Richard Poon's songbook

From what I have heard in his interviews, Richard Poon is himself surprised over his success as a crooner. What I was surprised about was that he decided to turn crooner five years ago. I first met him as one of the members of the acoustic trio U-Turn. They were quite good and then Richard decided to go solo. But I am not surprised that Richard became a success singing the old standards.

I believe that Richard, a self-taught musician, came along at the right time and fulfilled the need for a Pinoy crooner. We have plenty of balladeers, most of them of the power sort because everybody wants to sing like Martin Nievera. We have the folk pop rockers like Noel Cabangon. But we did not have a crooner until Richard Poon just suddenly happened.

You know the sort, males with debonair manners and nice and easy delivery. Nothing ever over the top. It also helped that Richard is Chinese and Asians now set the standards for good looks worldwide. That is why we have Chinese, Korean and Japanese heartthrobs. It was really quite easy for Richard to fit into this mold.

For a better idea of how things worked so well for Richard, you should get a copy of The Crooner’s Songbook, The Best of Richard Poon. The line -up comes from Richard’s previous releases, his debut album I’ll Take Care Of You, his second For You and his most recent I’ll Be Seeing You. It is in a way a celebration of his enjoyable musical journey.

The album comes as a two-disc set. There are a CD containing his singles and most requested recordings and a DVD with eight of Richard’s best music videos and something that will gladden any aspiring crooner’s heart, the music minus one of all the tracks included. This means that they can now croon whenever they want like Richard.

Included are the standards, All Of Me, Moon River, Blue Moon, Portrait Of My Love, The Way You Look Tonight, L.O.V.E., You And I, That’s All and All The Way. There are the OPM favorites Kahit Maputi Na Ang Buhok Ko, first recorded by Sharon Cuneta and Panalangin and Kumot At Unan by the APO Hiking Society. Current hits like Way Back Into Love from the movie Music and Lyrics and the Avril Lavigne rocker Complicated plus The Last Time, I’ll Take Care Of You and Beautiful As You.

There is one new original track, Kahit Di Mo Napapansin, that Richard himself composed as a theme for the soundtrack of the local version of the Korean TV series My Girl. There are also two duets, Fever with the soul siren Nina and My Eyes Adored You by the bossa nova princess Sitti.

Concerts for a cause: The 70s Superband, which is made up of members of Wadab, VST & Co., Labuyo, Cinderella and Abrakadabra are set to perform in a dinner for a cause at the PWC RSM Events Center in Juna Subdivision in Davao City on Friday, Aug. 31. Proceeds from the show will benefit the Shepherd of Lord of Promises Ministries International Inc. Special guests will be Champ Liu Pio and Saicy Aguila.

The 70s Superband excels in its rendition of hits of the Manila Sound era and old foreign pop favorites. The members of the group are Nonoy Tan and Rey Magtoto of Wadab, Monet Gaskell of VST & Co., Snaffu Rigor of Cinderella, Mon Espia of Labuyo and Jun Mallillin of Abrakadabra.

Musical Moments, a benefit concert for the habagat victims, will be held at the Grand Hall of the University of Santo Tomas Museum also on Friday at 6:30 p.m. Performing will be classical pianist Dingdong Fiel. He has prepared a program of works by Schubert, Chopin, Scaralatti, Debussy and Rachmaninoff. Tickets are priced at P800 each. Call the UST Conservatory of Music at 731-4022.

Fiel was a UST scholar who after graduation took further studies in solo piano and chamber music under Rector Professor Dieter Arens at the Franz Liszt Hochschule Fur Musik in Weimar, Germany. He also studied vocal accompaniment under Prof. Karl Peter Kammerlander. He has done concerts in various countries around Europe and Asia.