Barry Who?

I can't tell you how many times I have been asked that when I have started to talk to someone about my favorite recording artist, Barry Manilow. Usually, though, it's followed up within a couple minutes by, "I know that song! Okay, I know who he is now!"

Barry Manilow has often said that his career in music has been a "beautiful accident". He never set out to have the career he has had. He was actually quite content and more comfortable in the background when he began as Bette Midler's accompanist/music director in 1970.

Purely as a means to get some of the songs he had written sold, and at the urging of his friend, Ron Dante, he recorded several demos of his songs. The best he was hoping for was that someone would choose to record some of them. He never expected to get a recording contract of his own, but he did when executives at Bell Records heard his demos and signed him to the label in 1973.

He recorded his first album and within a year, Bell was bought and taken over by Clive Davis, who changed the label's name to Arista. Manilow, who had been working on his sophmore album at the time, was convinced he'd be dropped from the artist roster, but Clive went to see him perform as an opening act for Dionne Warwick and, while he knew Barry still had a lot to learn as a performer, saw real potential and kept him on the label. He also gave Barry a song called "Brandy" to record that he was sure, were it done right, would be a huge hit. He was right. With a name change to and a new arrangement, "Mandy" became the first #1 hit for both Manilow and Arista Records... and the hits continued for a decade. In fact, Manilow has been named the "Top Adult Contemporary Artist of All Time" with no less than 25 consecutive Top 40 hits on the Billboard charts between 1974 and 1983.
In 1984, Manilow decided he'd had enough of the Top 40 rat race and decided to start recording music that really mattered to him and he's pretty much stuck to that ever since. While his absence from the Top 40 charts (he still pops up on the Adult Contemporary charts from time to time) has led many to believe that he has retired or even died, that's simply not true. He has continued to perform and record and is still selling out shows and gold and platinum albums at the age of 66.

In the last five years his career has had a huge resurgence with the popularity of "The Greatest Songs of..." series. The first, "The Greatest Songs of the Fifties", released in 2005, debuted at #1 on the Billboard 200 chart. The subsequent releases (The Greatest Songs of the Sixties, Seventies, and Eighties) have also had high chart debuts on the Billboard 200, as well.

He retired from the road in 2005 and began his tenure as the resident headline artist for the Las Vegas Hilton the same year. He ended his run in December of 2009 and begins a new show in Las Vegas at the Paris on March 5th of this year. If you have never seen him perform live and you happen to be in Las Vegas, go! He is worth the price of admission.

The songs I have selected to showcase are the ones that I have up on a network that I have created for Barry Manilow fans. They start with a selection of songs from his most recent releases and end with the majority of his hits. There are also album tracks and some rare tracks included, but I think they all represent Manilow at his best. I hope you enjoy what you hear. Oh, the first four songs are from his newest cd, "The Greatest Love Songs of All Time" which has it's official release on January 26th.


If you'd like to visit the network, just click on the little link below the player.

Feel free to comment, I always appreciate the input and discussion.