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Barry Manilow (born June 17, 1943) is an American singer-songwriter, musician, arranger, producer, conductor, entertainer, and performer, best known for such recordings as "I Write the Songs", "Mandy", "Weekend in New England" and "Copacabana".
In 1978, five of his albums were on the best-selling charts simultaneously, a feat equaled only by Frank Sinatra, Michael Jackson and Johnny Mathis. He has recorded a string of Billboard hit singles and multi-platinum albums that have resulted in his being named Radio & Records number one Adult Contemporary artist and winning three straight American Music Awards for Favorite Pop/Rock Male Artist. Several well-known entertainers have given Manilow their "stamp of approval," including Sinatra, who was quoted in the 1970s regarding Manilow, "He's next." In 1988, Bob Dylan stopped Manilow at a party, hugged him and said, "Don't stop what you're doing, man. We're all inspired by you." Arsenio Hall cited Manilow as a favorite guest on The Arsenio Hall Show and admonished his audience to respect him for his work..
As well as producing and arranging albums for other artists, such as Bette Midler, Dionne Warwick and Rosemary Clooney, Manilow has written songs for musicals, films, and commercials.
Since February 2005, he has been the headliner at the Las Vegas Hilton, and has performed hundreds of shows.
BiographyBarry was born Barry Alan Pincus in a Jewish family of Russian immigrants, and raised in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn, attending Brooklyn's Eastern District High School
. After his high school graduation, Manilow enrolled at The Juilliard School, while working at CBS to pay his expenses. At CBS in 1964 Manilow met Bro Herrod, a director, who asked him to arrange some public do
Manilow then earned money by working as a pianist, producer, and arranger. He has said of that time that he played piano for anybody: "If the check cleared, I was there."
Manilow also worked as a commercial jingle writer/singer, an activity that continued well into the 1970s. He penned many of the jingles that he performed, including those for Bowlene Toilet Cleaner, State Farm Insurance ("Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there..."), Stridex acne cleanser, and Band-Aid ("I am stuck on Band-Aid, 'cause Band-Aid's stuck on me!" sang a jubilant struggling actor named John Travolta), among others. His singing-only credits include Kentucky Fried Chicken, Pepsi, Jack in the Box, Dr Pepper, and the famed McDonald's "You Deserve a Break Today" campaign. Manilow won two Clio Awards in 1976 for his work for Tab and Band-Aid.
By 1967, Manilow was the musical director for the WCBS-TV series Callback. He next conducted and arranged for Ed Sullivan's production company, arranging a new theme for The Late Show, while still writing, producing, and singing his radio and television jingles. At the same time, he and Jeanne Lucas performed as a duo for a two-season run at New York's Upstairs at the Downstairs club.
Career1970s: SuccessManilow's well-known association with Bette Midler began at the Continental Baths in New York City. He accompanied her and other artists on the piano from 1970 to 1971, and Midler chose Manilow to assist with the production of her first two albums, The Divine Miss M (1972) and Bette Midler (1973), and act as her musical director on the The Divine Miss M tour. Manilow worked with Midler for four years, from 1971 to 1975. In 1974, Bell Records released Manilow's first album, Barry Manilow, which offered an eclectic mix of piano-driven pop and guitar-driven rock music, including a song that Manilow had composed for the 1972 war drama Parades. Among other songs on the album were "Friends," "Cloudburst," and "Could It Be Magic" (the latter's music was based on Frédéric Chopin's Prelude in C Minor, Opus 28, Number 20., and provided Donna Summer with one of her major hits. It was also covered by Take That in the 1990s, as an up-beat disco version of the song. Take That have since performed Manilow's original version in their Beautiful World Tour). Bette Midler permitted Manilow to sing three of the songs from the album during the intermissions in her show.
As a result of a corporate takeover, Bell Records, along with other labels, was merged into a new entity named Arista Records, under the leadership of Clive Davis, who seized the opportunity to drop many artists. However, after seeing Manilow perform as the opening act at a Dionne Warwick concert, he was convinced that he had a winner on his hands; a relationship lasting decades ensued.
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The partnership began to gain traction in 1974, with the release of Manilow's second album, Barry Manilow II, on both Bell and Arista, which contained the breakthrough number-one hit, "Mandy". Manilow had not wanted to record "Mandy," — but the song was included at the insistence of Clive Davis. Following the success of Barry Manilow II, the first Bell Records album release was re-mixed and re-issued on Arista Records as Barry Manilow I. When Manilow went on his first tour, he included in his show "A Very Strange Medley," a sampling of some of the commercial jingles that he had written or sung. Beginning with Manilow's March 22, 1975, appearance on American Bandstand to promote Barry Manilow II (where he sang "Mandy" and "It's A Miracle"), a productive friendship with Dick Clark started. Numerous appearances by Manilow on Clark's productions of ''Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve'', singing his original seasonal favorite "It's Just Another New Year's Eve", American Bandstand anniversary shows, American Music Awards performances and his 1985 television movie Copacabana are among their projects together.
"Mandy" was the start of a string of hit singles and albums that lasted through the rest of the 1970s to the early 1980s, coming from the multi-platinum and multi-hit albums ''Tryin' to Get the Feeling, This One's for You, Even Now and One Voice''. Despite being a solid songwriter in his own right, Manilow has had great success with songs by others. Among the hits which he did not write are "Mandy," "Tryin’ to Get the Feeling Again", "Weekend in New England," "Looks Like We Made It," "Can't Smile Without You" and "Ready to Take a Chance Again." Ironically, one of the songs Manilow did not write was his number one hit "I Write The Songs," written by Bruce Johnston of The Beach Boys. According to album liner notes, Manilow did, however, co-produce them with Ron Dante and arrange them.
Manilow's breakthrough in Britain came with the release of Manilow Magic - The Best Of Barry Manilow, also known as Greatest Hits. On its initial release it was accompanied by a large television advertising campaign, but the album was only available by mail order on the "Teledisc" label. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, ABC aired four variety television specials starring and executive produced by Manilow. The Barry Manilow Special with Penny Marshall as his guest premiered on March 2, 1977 to an audience of 37 million. The breakthrough special was nominated for four Emmys and won in the category of "Outstanding Comedy-Variety or Music Special".[Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, [3], accessed November 8, 2006] The Second Barry Manilow Special in 1978, with Ray Charles as his guest, was also nominated for four Emmys.
Manilow's "Ready To Take a Chance Again" originated in the film Foul Play, while "Copacabana", from his 4th studio album "Even Now", was also featured. "Ready To Take A Chance Again" was nominated that year for the "Best Original Song" Oscar. Copacabana would later take the form of a musical television movie, starring Manilow, and three musical plays. On February 11, 1979, a concert from Manilow's sold-out dates at the Greek Theater in Los Angeles, California was aired on HBO's series Standing Room Only, which was the first pay-television show to seriously challenge network primetime specials in the ratings. From the same tour in 1978, a one-hour special from Manilow's sold out concert at the Royal Albert Hall aired in the UK.
On May 23, 1979, ABC aired The Third Barry Manilow Special, with John Denver as his guest. This special was nominated for two Emmy awards and won for "Outstanding Achievement in Choreography".
1980sThe 1980s gave Manilow the adult contemporary chart-topping hit songs "The Old Songs," "Somewhere Down The Road," "Read 'Em and Weep," and a remake of the 1941 Jule Styne and Frank Loesser standard "I Don't Want to Walk Without You." Manilow continued having high radio airplay throughout the decade. In the UK, Manilow had five sold-out performances at Royal Albert Hall, for which nearly a half million people vied for the 21,500 available seats. In the United States, he sold out Radio City Music Hall in 1984 for 10 nights and set a box-office sales record of nearly $2 million, making him the top draw in the then 52-year history of the Music Hall. In 1980, Manilow's One Voice special, with Dionne Warwick as his guest, was nominated for an Emmy for "Outstanding Achievement in Music Direction".
Also in 1980, a concert from Manilow's sold-out shows at England's Wembley Arena was broadcast while he was on a world tour. Manilow released the self-titled Barry (1980), which was his first album to not reach the top ten in the United States, stopping at #15. The album contained "I Made It Through The Rain" and "Bermuda Triangle." "We Still Have Time" was featured in the 1980 drama Tribute. The album If I Should Love Again followed in 1981, containing "The Old Songs", "Let's Hang On" and "Somewhere Down The Road". This was the first of his own albums that Manilow produced without Ron Dante, who had co-produced all the previous albums. Manilow's sold-out concert at the Pittsburgh Civic Arena in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania was aired nationally on Showtime, and locally on Philadelphia's now-defunct PRISM (a local sports and movie channel). In 1982, a concert from his sold out Royal Albert Hall show was broadcast in England. The live album and video Barry Live in Britain also came from his Royal Albert Hall shows.
On August 27, 1983, Manilow performed a landmark open air concert at Blenheim Palace in Britain. It was the first such event ever held at that venue and was attended by a conservative estimate of 40,000 people. This concert was also taped for airing on Showtime. In December 1983, Manilow was reported to have endowed the music departments at six major universities in the United States and Canada. The endowments were part of a continuing endeavor by Manilow to recognize and encourage new musical talent.
In 1984 Manilow released a collection of original barroom tunes 2:00 AM Paradise Cafe, a jazz/blues album that was recorded in one live take in the studio. In 1984, Showtime aired a documentary of Manilow recording the album with a number of jazz legends, such as Sarah Vaughn and Mel Tormé. In 1984 and 1985, England aired two one-hour concert specials from his National Exhibition Centre (NEC) concerts. In 1985, Manilow left Arista Records for RCA Records. There he released the pop album Manilow, and began a phase of international music, as he performed songs and duets in French, Spanish, Portuguese and Japanese, among other languages. The Manilow album was a complete about face from the Paradise Cafe album, containing a number of tracks that were of a modern uptempo and synthesized quality. In 1985, Japan aired a concert special Manilow did there where he played "Sakura" on the koto.
In his only lead acting role, he portrayed Tony Starr in a 1985 CBS film based on Copacabana which also featured Annette O'Toole as Lola Lamarr and Joseph Bologna as Rico. This was named one of the top TV specials of the year by TV Guide magazine. Manilow penned all the songs for the movie, with lyrics provided by established collaborators Bruce Sussman and Jack Feldman. RCA records also released a soundtrack album of the movie. In October 1986, Manilow, along with Bruce Sussman, Tom Scott, and Charlie Fox went to Washington, D.C. for two days of meetings with legislators, including lunch with then Senator Al Gore (D-TN). They were there to lobby against a copyright bill put forward by local television broadcasters that would mandate songwriter-producer source licensing of theme and incidental music on syndicated television show reruns and would disallow use of the blanket license now in effect. The songwriters said without the blanket license, artists would have to individually negotiate up front with producers, without knowing if a series will be a success. The license now pays according to a per-use formula. Manilow said that such a bill would act as a precedent for broadcasters to get rid of the blanket license entirely.
The following year, McGraw-Hill published his autobiography Sweet Life: Adventures on the Way to Paradise which had taken him about three years to complete. While promoting his autobiography, Manilow defended his music in a telephone interview: "I live in laid-back L.A., but in my heart, I'm an energetic New Yorker and that's what has always come out of my music. I've always been surprised when the critics said I made wimpy little ballads". Manilow returned to Arista Records in 1987 with the release of Swing Street. The album contained a mixture of traditional after-dark and techno jazz. It contained "Brooklyn Blues", an autobiographical song for Manilow, and "Hey Mambo" an uptempo Latin style duet with Kid Creole, produced with the help of Emilio Estefan, Jr., founder of Miami Sound Machine.
In March 1988, CBS aired Manilow's Big Fun on Swing Street special that featured songs and special guests from his Swing Street and 2:00 AM Paradise Cafe albums including Kid Creole and the Coconuts, Phyllis Hyman, Stanley Clarke, Carmen McRae, Tom Scott, Gerry Mulligan, Diane Schuur, Full Swing, and Uncle Festive, a band within Manilow's band at the time. The special was nominated for two Emmys in categories of "Outstanding Lighting Direction (Electronic): For a Variety/Music or drama series, a miniseries or a special" and won in the category of "Outstanding Art Direction for a Variety or Music program".[
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