Dear Heart, other songs that define the Sha-Gab magic
I do not know if he was aware of how far the team-up would go then. Maybe it was just another job he had to do. But composer George Canseco was one of those who planted the seeds of love in Sharon Cuneta and Gabby Concepcion and got the tandem off to a romantic start.
How did he do it? By writing a song. Come to think of it, it was not just the love team he got going, it was also Sharon herself to big time stardom.
Way back in the late ‘70s, George was the go-to guy for movie theme songs. Think Kapantay ay Langit, Kastilyong Buhangin, Dito Ba? and others. He had already given the young Sharon of Mr. DJ fame, a movie theme to sing, High School. It sold very well.
Then he wrote another one he wanted her to do. Langis at Tubig. He knew that her vocals could pull it off but it was for a movie about bigamy, which might not suit her teeny bopper image.
Thankfully, Vic del Rosario Jr. of Vicor, with whom Sharon was under contract allowed her to do it. The movie starred Vilma Santos, Dindo Fernando and Amy Austria and was shown during the annual Metro Manila Film Festival (MMFF). It was a success. So was the theme song. Sharon had another hit.
Not only that, Sharon so impressed the film’s director Danny Zialcita that he decided to make a movie about young romance with her as the star. He had a strong feeling that the 16-year-old would make a good actress. Besides given the crowds of fans following her around, the picture would surely kill at the box office.
With Vicor’s and that of Sharon’s father Mayor Pablo Cuneta of Pasay in the bag, Danny came up with title, Dear Heart. Also very much inspired George wrote his prettiest melody for the theme song. There was just one problem, they had no leading man.
The hot young heartthrobs of the time — Alfie Anido, William Martinez and Albert Martinez — were in a way already spoken for with their own love teams. To solve the problem, a radio contest was held wherein fans voted for who should be Sharon’s leading man. And the winner was Gabby Concepcion.
Despite her earlier pronouncement of “Not Gabby Concepcion,” the Sharon-Gabby pairing on screen was electric. Dear Heart opened on July 24, 1981 and killed at the box office. The song became a huge hit and so did their version of Come What May, which was recorded to help promote the movie. Apologies to original artists Herb Alpert and Lani Hall, but here abouts Come What May is ever and always the Sharon-Gabby duet.
Dear Heart was followed by P.S. I Love You and My Only Love and Dapat Ka Bang Mahalin, also with George theme songs performed by Sharon. The pairing had also turned real. It was a dream come true for their fans, although tumultuous in real life with break-ups, reconciliations, recriminations, tears on Sharon’s part and hopefully happy moments with all the other accoutrements of difficult relationships.
George composed a promise of forever love in Sa Hirap at Ginhawa, but not that nor the media-frenzied wedding in 1984 that made it to the foreign papers or the birth of daughter Kristina Cassandra or KC could hold the marriage together.
So much has already happened since then. George and Danny have long ago departed for the great beyond. Sharon and Gabby are married to others. But the magic remains strong. This is why a Dear Heart Concert is happening on Oct. 27 at the MOA. Fans are excited about the event, hopeful that hearing the old songs live would rekindle in their hearts how they felt about Sharon and Gabby 42 years ago.
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