Danny Javier was the last to join the Apolinario Mabini Hiking Society — a big singing group of high school students at Ateneo de Manila. He became a member only after he moved from San Beda to Ateneo for college.
Ironically, the group didn't seem to have plans to go professional when it held a farewell gig in 1973 at the Meralco Theater. But a recording of the show made the rounds and gained airplay on a hip radio station, DZRJ. The live album — titled Concert #$%*!? — marked Apo's debut as a professional pop group, with Javier as lead singer.
Javier, who died on 31 October at age 75, had a long, fulfilling career as a performing artist, songwriter for Apo and other artists, and various projects that saw him in full bloom.
The late 70s were pivotal to the validation of his skills and talents. His rich baritone defined two Apo albums, Songwriter (1976) and Pagkatapos ng Palabas (1978), which contained "Love Is for Singing," "Mahirap Magmahal ng Syota ng Iba," "Show Me A Smile," "Pumapatak Ang Ulan," "Hanggang May Pag-ibig," "Lumang Tugtugin," "Bakit ang Babae sa Tagal ng Pagsasama Tila Mas Mahirap Mainitindihan," and "Kaibigan."
While making these two albums, the Apo — Javier, Jim Paredes, and Buboy Garovillo — also had day jobs at JEM Records, the company that produced the albums.
JEM — acronym for owners Jesus and Mafe Ayala — was a small, independent record label whose artist roster, aside from Apo, then included Eddie Munji, Ryan Cayabyab, Hajji Alejandro, Mike Hanopol, Maria Cafra, and Nonoy Zuñiga.
"Danny was in charge of radio promotions at a time when mostly foreign music was played. I guess he needed something to change that," recalled Eddie Boy Escudero, who was also then working at JEM.
As the story went, Javier was toying with names to call JEM's products as a marketing strategy. All the albums featured original songs by Filipino artists.
He ended up with "OPM," short for "Original Pilipino Music."
Said Escudero: "OPM stickers were placed on all of JEM's records. It stuck and the industry followed suit later."
