The Pinoy’s fascination with sounds David Pomeranz actually began back in the mid-’70s. There was this newcomer called Barry Manilow and he had hits like The Old Songs and Tryin’ To Get The Feeling Again, which were composed by Pomeranz. And it turned out that the young songwriter could sing, too. One proof was his big-selling song If You Walked Away that became such a huge favorite out here. It was even covered by some local artists and remains a radio fixture to this day.
But it was nothing compared to what happened a decade later when Pomeranz’s recordings of King And Queen Of Hearts and Got To Believe In Magic were released. The year was 1982 and the songs were part of the soundtrack of Zapped! The movie was about a high school student with telekinetic powers played by Scott Baio. It was not anything significant, just high school shenanigans with some sci-fi thrown in. In fact, Zapped! has been named one of the worst films of all time. But it found excellent redeeming value in those two songs.
From that time on, King And Queen Of Hearts and Got To Believe In Magic, both written by Charles Fox and Stephen Geyer, became the country’s prom theme songs. Every year since, radio DJs would start playing those tunes once January rolled in and preparations for high school proms got underway. Over 30 years have passed since Zapped! came out. Assorted music trends have come and gone, but kids still dance and I must say also thrill to the sweet sentiments conveyed by those two songs.
Pomeranz did not stop there. Some years later, we saw brides walking down the aisle or doing their wedding dance to the tune of his songs Born For You and On This Day, two heartfelt promises of undying love. It seems like couples, after they fall in love on prom night, they would later get married with this David Pomeranz soundtrack playing in the background. And that is not the end of it because Pomeranz has a new song which is just what wives want to hear from their husbands years after the wedding. It is titled Crazy Beautiful.
Here now is the Pomeranz song to stay in love with. The lyrics written by Billy Dean, goes, “She’s crazy, beautiful/ crazy beautiful/ her comes and goes, her highs, her lows/ those crazy ebony eyes/ she’s awesome wonderful/ I’m one insanely lucky guy/ so blessed that she is walking with me/ through this crazy beautiful life/ anytime, anywhere/ all I want to do is enjoy the view and breathe her air/ crazy beautiful/ crazy beautiful...”
Pomeranz is a compleat musician who plays several musical instruments and composes for films, Homeward Bound, theater, A Tale Of Two Cities, Little Tramp and other projects. But he seems to be at his most popular best with happy love songs. Of course, he is also great with the sad ones. Truth to tell, Tryin’ To Get The Feeling Again must be one of the most painful songs ever written. But in the hearts of many Filipinos, love, the kind that Pomeranz sings about, is always young and eternally sweet.
Crazy Beautiful is part of Pomeranz’s new Greatest Hits collection. Every cut in it, all are love songs by the way, seems to have been made especially for the romantic Pinoy. The album even includes a duet version of If You Walk Away where Pomeranz sings with Sharon Cuneta and his take on the Joey Albert classic Tell Me.
Also included are Born For You, King And Queen Of Hearts, On This Day, The Old Songs, Until I Fall In Love Again, Got To Believe In Magic, Undying Admiration, Trail Of Broken Dreams, an acoustic version of Tryin’ To Get The Feeling Again and the Everly Brothers classic hit from the ’50s, Devoted To You.
John Legend has an Oscar. Glory, the soul artist’s majestic composition with rapper Common and Che “Rhymefest” Smith, was named Best Original Song at the 87th Academy Awards held last Feb. 21 at the Dolby Theater in Los Angeles. The song was used as the theme in the soundtrack of the movie Selma, which was about Martin Luther King and the historic march from Selma to Montgomery in 1965.
This is Legend’s first Oscar win. Glory was also named the Best Original Song at the Golden Globe Awards last January. The other songs nominated for the Academy Award were Everything Is Awesome from The Lego Movie; Grateful from Beyond The Lights; I’m Not Gonna Miss You from Glen Campbell; I’ll Be Me; and Lost Stars from Begin Again.