Monday, October 16, 2006 You are the one, its oddysey By Jenara Regis Newman
SOME songs are born and sometimes, no matter how beautiful, die a natural death in dead air…that is, they don’t get the exposure needed to insure a longer shelf life.
“You Are The One,” has taken about a decade to reach its current popularity. It was composed by computer whiz Anthony “Tonton” Feliciano in 1996, shortly after he was challenged to learn how to play the keyboards because he was recruited by the youth arm of Bukas Loob sa Diyos to be the keyboardist. He learned to play “oido” (that is, “by ear”) and gradually learned by himself to read notes and to play even classical music. He also started to compose music, “You Are The One” being among his first compositions.
He formed a band, Serendipity, in 1999 and as he tells it, “I rearranged it for the band, put out the band’s album in 2000. We had a show and Randy Santiago was there with his brothers Raymart and Jun. After we performed, he got on the stage, approached me and said they wanted a copy of the album. I gave him one and the brothers left for Manila and I did not think about it.
A year later, he called me up asking if he could use the song for Manila. And I said, “Sure, no problem.” They recorded it in their band and put it out under Star Records and they put out another CD. It was like a friendly thing. I didn’t pay much attention and since it was under Star Records, ABS-CBN which is Star’s parent company, started putting it in the soundtrack of a telenovela “Lovers in Paris.”
“I actually met Raymart and Claudine in Manila maybe in 2003 or 4. This year, they decided to use the song again for their pre-wedding special on ABS-CBN. Right after that, Star Records called me up to say they are going to use it for a movie.” It’s the movie title song. “You are the One” starring Toni Gonzaga and Sam Milby. How far the song will go - perhaps to become a classic? – only time will tell.
Tonton had another song in a movie soundtrack, that’s “Para sa Iyo” in the much acclaimed “Crying Ladies.” So where does this musical genius go from here? Right now, he’s on top of his job as a musical director in Bigfoot. On a personal level he continues to compose songs about once a week. For this, he needs no inspiration, just a lot of discipline.
And one day, he said he would like to record some of these songs, each one by a nationally known recording artist of his choice. The reason? Manila is still the place to go for music here in the Philippines. It is where the TV stations are based, where movie producers are. And if you don’t want your songs to die in dead air, they need to be heard nationally on television, in movies. For Tonton, this dream is a reality easily to be reached. Wait for it!
