Tell Me, 40 years later

You can never put a good song down, more so when listeners through the ages find themselves identifying with its message in whatever time or place, they are in. Just like they do with Tell Me.

The first line of the refrain of Tell Me is one that has been asked and will still be asked by jilted lovers for years and years to come. “Tell me, where did I go wrong, what did I do to make you change your mind completely?”

That was how the then hot young composer and arranger Louie Ocampo was feeling when he discussed with lyricist Alan Ayque the theme of the song they were working on. Ocampo was broken-hearted. For reasons that are said to remain unknown to this day, he was dumped by his young girlfriend and he got no answer to his question of, tell me why?.

The new song was shaping up nicely but Ocampo and Ayque were stumped by the last line. For some reason, they just could not find the words that fit.

That was when Joey Albert came in. The pretty newcomer was assigned the song by her label OctoArts International and to the delight of everybody, she came up with the perfect words for that last line.

“But if this love’s not ours to have, I’ll let it go with your goodbye.”

Now, four decades later here comes Martin Nievera singing his own version of Tell Me. Nievera is the best male interpreter of Ocampo’s music. Think You are My Song, Forever, Ikaw Lang ang Mamahalin, Ikaw and others.

That line not only turned the song into Albert’s first big seller and made her into a star. It also marked the beginning of a romantic relationship between Albert and Ocampo. The pairing resulted in many successful shows and in hit songs like Ikaw Lang ang Mamahalin and Minsan Pa Yakapin Mo Ako with Albert writing the lyrics.

The pairing did not last and Albert and Ocampo came to the point where they themselves thought and maybe said, “But if this love’s not ours to have, I’ll let it go with your goodbye.”

But the song Tell Me stayed on. Now, four decades later here comes Martin Nievera singing his own version. Nievera is the best male interpreter of Ocampo’s music. Think You are My Song, Forever, Ikaw Lang ang Mamahalin, Ikaw and others. But, despite its popularity, he has never recorded Tell Me. So why not now.

Why not indeed. And so, Nievera, who I believe has asked that frustrating first line question of the song, several times in his life, did. The single produced by Marvin Querido and Civ Fontanilla drops online, Feb. 16, today. It sure makes the right epilogue to those whose Valentine’s Day celebr

Tell Me, composed by Louie Ocampo, was part of the English-language powered blitz of Original Pilipino Music (OPM) during the ‘80s. After going Tagalog or that mix of English and Tagalog during the ‘70s that came to be known as the Manila Sound, the younger singers and songwriters gravitated to creating hit songs in English.

ation was not as happy as they thought it should be.

Tell Me was part of the English-language powered blitz of Original Pilipino Music (OPM) during the ‘80s. After going Tagalog or that mix of English and Tagalog during the ‘70s that came to be known as the Manila Sound, the younger singers and songwriters gravitated to creating hit songs in English.

The phenomenal Bagets movie soundtrack birthed Growing Up by Gary Valenciano and Farewell by Raymond Lauchengco. Sharon Cuneta after a few hits in Filipino opted for To Love Again as her next movie theme song.

Nievera himself had Each Day with You. Kuh Ledesma sang Till I Met You. Jam Morales had Even If. There were also Hang On for Valenciano and So It’s You for Lauchengco and Albert followed up Tell Me with A Million Miles Away.

Great songs all and certainly deserving of cover versions. We seem to have given up on enjoying new recordings of hits from the past these past few years. The current preference is for singer/songwriters to do their own new originals. But there is nothing new with liking the oldies, more so when it is somebody like Nievera doing the new version.