Goodbye to composer Snaffu Rigor

Snaffu Rigor would have celebrated his 70th birthday last Aug. 8. We all know now that the well-loved musician did not make it to the event. So while his friends were dedicating to him one last gig at the Hard Rock Café, Snaffu was elsewhere. But given how much he loved music and performing, I am sure he was headlining his own show in heaven and maybe enjoying the fact that he is once again singing his duet with the departed Yolly Samson in the Cinderella recording of Bato Sa Buhangin.

That is Snaffu’s voice you hear in the Manila Sound classic: “Kay hirap unawain, bawat damdamin/ pangakong magmahal hanggang libing/ Sa langit may tagpuan din/ at duon hihintayin/ itong bato sa buhangin.” He also wrote those lyrics.

Showbiz lore has it that the great and also late Fernando Poe Jr. was in search of a very special theme song for his movie team-up with Vilma Santos, a tragic May-December love story titled Bato Sa Buhangin. We all know how picky FPJ could be about his movie theme songs and he also had a very good ear for hits.

The would-be National Artist Ernani Cuenco had a melody and FPJ got the idea to do it in the then very popular Manila Sound style. The group Cinderella with girl soloist Yolly was recruited for the job and Snaffu who earlier had given the band its first big hit T.L. Ako Sa ‘yo, was assigned to do the lyrics. The movie was a huge success at the box-office and the theme song is to this day an enduring example of great Filipino songwriting.

Snaffu was born in Abra of imaginative parents who named him Roberto Nicholas Rigor but in the next breath gave him the strange nickname of Snaffu. If I remember right, Snaffu means mistake, a miscalculation, but this Snaffu was no mistake in any sense, except maybe when his parents thought he was, because he prepared making music to going to school at the University of the Philippines.

Back in the ’60s era when every boy just had to be in a combo, Snaffu, then at a very young age, was already playing the drums for some of the biggest bands in the country. In fact, in his over 50 years in the music business, he had worked with, hold your breath now:

 The Drastics, The Deltas, Orly Ilacad and the Ramrods, Cinderella, the Backdoor Band, Blackbuster, Bedroom Boys, Adlibt St. Retro, Stars of the 60s and the 70s Superband. He mostly played drums and other percussion instruments but was also a very good soul vocalist and when the situation required it, a natural comedian.

All these are aside from the studio work as producer and arranger that later took up most of his time. As artist and repertoire manager at Vicor Music Corp. during the ’70s, Snaffu had a hand in the production of recordings by some of the biggest names in Philippine music. It was also during this time that he discovered his talent for songwriting. 

Among his most memorable works are Heto Na Naman for Gary Valenciano; Boy I Love You for Cherie Gil; Macho Guwapito for Rico J. Puno; Mr. Dreamboy for Sheryl Cruz; Gusto Kita for Gino Padilla; There’s No Other Way, the English version of Araw-araw, Gabi-gabi, that competed at the Tokyo Music Festival with Celeste Legaspi as interpreter; and Larawang Kupas for Jerome Abalos, which was recently put to very good use in the JaDine team-up movie, This Time. Then there was Bulag, Pipi, Bingi.

 Given the prestige that the competition carried, the prize money and the chance to compete in a music festival abroad, it was the dream then of every songwriter to win at the Metropop Music Festival. The first one yielded a champion song with Kay Ganda Ng Ating Musika by Ryan Cayabyab and discovered a new star in the person of Freddie Aguilar. Freddie was then recording for Vicor where Snaffu was working. He asked Freddie to sing his song.

Bulag, Pipi, Bingi was a simple, folksy tune but the lyrics carried a very strong message about being blind, dumb and deaf in this world. “Di nalalayo sa ‘yo ang tunay na mundo/ marami sa ami’y nabubuhay nang tulad mo/ di makita, di marinig, minsa’y nauutal/ patungo sa hinahangad na buhay na banal.”

Bulag, Pipi, Bingi won the Grand Prix at the Metropop and a few months later did the same at the Seoul Music Festival. The song is just what those who know him best would expect from Snaffu. He was a very spiritual rocker with a kind heart who saw the best in everybody.

Snaffu died last Thursday, Aug. 4, from complications of cancer of the lungs. He is survived by his wife Ana and their four children.