Ryan Cayabyab makes festive return

Recorded for Telesis Recording and Entertainment Corporation and initially released in 1991, the album has been off the grid for several years. With Viva Music’s recent acquisition of its distributor, Ivory Records, One Christmas is now available on all digital platforms.

One Christmas is Cayabyab’s follow-up to his successful solo album One. The collection of Filipino love songs was the first of its kind and is now considered a true landmark in the local history of recorded music.

One features Cayabyab as the sole performer of all vocals, which he also arranged. He followed the same approach for One Christmas, mixing classic Christmas carols with new compositions for his song lineup.

With Felipe de Leon’s “Pasko Na Naman” as binder music, the album includes old favorites like “Ang Aking Pamasko” by Antonio Velarde and Levi Celerio; “Noche Buena” by National Artists De Leon and Celerio; “Maligayang Pasko at Masaganang Bagong Taon,” better known as “Ang Pasko ay Sumapit” by Vicente Rubi and Celerio; “Himig Pasko” by S.Y. Ramos; and “Payapang Daigdig” also by De Leon.

One Christmas is notable because it marked the first recorded versions of Christmas songs composed by Cayabyab, such as “Heto Na Naman” and “Ano’ng Gagawin Mo Ngayong Pasko,” and his noted collaboration with Jose Javier Reyes, which became a huge Holiday favorite, “Kumukutikutitap.”

Also included in the album are contemporary pop Christmas songs like “Miss Kita Kung Christmas” written by Hermie Uy and Fe M. Ayala, and “Pasko Na Sinta Ko” by Francis Dandan and Aurelio Estanislao.

One Christmas was produced for Telesis by Cayabyab and the late Margot M. Gallardo. It was recorded at Greenhill Sound Productions, with Monching Payumo as the engineer.