Paul Williams: I'm Going Back There Someday
Mike Banos
February 15, 2007
The dynamic duo had previously performed at the Waterfront Hotel in Cebu (Feb. 10), Central Bank Auditorium in Davao, and proceeded to the Central Philippines University in Iloilo (Feb.13) from here before concluding his latest visit to the country at the Araneta Coliseum in Cubao, Quezon City on Valentine's Day, Feb. 14.
Some fortunate members of the media met the two at a brief presscon (more an interview) at Bigby’s shortly after they arrived from Davao (by bus!) I’d brought along three of our LPs from the 1970’s for his autograph thinking he’s never coming back here after this, but now I hope, like many of us there, that Paul would be “Going Back Here Someday.” What about it Mr. Renen de Guia?
We didn’t have much time to interview them, what with lunch at 3PM and a sound check immediately afterwards. However, I was fortunate to be able to attend this at the Atrium where he sang Traveling Boy and With One More Look At You/Watch Closely Now (sang by Barbra Streisand in the remake of “A Star is Born”) with his five-man band, two songs which incidentally were not in his final playlist.
My first impression of him was that he’s taller in person than he looks in his movies and concert performances. As advertised by his gracious manager, Sra. Nancy Munoz, Paul really loves to hobnob with his fans and usually spends at least an hour after every performance signing autographs and having his photo taken. Alas, this was not to be the case tonight since the band had been traveling since arriving Saturday and were just plain pooped out and had to catch on their sleep before they left for Iloilo.
Paul started his night’s performance with a bang, rocking the house with a foot-stomping rendition of An Old Fashioned Love Song, which the seminal 70’s rock’n’roll band Three Dog Night brought to No. 4 in the Billboard charts in their 1971 LP “Harmony”.
Having already done Cebu and Davao, he has a pretty good idea what Pinoys wanted, and he followed it up with a much applauded “I Won’t Last A Day Without You”, the 5th and final single from The Carpenters 1972 LP “A Song for You”. It topped out at No. 11 in the US charts and No. 32 in the UK chart and was released by The Carpenters as a single in 1972 when they couldn’t find time to record in-between their live appearances. Paul earlier recorded his own version for his 1972 album Life Goes On. It’s also been covered by a wide variety of artists including Shirley Bassey, Rosemary Clooney, Bobby Darin, Robert Goulet, Maureen McGovern, Diana Ross, Barbra Streisand and Andy Williams.
Riding on the crest of the applause, Paul followed that up with another Carpenters favorite “Rainy Days and Mondays” which he said reminds how much he was missing his family and home in Sunset Beach, California. My wife and I were betting which song he would sing for a finale and her bet was his second song while mine was his fourth, “Evergreen”, also from “A Star is Born” and sang by Barbra Streisand, whom he told me earlier put his words to music on the well-loved staple of every Pinoy Karaoke bar this side of Valentine’s Day. He again rocked the house with another Pinoy favorite, the “Love Boat” theme, where he also did a cameo.
Mr. Williams remarked that he was surprised at the Pinoys’ long memory and musicality, especially on recalling songs that to his knowledge was not that well received back home but are still going strong in the local airwaves 20 or so years after Americans forgot them. One such tune, “Save Me A Dream” was his next song, much to the delight of the audience.
My wife and I, as well as many in the audience I believe, got a little lost with his next two songs, which I believe are newer tunes and Pinoys are not familiar with, much like “I’m Going Back There Someday” which Sra. Nancy said was released by AIX Records in 2005 but was never released in the Philippines. Anyway, the audience was still sufficiently pumped up to accord the artist polite applause for those two unfamiliar tunes. I was trying to get a copy of the playlist after the concert but seems everyone already disappeared in a puff of smoke so that would just have to wait until maybe Boy Gualberto can help us solve the mystery.
I’m not sure how familiar Kagay-anons still are with Phantom of the Paradise, his 1973 film megged by Brian de Palma which is reportedly being considered for a Broadway production, but his next song “Old Souls”, originally sang by Jessica Harper in the movie, brought the audience back to more familiar territory, as did “You and Me Against the World” which Australian warbler and TV Host Helen Reddy brought to the #1 in AC Charts in June 1974, and which featured her daughter Traci in the spoken bookends (pasabot pa, kadto bitaw bata ga sulti sa unahan ug human niya pagkanta, “I Love You, Mommy! Gets?)
His rendition of “We’ve Only Just Began” which began life as a jingle but has since become a classic wedding song, was touchingly dedicated to the late Karen Carpenter, who popularized it in the early 1970s. The Carpenters' version reached #2 to become the duo's second major hit in the fall of 1970, and is considered by Richard Carpenter to be the group's signature song (it has been re-recorded over 100 times by other singers). It was featured on the album Close To You, which became a bestseller, earning Richard and Karen two Grammy Awards.
His first set ended with the much loved The Rainbow Connection, a popular song originally performed by Kermit the Frog in The Muppet Movie in 1979. Kermit's version of reached #25 on the Billboard Hot 100 in November 1979 and remained in the Top 40 for seven weeks. The song was recorded by the original voice of Kermit, Jim Henson, creator of the Muppets.
Being the nice guy that he is, Mr. Williams sang not one but three songs for his encore! As requested by the audience (I also asked him earlier to include it in his playlist), he did “Nice To Be Around” (from the movie “Cinderella Liberty” starring Marsha Mason and James Caan) and My Fair Share, originally sung by Seals & Crofts for the movie One on One starring Robbie Benson and Annette O’toole (which many Pinoys still remember kasi it’s about basketbol man, unsafwa?)
All told, an evening worth it, and we hope to see them back someday. Thank you Boy Gualberto, Renen de Guia, Vince and Janette Abad Santos, for not scrapping the Cagayan de Oro leg of the Great American Songwriters Series. We hope we have more lead time next time so we can tell all our friends about it. I’m sure they’ll all come over to see Paul and Dennis, specially now they’ve been here and people know them better. We’re all just waiting for Mr Williams as of this time to read to us the title of his latest 2-CD album that’s written at the start of this column.
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