When I was younger, my Dad listened to a lot of APO songs (which were frankly more pleasing to the ears than his all-time favorite Rey Valera heartbreak melodies). They were probably like the Hale or Sarah Geronimo or Sam Milbys(for lack of a better analogy) of their generation. Though I doubt they had groupies or softdrink commercials during their time, Im pretty sure they surpassed the fame those other musicians gained for them to be made into legends of OPM.

I remember singing APO tunes in front of my Dad's employees during their Christmas party. I have fond memories of watching SangLinggoNAPOSila (?) every afternoon and giggling my way through the corny jokes during the "whats this? kabayong buntis! whats that? kabayong bundat! ano eto? hulaan nyo!" portion of the show. I can still recall that night I saw Mr. Buboy (I dong know how to spell his last name :\) in South Supermarket back in good 'ol Town Center. He had a bottle of wine with him. And being the little fanatic that I was back then, I think he was amused by how I was overtly staring at him. He smiled back at me with his wrinkly face as I thought, "Ay, ang liit pala nya in person." Our high school Oral Productions have made use of classical APO hits like "pumapatak na naman ang ulan sa bubong ng bahay..." with matching colorful umbrellas and tap-dance-filled choreography. Ive stalked Ala Paredes' blogsite, and eventually started visiting Jim Paredes' own homepage. He's now Pinoy Dream Academy's headmaster by the way. I have had no encounters whatsoever with Mr. Danny Javier, except maybe the fact that my Tito looks like him. But thats beside the point.