Barry Manilow: Difference between revisions

Barry Manilow (born Barry Alan Pincus in Brooklyn, New York on June 17 1943) is an American singer and songwriter best known for his hit recordings "I Write The Songs", "Mandy" and "Copacabana (At The Copa)".

Manilow dominated the charts for much of the 1970s with a string of major hit singles and multi-platinum albums. His music has often been considered by many to be "kitsch" or "camp", owing to its difference in style from the majority of the pop or rock charts. Despite the frequent barbs from critics, as well as the lampooning by comedians, he continues to maintain a large fan base, especially among baby-boomer women in his native United States. This is evidenced by the No. 3 debut of his 2002 greatest hits album Ultimate Manilow. In 1990, Rolling Stone proclaimed him "the showman of our generation".

Early life

Manilow was born to humble origins in Brooklyn, New York on June 17, 1943. Shortly after his birth, his father, Harold Pincus (born to a Russian-Jewish father and Irish mother) and his mother Edna Manilow divorced. The young Manilow was then brought up by his mother and grandparents, Russian-Jewish immigrants who had a strong influence on his life. He began singing shortly before his Bar Mitzvah at the age of 13. At this point, he legally changed his surname to his mother's maiden name of Manilow. He took up the accordion, but preferring the piano, he persevered at the tinkling of the ivories, a move which would one day prove to be vital for his future career.

Career

Manilow's record label, Arista, took three years off his announced age when he was really 32 (in 1975) and made him 29 years old so he would appeal to teens; Arista public relations staff announced his birth to be in 1946, eschewing his actual birth year of 1943.

Early in his career, Manilow was a commercial jingle writer/singer, writing the theme for State Farm Insurance, "Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there" and the "Stuck on Band-Aid" song, among many others. Reportedly he also wrote the breakthrough McDonald's ad campaign theme, "You Deserve a Break Today". He then worked as a pianist, producer and arranger, accompanying Bette Midler among others at the Continental Bathhousein New York City.

Manilow's major solo hits include "Mandy" (1974), "Copacabana (At The Copa)" (1978) and I Write The Songs (1975). Several year after its release, Manilow's Copacabana was turned into a stage musical that ran for two years in the West End. The show toured the US in 2000 and 2003. His greatest UK hit was "I Wanna Do It With You" (1982) which reached no. 8 in the UK charts, his only top ten hit there.

Manilow's first album was released by Bell Records, (later known as Arista records) in 1973. The album contained an eclectic mix of piano-driven pop, Big Band remixes, and guitar-driven rock. His second album, which was named Barry Manilow II (Bell/Arista, 1974) contained Manilow's huge breakthrough hit "Mandy." This led to a string of hit singles and albums that lasted through the rest of the 1970s, ending in the early 1980's. While Manilow is known as a songwriter, it is ironic that he did not write "I Write The Songs", which was actually written by Bruce Johnston of The Beach Boys (written about Brian Wilson).

After his landmark Concert at Blenheim Palace in August of 1983, Manilow started to venture into a jazz-driven style, starting with the 1984 album 2:00 AM Paradise Cafe. The album was recorded with jazz greats Sarah Vaughan, Mel Torme and Gerry Mulligan. Manilow would return to the genre in 1987, with the release of Swing Street. The techno-jazz-inspired album contained performances with Dianne Schuur, Phyllis Hyman, Kid Creole and the Coconuts, and Tom Scott.

From 1985 to 1986, Manilow was involved with the pop album Manilow (RCA, 1985), and began a phase of international music, as he performed songs and duets in French, Italian, Portuguese and Japanese, among other languages. The 1980s saw a number of singles released, such as Bermuda Triangle 1981, Let's Hang On 1981, Stay 1982 and Please Don't Be Scared in 1989. The only one of these songs to chart in the U.S. was "Let's Hang On".

In the 1990s, Manilow recorded a succession of "event" albums, guided by Arista's President, Clive Davis. From 1991's Showstoppers, a collection of Broadway tunes, to a big band album, Singin' with the Big Bands (1994), a 1970s collection Summer of '78, (perhaps the weakest effort of his career), the decade ended with Manilow recording a tribute to Frank Sinatra Manilow Sings Sinatra (1998), shortly after Sinatra's death.

Manilow's music connected with a new generation when top British boy band Take That reached number 3 in the UK charts with Could It Be Magic (1992) . Later, Irish boy band Westlife reached number 1 with Mandy (2003), in a version clearly based on Manilow's hit version (differing only in that they omitted the piano introduction and inserted a different fade-out ending).

After the start of the new millennium, Manilow left Arista Records for Concord Records, a jazz-oriented label in California, and started work on the long-anticipated Here at the Mayflower album. The album was another eclectic mix of styles, almost entirely composed and produced by Manilow himself. 2004 saw the release of both a live album, 2 Nights Live! (BMG Strategic Marketing Group, 2004), and a soundtrack album of his musicals Scores (Concord, 2004). Two Christmas albums, many live albums and compilations have rounded out a very large body of music.

Manilow appeared as a guest judge and arranged music for American Idol on April 24, 2004, the year in which he also embarked on his "One Night Live! One Last Time!" final tour. Some fans were unhappy that Manilow charged his fans $1,000 to meet him after the show, but ticket sales were robust, landing Manilow's tour into the Top Ten club for box office grosses in 2004.

Manilow co-wrote, with lyricist Bruce Sussman, a musical, Harmony, which was originally scheduled to preview in Philadelphia in 2003. After financial difficulties and a legal battle, Manilow and Sussman won back the rights to the musical. It is currently unknown when the musical is slated to reach Broadway.

On the heels of his Farewell tour, Manilow opened a standing show in Las Vegas in 2005 at the Las Vegas Hilton, where he will reside in the penthouse where Elvis lived for 8 years (Newsweek/MSNBC).

Manilow has appeared in two movies. He portrayed Tony in a 1985 made-for-television film based on Copacabana (Annette O'Toole was Lola and Joseph Bologna was Rico). He also portrayed himself in the 2002 Kathy Bates-Rupert Everett comedy Unconditional Love, in which Manilow's hit "Can't Smile Without You" plays a key role in the plot. He co-wrote the Broadway-style musical scores for the animated films Oliver & Company (1988), The Pebble and the Penguin (1995) and Thumbelina. Manilow hits have figured prominently in several films such as Foul Play and Serial Mom.

Manilow made an appearance (performing Can't Smile Without You, Mandy, I Write The Songs and songs from his latest album) on the Oprah Winfrey show on April 7, 2005.

Manilow released a new album on January 31, 2006 called The Greatest Songs of the Fifties featuring new recordings of the classic hits from the golden years. The album charted at number 1 in its first week of release, marking the first time a Manilow album debuted at the top of the album chart as well as the first time a Manilow album has reached number 1 in 29 years [1] .

Trivia

• During the 1970's, Manilow dated singer Lorna Luft with whom he still maintains a strong friendship
• Tom Green's character in the film Road Trip is also named Barry Manilow, after the real singer
• There was a reference to Barry Manilow in The Breakfast Club. It is when the character Bender asks the principal, "Does Barry Manilow know you raided his wardrobe?"
• There is also a reference to Barry Manilow in the Canadian movie My life without me. When the daughter says: "There's no such thing as normalcy", the mother replies: "Barry Manilow is normal!"
• In 1980, comic singer Ray Stevens wrote, recorded, and released a Barry Manilow parody, "I Need Your Help, Barry Manilow", sung in a similar way to Manilow's crooning style. Its subject is a man who is in the midst of a series of personal crises and needs some cheering up:

I need your help, Barry Manilow

Your songs can really comfort the unlucky

Sing me a song, sing it sad and low

I wish I didn't have to feel so yucky!!!

• In June 2006, the Council of Rockdale, New South Wales, Australia announced that, due to persistent teenagers revving their cars in local car parks, they would pipe Barry Manilow's Greatest Hits into one car park in Brighton-le-Sands as an experiment for six months. Deputy mayor Bill Saravinovski said the decision was taken because the youths were intimidating local people: "They are just hanging out and causing a nuisance to the general public," he told the AFP news agency."Daggy music is one way to make the hoons leave an area, because they can't stand the music," he told Australian newspaper The Daily Telegraph. In 1999, the Warrawong Westfield shopping mall in Wollongong played Bing Crosby hits over and over again to drive away loitering teenagers ^{[1] [2]}

Discography: Albums

• 1973 Barry Manilow (re-mixed and re-released in 1975 as Barry Manilow I) US #28
• 1974 Barry Manilow II US #9
• 1975 Tryin' to Get the Feelin' US #5
• 1976 This One's for You US #6
• 1977 Barry Manilow Live US #1
• 1978 Even Now US #3, UK #12
• 1978 Barry Manilow Greatest Hits US #7, UK #3 (as Manilow Magic - The Best Of Barry Manilow)
• 1979 One Voice US #9, UK #18
• 1980 Barry US #15, UK #5
• 1981 If I Should Love Again US #14, UK #5
• 1982 Barry Live in Britain UK #1
• 1982 Oh Julie US #69
• 1982 Here Comes the Night US #32, UK #7 (as I Wanna Do It With You)
• 1983 Barry Manilow Greatest Hits Vol. II US #30, UK #10 (as A Touch More Magic)
• 1984 2:00 AM Paradise Cafe US #28, UK #40
• 1985 The Manilow Collection / 20 Classic Hits US #100
• 1985 Manilow US #42, UK #40
• 1987 Swing Street US #70
• 1989 Barry Manilow US #64
• 1990 Live on Broadway US #196, UK #19
• 1990 Because It's Christmas US #40
• 1991 Showstoppers US #68
• 1993 Greatest Hits: The Platinum Collection UK #37
• 1994 Singin' with the Big Bands US #59
• 1996 Summer of '78 US #82
• 1998 Manilow Sings Sinatra US #122
• 2001 Here at the Mayflower US #90, UK #18
• 2002 Ultimate Manilow US #3, UK #8
• 2002 A Christmas Gift of Love US #55
• 2004 2 Nights Live! US #27
• 2004 Scores US #47
• 2005 The Essential Barry Manilow
• 2006 The Greatest Songs of the Fifties US #1

Hit Singles

See also

• Best selling music artists

External links

• Official Barry Manilow Website
• Barry Manilow at the Music City DB
• Barry Manilow at IMDb