Blitz review

First I heard the song Superstar, written by Leon Russell and Bonnie Bramlett back when your mother wasn't yet born, was on the radio, fittingly enough, and the voice was Karen Carpenter's.

- JUANIYO ARCELLANA

First I heard the song Superstar, written by Leon Russell and Bonnie Bramlett back when your mother wasn't yet born, was on the radio, fittingly enough, and the voice was Karen Carpenter's. Hers was an unmistakable melancholy, capturing the gist of a heartbroken groupie waiting for the musician with the "sad guitar" to blow into town again.

The theme of the unrequited is of course bread and butter for pop culture, from the Carpenters to the old bullfrog Russell, who after all was co-writer and thus could do anything he wanted with the song within the parameters of poetic license. His inflections and vocal colorings could be an acquired taste, indeed verging on self-parody, then again to paraphrase an old saying, heartbreak has no pride.

Recently the song came again into radio play in our heads if not on Spotify, with the passing of Nora Aunor, the National Artist also known as Superstar. The song was also the title of her primetime TV program of more than 20 years, the one with German "Kuya Germs" Moreno on RPN 9. Aunor also has a version of Superstar and she does more than enough justice to the classic, ranking up there with the OGs.