Rey Valera

Recently, Vicor Music Corporation compiled Valera's recorded songs in their library in a 4-disc album entitled, Walang Kapalit, as part of Vicor's 40th anniversary.

Reynaldo Valera Guardiano, better known as Rey Valera (born 4 May 1954), is a Filipino singer, songwriter, music director, film scorer and television host.

He wrote and produced songs that were recorded by various singers, most notably Sharon Cuneta.

Regarded as one of the pillars and icons of Original Pilipino Music (OPM).

He was a judge of the singing contest Sing Galing!.

He was a former head judge of the singing contest segment "Tawag ng Tanghalan" in a variety noontime show It's Showtime.

He is a cousin of former Abra Governor Vicente Valera.

Valera started his recording career in 1977 after becoming a band member from a group called Electric Hair Band for seven years.

He waxed his first single as a solo singer – songwriter with the song "Ako si Superman", which he wrote supposedly for Rico J. Puno.

His former boss at Vicor Records gave him the opportunity to sing his song and at the same time hired him as one of Vicor's in-house producers.

Valera wrote the song "Mr. D.J." and "Kahit Maputi na ang Buhok Ko" for Sharon Cuneta as part of the album DJ's Pet, released in 1978.

Valera also made songs for other artists such as Rico Puno's "Sorry Na, Pwede Ba", "Daigdig Ng Ala-ala"; Geraldine's "Pangako"; Pol Enriquez' "Ayoko na Sa 'Yo" and many more.

While he made songs for his peers, he made albums for himself such as Naaalala Ka, Rey Valera Vol. 2, Walang Kapalit, Hello, The Rey Valera Christmas Album, Gabay Mo Ako, Rey Valera's Greatest Hits Vol. 1, Rey Valera's Greatest Hits Vol. 2, Pirapirasong Ala-ala, Sa Kabila Ng Lahat, Kung Sakaling Iibig Muli, FM Ka, AM Ako, Home Sweet Home, Ang Mahalaga, etc. Most of these albums made golds and platinums.

In 1983, Rey faced one of the worst challenges of both his career, and personal life; an impostor was using his name and was committing crimes, among them were car-napping and rape.

The list even extended to marrying numerous women, and even petty crimes like "borrowing" money and personal items, all under Rey Valera's name.

Rey made numerous newspaper statements announcing that there is an imposter posing as him.

Rey also wrote and released a song entitled, "My Fans Are in Trouble" to warn his fans through the medium of music, with the lyrics depicting his helplessness to stop this impostor.

What Rey feared most was not the money, but the physical harm people the impostor had fooled might do to him.

Ultimately in 1984, Rey decided to quit show business at the peak of his career to protect his fans and also to make up for the time he lost with his family during his fame.

When Rey made a comeback in 1988, he wore his hair long so that his impostor (who had kinky hair), would have a harder time posing as him if the impostor ever resurfaced.

The impostor has never been heard from ever since.

Valera now talks about the impostor topic on less serious, even humorous tone, to help forget the traumatic experience it had caused.

The two have been friends ever since, and in 1992, Sharon paid tribute to her favorite composer when she recorded Sharon Sings Valera.

When Sharon Cuneta and her then husband Gabby Concepcion separated, Rey composed the song, "Kahit Wala Ka Na" (Even When You're Gone).

When Sharon and Rey met at Cinema Audio, she asked why he was not writing songs for her anymore.

Rey replied that he did write one for her and submitted the song to VIVA for it to be an inspiration or a battleground for Sharon.

Both of them found out that the song has been shelved for two years at VIVA.

Sharon immediately recorded the song and used it in her movie, "Single Mother"(former title).

It was retitled to "Kahit Wala Ka Na".

Sharon's biggest blockbuster movies were lifted from popular songs of Rey, thus Sharon singing Valera has been an always-winning chemistry.

Looking back, he even dubbed his impostor "Rey Bolero" (Rey the Deceiver / Smooth Talker) when he talks about it to his friends and interviews, which was also mentioned on the "Na-Scam Ka Na Ba" interview on the Filipino television channel QTV 11 which aired around September 2006.

He was finally inducted to the Philippines Eastwood City Walk of Fame in 2009.

He won the MYX Magna Award 2015 in the recent 2015 MYX Music Awards.

One of his initial projects as a request from Tito Sotto who was the vice president of the Vicor Music Corporation at that time was to make a song for a twelve-year-old mayor's daughter named Sharon Cuneta.

It was a daunting challenge, as Rey initially could not figure out what kind song would be fitting for her; she was too young to be taken seriously to be given a love song, and a bit too old to be given a nursery rhyme.

It dawned upon Rey to write a song about the people who were responsible for playing songs on the radio; the DJs.

Wherever radio station the song would be submitted in, it was almost always guaranteed that it would be played as it was their song.

The song, Mr. DJ, made remarkable sales on the chart.

Sharon stated in a recent interview by Deborah Kan in Star News Asia, that she has been always thankful for and grateful to Rey, for writing her first hit song.

"Mr. DJ".