Manilow, Barry

BARRY MANILOW

Born: Barry Alan Pincus; Brooklyn, New York, 17 June 1943

Genre: Rock

Best-selling album since 1990: Because It's Christmas (1990)

Hit songs since 1990: "Turn the Radio Up"

Barry Manilow surged to a brief spell of super-stardom in the 1970s, commanding a large audience enthralled by his slickly packaged bathos. Alternately lionized as an earnest songwriter and derided as a purveyor of soft rock melodrama, Manilow ebbed from his peak popularity in subsequent decades. He retained a substantial if narrowed audience for his later forays into jazz, American standards, and musical theater.

Barry Alan Pincus is the son of Harold Pincus, a chauffeur and factory worker, and Edna Manilow, a stenographer. Harold Pincus left the family when Barry was two years old, and Edna subsequently remarried. At the time of his bar mitzvah, Barry was given the surname Manilow. Edna encouraged Manilow's musical education and bought him an accordion and, later, a piano. Manilow was an average student at Brooklyn's East District High School but excelled in music. After graduation Manilow studied briefly at the New York College of Music and the Juilliard School. Working at the CBS mailroom, Manilow made important contacts and was asked to write the music for an off-Broadway play The Drunkard. Soon he was working as a freelance accompanist, jingle writer, conductor, and arranger for Ed Sullivan Productions.

Manilow performed with the singer Jeanne Lucas at the Upstairs at the Downstairs club in Manhattan, earning a reputation as a solid accompanist. In 1972 he was asked to replace the pianist at the Continental Baths, a well-known center of gay culture, and subsequently accompanied the young singer Bette Midler. While their personalities clashed at times, the two complemented each other musically, and Manilow became her arranger and pianist. After successful appearances on The Tonight Show and a sold-out performance at Carnegie Hall, Midler signed with Atlantic Records and Manilow co-produced her debut album, The Divine Miss M (1972). During this time Manilow slowly embarked on a solo career despite misgivings about his singing voice and age. He signed with Bell Records, recorded his eponymous debut album, and surreptitiously nudged his year of birth forward to 1946.

During the recording of Manilow's second album, Clive Davis became the new president of Bell Records, subsequently Arista Records. Davis persuaded Manilow to record the upbeat song "Brandy," a minor success in the United Kingdom for singer Scott English. Despite some artistic misgivings, Manilow recorded the song, transforming it into a ballad and changing the name to "Mandy." The song soared to number one on the Billboard singles chart, and the album, Barry Manilow II (1974), went platinum.

Manilow followed up with a string of hits: "It's a Miracle" (number twelve), "Could It Be Magic" (number six), "Tryin' to Get the Feeling Again" (number ten), and "I Write the Songs" (number one). The adventurous "Could It Be Magic" begins with the opening strains of Chopin's Prelude in C minor, op. 28, and segues into a melodic ballad. The song inexorably builds with the gradual addition of strings, backing vocals, and the rhythm section, and concludes with a return to the Chopin material.

Manilow's biggest success came with "I Write the Songs," a paean to music written by Bruce Johnston of the Beach Boys. As before, Davis adroitly recommended this song and Manilow reluctantly acquiesced. The ballad opens with a melodic phrase shared by the orchestra and piano. The Beatles-influenced bridge introduces an ornamental pocket trumpet and pulsating strings, broadening with the return of the chorus. The choral and orchestral sounds expand as Manilow declares, "I am music and I write the songs."

With his next album, This One's for You (1976), Manilow scored with the singles "Looks Like We Made It" (number one) and "Weekend in New England" (number ten). The album Even Now (1978) introduced the hits "Can't Smile without You" (number three), "Copacabana" (number eight), and "Somewhere in the Night" (number nine). Manilow received an Emmy Award for his 1977 television special and garnered a Tony Award for his two-week run at the Uris Theater. Manilow created and starred in the televised movie Copacabana (1985), based on the lyrics of that song.

With 2:00 A.M. Paradise Café (1984) and Swing Street (1987), Manilow underscored his jazz background in collaborations with Sarah Vaughan, Mel Torme, and Gerry Mulligan. Manilow produced Nancy Wilson's album With My Lover Beside Me (1991), which includes new songs composed by Manilow with lyrics by the late Johnny Mercer. In the 1990s Manilow recorded a successful Christmas album and Broadway album, and continued his jazz tributes with Singin' with the Big Bands (1994) and Manilow Sings Sinatra (1998).

Copacabana was adapted into a stage musical in 1994, and Harmony, a musical based on the lives of the Comedian Harmonists, premiered at the La Jolla Playhouse in California in 1997. Manilow composed music for several animated features and released the concept album Here at the Mayflower (2001) with a musical narrative constructed around tenants in an apartment building and featuring the upbeat single "Turn Up the Radio."

Despite his distinctly unfashionable cultivation of the middle of the musical road, Manilow has persevered as a pianist, singer, arranger, composer, and producer, enjoying major triumphs in every medium of entertainment. Brushing aside the hail of critical disdain, Manilow has managed to sustain a distinctive musical legacy of unapologetic romanticism in a pop-music environment pervaded by blunt antiromanticism, angst, and ironic detachment.

SELECTIVE DISCOGRAPHY:

Barry Manilow I (Arista, 1973); Barry Manilow II (Arista, 1974); Tryin' to Get the Feeling (Arista, 1975); This One's for You (Arista, 1976); Live (Arista, 1977); Even Now (Arista, 1978); One Voice (Arista, 1979); Barry (Arista, 1980); If I Should Love Again (Arista, 1981); Oh, Julie! (Arista, 1982); Here Comes the Night (Arista, 1982); 2:00 A.M. Paradise Café (Arista, 1984); Manilow (RCA, 1985); Swing Street (Arista, 1987); Barry Manilow (Arista, 1989); Live on Broadway (Arista, 1990); Because It's Christmas (Arista, 1990); Showstoppers (Arista, 1991); Hidden Treasures (Arista, 1993); Singin' with the Big Bands (Arista, 1994); Summer of '78 (Arista, 1996); Manilow Sings Sinatra (Arista, 1998); Here at the Mayflower (Concord, 2001); A Christmas Gift (Columbia, 2002).

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

B. Manilow, Sweet Life: Adventures on the Way to Paradise (New York, 1987); P. Butler, Barry Manilow (London, 2001).

WEBSITES:

www.barrymanilow.com; www.barrynet.com.

wynn yamami