass, couldn’t tell his right foot from his left; he had gone mad and so had we.
• Legata a un Granello di Sabbia, (Tied up to a Grain of Sand) by Nico Fidenco — The melody was very catchy and it was the “in” thing to play while holding hands with that special someone even if you’re far from the beach and the sea.
• Native New Yorker by the Odyssey — Awww, the heart and soul of Nu Yok. You were smart, independent, free spirited, equal rights advocate, unhurt by the many trials imposed by love, so you were out of the shadows searching for a soulmate. New York was the hip place to make a bevy of memories for the young (and reckless?).
• Try to Remember by Harry Belafonte — It was autumn at its best, with leaves majestic in the color of pumpkin and plenty. Remember the fire of September that made you mellow? No more arrogance, no more hubris, just content to follow your bliss through the cold December years.
• How to Handle a Woman by Richard Harris as King Arthur of Camelot — It was his soliloquy to Queen Guinevere. The best way to handle a woman is not through flattery, threat or intimidation. “Simply love her,” he sang. And old chap, by Joe, ‘tis true.
• Ave Maria by composer Schubert — For the Lady who sits next to me and prays with me, who holds my hand and has never stopped being my spokes-lady, my champion. I look at her as the mistress of our home and I know she will never tire keeping me in her bosom.
• What Are you Doing the Rest of Your Life? composed by Michel Legrand and sung by Frank Sinatra and Barbra Streisand — I am amazed at how poetic inspired hearts become when speaking of everlasting and permanent love. Remember how fired-up emotions are when love was young and intense? It’s more uplifting when the years had not diminished any of that warm, cozy feeling for each other.
• A Mi Manera (My Way) and Bamboleo by the Gypsy Kings — These musicians hail from France with parents coming from gitanos of the Spanish Romani lineage. Their music is so captivating, bringing rumba flamenca to worldwide audiences. When I caught them performing at the Wolf Trap Center in Virginia, the crowd was so hyped up that everybody stood and danced throughout the entire performance. It made me exclaim, “Why did we pay for seats we never sat on?” Fantastic show.
And not to be forgotten are the OPMs with the captivating and amorous voices of Nora Aunor, Celeste Legaspi, Basil Valdez, APO Hiking, Anthony Castelo, Joe Mari Chan and the late Richard Tann, and composers Constancio de Guzman, Ryan Cayabyab, George Canseco, Levi Celerio.
Songs like Bayan Ko, Minsan Minahal Ay Ako, Kaibigan, Ngayon at Kailanman, Kay Ganda ng Ating Musica and so many more.
The jukebox in my mind plays to my heart’s content.