A few months ago, two icons of the Philippine music industry played their final songs and moved on to the bigger stage of life.
The first is Rene Garcia who died of cardiac arrest at age 65 in early September. Along with brother Dennis, Rene founded the band Hotdog in the 70s which paved the way for what has become known as the “Manila Sound”. With Rene as the male lead vocalist, Hotdog came up with many hit songs that captured the interest of Filipino music lovers from the ordinary man on the street to those who belong to the high-class society.
One of the band’s most enduring songs is “Manila” which talks about the joys of living in the capital city of the Philippines. The song has been compared to “New York, New York” and “I Left My Heart in San Francisco”, two equally legendary tunes that tell of the uniqueness of two popular US ciities.
The second Filipino singer is Rico J. Puno, referred to as the “Total Entertainer” of Philippine music who succumbed to heart failure last October. Rico had many hit songs but became largely popular for inserting Filipino lyrics in several US love songs. The most famous of this is his version of “The Way We Were”.
At the onset, Rico made a name for injecting adult humor and the word “baby” in his songs. This earned him several monickers like “Rico Baby”, “Rico J”, and many others. In the latter part of his career, though, he was given the chance to perform songs that carried spiritual and/or inspirational themes. These included “Ang Tao’y Marupok”, “May Bukas Pa”, and “Lupa”.
For all their conttributions in the development and continuing evolution of Filipino music, we say “Encore” and “Thank you” to Rene and Rico.
Let Rene Garcia and Rico J. Puno’s music live on by listening to their songs here:
AKA Music 