‘The Lettermen’ experience: Traipsing on the oldies’ memory lane
By Kat Sanchez and Jhellai Sevilla, contributing writers
When we saw “The Lettermen” posters plastered all over the city, we did not pay attention to it. But we cannot help it. The concert had its bounty share of airtime over at our favorite FM station, Sandy 101. (This station makes nice, classy ads).
And then people were buzzing about it. Never mind if they pronounced them “The Letterman”“The Litterman”. or
Living in a concert-starved city can be terrible, and it can get perplexing if you are clueless about “What Lettermen?…What’s with the name?…Where in the world does this groupie originated?”
Too old for us, we guess, and so dismissing any thought of watching a trio show.
January 16, “The Lettermen” did arrive in Cagayan de Oro City and performed at the Atrium, Limketkai Mall. Fifty-nine minutes – okay, that soon! -- before the start of the show, our colleague in CDOKAY came up with a snappy invite. The shock on our faces is but logical, but sensing that this is going to be our first time to watch a concert featuring foreign artists, we were just as snappy in grabbing the opportunity.
And so we learned that The Lettermen first appeared in February 1958 on the marquee of the Desert Inn Hotel Resort, Las Vegas. The group churned out memorable ditties in the 1960’s and eventually established a legendary musical career.
The “oldies” must be filling the venue to the rafters – or so we thought! Surprisingly, we were not the only twentysomethings among the excited spectators. In fact, there were faces that you might slam into in a rock concert. More than many from what we have expected. ‘Out of place’ we were? Not really.
The high-ceilinged Atrium provided good ventilation, but there was a breath of fresh air that is hard to ignore. The Lettermen crooned “The Way You Look Tonight”, and “When I Fall in Love”, -- soft, melodic and romantic ballads. We were sighing -- no wonder the trio was hailed as one of the most romantic singing groups of their time.
And they proved to be formidable romantics when they wowed the audience with their versions of Tagalog classics “Hindi Kita Malilimutan” and “Dahil Sa’Yo”, which to our ‘younger’ ears actually sounded pretty nice – the twangs included.
We have been used to seeing Caucasians roaming around the city (that’s another story worth telling -- or so), but to actually hear three of them named Tony, Mark and Donnaven, obviously possessing suave voices and singing beautiful melodies, is worth the ‘Ketkai trip. Not our usual mall visit, we should say.
Rather naively, it was fun hearing them ecstatic about Filipinos, especially that concerns “laing” dish or “lying” according to Mark, “San Miguel Beer” for Donnaven and hear this…”balot” for Tony. We have to believe them. After all it’s their 7th time to visit our country.
If the older set in the audience had a great time, count us “oldies” by heart. Though their music does really aged like forever but it was unexpectedly beautiful. Theirs are love songs in the truest sense, those that touches the heart. If you were there, we’re sure you’ll be feeling the same way, too.
“Love songs never get out of style”. And we definitely agree. The music of The Lettermen is, in their own way ‘classical’, transcending all generations, cultures and trends.
On that one fine night, we did traipse the oldies’ memory lane. And how we loved the experience. It was not about “old” music really but the overwhelming melody, lyrics and notes approving our joys, filling our longings.
Frankly, we did enjoy the experience. Not bad for the ‘first timers’ in us.
What’s next CDOKAY? We heard you’re sending invitations again.
