Gary Valenciano - Hang On: The Soundtrack of My First Forty Years

Of all Gary Valenciano's hits in the past 25 years, this song, Hang On, his first hit song, is my favorite!  It has actually played a very crucial role in making me enjoy live concerts as a form of relaxation!  In 1986, 99.5RT in Cebu had a radio competition and the DJ asked the listeners to tell him the first hit single of Gary.  I quickly called the radio station and the good thing was I was the first caller!  I quickly answered this song, and voila, I got free tickets to watch Gary in the Sacred Heart gymnasium!  I was very excited by it!  Of course, that show was just the start of the many concerts I've watched since I was in high school.  It does help that this song is also very good and I still love it until now!

Bonnie Raitt - I Can't Make You Love Me: The Soundtrack of My First Forty Years

I was a latecomer to love, never bothering much about it when I was younger.  I guess I just never felt it and that it came when I was already 27 years old did not even help since even at that age, I was still an immature and self-centered person!  No wonder 50% of marriages break up! Especially that these guys marry in their early 20s. 

Anyway, one of the lessons I've learned about love is that you can't make other people love you, even if you love them a lot.  In my case, dialogues like "Matututunan din kitang mahalin" doesn't really work, I guess.  It's either I like you, or I don't like you.  No middle ground.  That's why this song, poignant and sad as the lyrics are, really speak to me.

Heart - These Dreams: The Soundtrack of My First Forty Years

High school was a bit difficult for me since Papa lost his job and Mama had to support us all and she was not always in a good mood.  On days like those, I would just completely shut my mind off and allow this song to play on my mind.  I love the lyrics of this song because they are so vivid and when this song plays, my mind imagines all these things on my mind based on the lyrics. 

Celine Dion - Because You Loved Me: The Soundtrack of My First Forty Years

It was a hot Sunday afternoon in 1996, when I first heard this song, through Rick Dees Top 40.  I was still living in my uncle's house in Cagayan de Oro City since I was working as a medical representative for Rhone-Poulenc.  This song debuted at #40, and as I was listening to the song, I realized that the singer was singing in the past tense.  The lyrics were all beautiful, but poignant, because all of it was in the past tense.  Because of it, I realized then and there, that she was singing about Papa!  Papa died of lung cancer in 1989.  In a way, this song has become his song and everytime it gets played, especially in Lim Ket Kai, I would get teary-eyed and I would have to excuse myself from my friends and rush to the nearest CR.  

Bonnie Raitt - Nick of Time - The Soundtrack of My First Forty Years

My fortieth birthday is nearing already so I thought of coming up with a musical montage of songs which have a lot of meaning to me these past almost forty years of my life.

First on the list is this beautiful song from the Grammy Album of the Year 1990, Bonnie Raitt's Nick of Time.  This song actually encapsulates what it feels to reach a certain mature age, and truly, reaching 40 is that age where you actually lose your youth already and face the age of maturity.  The song's lyrics are very poignant, and I am especially touched by the line, "Life gets mighty precious when there's less of it to waste." 



I first heard this song when I was still in UP, around 19 years old, and I never really thought that I would reach 40!  Now this song has a life of its own and all the issues talked about in the song as relevant to me as it was to Bonnie Raitt's generation.