Barry Manilow
 Barry
Manilow devoted himself to music at an early age, learning to play
the accordion at age seven and later studying at the Juilliard
School of Music. By the late 1960s, he put his musical skills to
work as a musical director for CBS. He also carved out a solid
side career composing advertising jingles for products like Dr.
Pepper, State Farm Insurance, and Band-Aids.
He also sang (but did not compose) the famous You Deserve A
Break Today jingle for McDonald's. These catchy ditties
remained so popular that Manilow performed a medley of them during
his concerts long after achieving fame with his pop songs.
In 1972, Barry Manilow took his first step to pop stardom when
he substituted for another pianist who was backing up a rising
cabaret singer. The singer happened to be Bette
Midler, and the two worked well as a team. Manilow became
Midler's musical director and did the musical arrangements for her
first two albums, The Divine Miss M and Bette Midler.
These ambitious musical outings mixed blues, boogie-woogie,
country and countless other styles in a way that showed off
Manilow's knowledge and skill as a musician.
They also helped Manilow win a record contract of his own. He
enlisted former Archies vocalist Ron
Dante as a producer and recorded his self-titled debut album in
1972. It contained a future favourite in the lush, Chopin-inspired
ballad Could It Be Magic?.
 Manilow's
star really began to rise when he released his cover of an English
pop song called Brandy at the end of 1974. He re-titled
this ballad of lost love Mandy and gave it a heart-rending
performance that gained further power from the stylish production
he and Dante had crafted: starting with a solo piano line, it
swelled into an operatic, emotional tour-de-force driven home by a
swelling string arrangement.
This powerful sound helped Mandy become a US Number 1
hit in early 1975 and established Manilow as a master of
old-fashioned pop balladry. That year, he scored another two hits
with the danceable, harmony-laden pop of It's A Miracle and
a reissue of Could It Be Magic?.
In 1976, Manilow scored another Number 1 hit with a tribute to
music-makers called I Write The Songs. Ironically, he did
not pen this song: former Beach Boys
member Bruce Johnston wrote it as a tribute to Brian Wilson. Later
that year, Manilow scored another Top-10 hit with Tryin' To Get
The Feeling, a tale of lost love that skilfully blended the
rising emotion of Manilow's vocal with a smooth bed of background
harmonies.
He began the next year with another Top-10 classic called Weekend
In New England. This sentimental tale of romantic yearning
brought its poignant, emotional lyric to life with a gorgeous
orchestral backing built on string melodies.
1978 was the biggest year yet for Manilow. He began it by
winning the Favourite Pop Artist honour at the American Music
Awards. In May, he scored one of his biggest hits in Can't
Smile Without You. It remains a sing-along favourite at
Manilow's concerts, where he performs it as a duet with an
audience member.
Later in the year, Manilow adapted his lush pop style to fit a disco
beat on the Top-10 smash Copacabana. This tale of a love
triangle in a gangster nightclub also won Manilow a Grammy Award.
He closed out the year with another Top-20 gem in Ready To Take
A Chance Again. This typically lush Manilow ballad was used in
the hit film Foul Play and earned him an Academy Award
nomination for Best Song.
 Manilow
closed the 1970s with the dreamy Somewhere In the Night and
a gorgeous cover of the Ian Hunter song Ships. As the 1980s
began, he remained a pop chart fixture with hits like the
inspirational-themed I Made It Through The Rain and the
nostalgic The Old Songs.
Despite this continued success, Barry Manilow was ready for a
new challenge. He began pursuing jazz on albums like 2:00 A.M.
Paradise Cafe and Swing Street with legends like Sarah
Vaughan and Gerry Mulligan. These albums won him new respect
from the press and helped him transcend the pop star label to
become a showman for the ages.
In the 1990s, Barry Manilow continued to break new musical
ground by tackling show tunes on Showstoppers and big-band
music on Singin' With The Big Bands. He also penned music
for unused lyrics by classic pop songsmith Johnny Mercer and
transformed his classic Copacabana into a musical for the
London stage.
He remains active today, putting out albums and touring on a
regular basis. As long as people like to hear "the old
songs", there will always be a place for the timeless pop
style of Barry Manilow.
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